Senate Bill 37 of 2019 has been given a hearing date and time before the Senate Natural Resources Committee. SB 37, sponsored by Sen. Curt VanderWall (R-Ludington), would allow the baiting and feeding of white-tailed deer and elk in Michigan. The chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee is Ed McBroom (R-Vulcan).
Aside from the resounding recommendation from the scientific community across the nation that recognizes baiting and feeding as manmade contributors to disease, a further issue is this bill’s circumventing of Proposal G — which gives the Michigan Natural Resources Commission the exclusive authority over baiting and feeding in Michigan. This bill could set a dangerous precedent moving forward with natural resources issues. MUCC has fought hard to keep many natural resources issues out of the hands of legislators and in the hands of the Natural Resources Commission.
MUCC has been on record opposing baiting and feeding, with the exception of supplemental feeding in the U.P. when it is needed, for more than a decade. Several resolutions have passed in the last 10 years reaffirming our members’ and the organization’s commitment to opposing baiting and feeding of white-tailed deer.
Furthermore, elk baiting in Michigan has not been a practice in the foreseeable past.
Click this link and type in your address to find your senator: http://www.senate.michigan.gov/fysbyaddress.html
Please call your senator, talk with a staffer or send an email. Hunters, anglers and MUCC members need to make it known to VanderWall and other Michigan senators that we will not stand for putting our Michigan deer herd at further risk by allowing baiting and feeding to occur.
If you a member of an organization that opposes this bill and would like MUCC to put in a card of opposition during the hearing or sumbit a letter of opposition contact MUCC Policy and Special Events Assistant Ian FitzGerald at ifitzgerald@mucc.org.
If you have any questions, please email MUCC Public Information Officer Nick Green at ngreen@mucc.org.
