Hunting-Over-Bait Rule Spurs Fight From Ex-Georgia Officials

ATLANTA, GA — A group including several former top wildlife officials in Georgia is pushing back against a new effort to make it easier for hunters to use bait to attract deer they want to kill.

Last month, Gov. Nathan Deal issued an executive order essentially telling the state Department of Natural Resources to expand the areas where hunters can shoot deer close to bait, or "hunt over feed." Currently, hunters in south Georgia can shoot a deer within 200 yards of feed, while those in north Georgia cannot.

"Such a distinction produces an inequity among licensed hunters based on geography which is not necessarily tied to deer population and abundance," Deal said in the order.

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Deal's order comes after attempts to expand the deer-baiting zone in Georgia failed three times to get enough support in the Georgia General Assembly. But the head of the Georgia Wildlife Federation, backed by former leading wildlife officials in the state, is pushing back.

In a letter signed last week by four former directors and commissioners with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Mike Whorley, president and CEO of the federation, wrote that the state should be decreasing the areas where hunters can hunt over bait, not expanding them.

"Governor Deal and his administration have done remarkably good work in protecting and conserving land for future generations ...," Whorley wrote in the letter, addressed to DNR board Chairman Aaron McWhorter. "However, this Executive Order is counter to 'sound wildlife management principles,' is contrary to virtually all peer-reviewed wildlife science and is bad for hunters, hunting and our deer herd."

While Deal's order says that no science has shown baiting deer in Georgia has contributed to animal disease or a dangerous thinning of the herd, Whorley notes that no studies have looked at deer disease in Georgia since 2011. Baiting deer draws many of them into a small area and can contribute to an increase in disease like chronic wasting disease and bovine tuberculosis, he wrote.

High consumption of corn, the most common feed used for bait, is unhealthy for deer and also can attract "nuisance animals" like raccoons, feral hogs, opossums, Whorley wrote.

Sportsman groups and others, including members of the legislature who have shot down efforts to expand deer baiting, also have argued that the practice is unsporting.

The letter is signed by Todd Holbrook, retired deputy commissioner with the DNR, Dan Forster, retired director of the DNR's Wildlife Resources Division, David Waller, who held the same position, Larry McSwain, the division's retired assistant director and Kevin McKinstry, a certified wildlife biologist with The Westervelt Company.

Deal's order tells the DNR to study the situation, but essentially tells it what to do after studying it. Its wording calls for the department to "evaluate and determine an appropriate expansion of the Southern Zone" where deer-baiting is legal. The department is then to present its findings to the DNR board for action.

Photo courtesy U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service