Armed man shot, killed by Houston police during family disturbance callWoman shot, killed while celebrating child’s birthday in E. Houston, child’s father is suspectFrom left: Hostage and Mariachi, two bucks at John True's breeding facility in Hunt County on Sept. 9, 2024. True said he named Hostage when he was in a bad mood over the state's quarantine rule on his breeding facility. Just like the buck's name, he feels trapped.
Texas Parks and Wildlife has detected CWD in 31 of Texas' 254 counties and 34 captive breeding facilities. The state has a CWD management plan, which has stayed pretty much the same since it was adopted more than a decade ago. Commissioner William Leslie Doggett said: “A lot of landowners feel as though they're under siege here.”
When the parks and wildlife agency adopted its most recent management plan in 2020 to try to slow the spread of CWD, it required all breeders to test all deer that die at the breeding facility or are moved offsite. A narrow path between pens separates groups of bucks and does at True's breeding facility in Hunt County.A positive test also triggers a state investigation by TPWD and the Texas Animal Health Commission to determine how many other deer may have been exposed to the disease and where they have been shipped. Experts say one deer with CWD can impact hundreds of other breeding facilities and ranches across the state if it’s moved and exposes other deer.
During the August Texas Parks and Wildlife meeting, agency staff proposed five new surveillance zones where deer had tested positive for CWD. Numerous breeders testified against the proposal at the meeting, and of the more than 1,000 comments entered online, 94% disagreed with the proposal. In the end, a divided Parks and Wildlife Commission rejected the proposal. Now the staff must find alternatives to deliver to the commissioners by November.
“We've gotten to a point now that we've got enough surveillance and containment zones that people are getting irritated with it, but the zones are just a symptom of the problem," said Justin Dreibelbis, chief executive officer for Texas Wildlife Association and member of the coalition. “One of the most common sense things that we could possibly do is leave permanent, visible identification in any of those breeder deer that are moved around the state.
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