Hunters to help the hungry
Wanda English Burnett - Editor

Deer hunters will have the opportunity to do something they love and help others at the same time with a pilot program initiated by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Department of Correction.

The two agencies have joined forced to help manage deer populations in ten southeastern Indiana counties, provide valuable job training for offenders and give food to those in need.

The program will work like this. Deer hunters will be able to donate an antlerless deer on November 12 and 13, and take it to a processor in the counties of Clark, Dearborn, Floyd, Henry, Harrison, Jefferson, Ohio, Switzerland, Scott or Washington to one of the special processing centers. Counties surrounding Ripley that have special processing centers include: Dearborn, Saltein Orchards, Moores Hill, 812-744-5786; Jefferson, Schafer's Deer Processing, Madison, 812-265-5337; Ohio, Wild Eats Deer Processing, Aurora, 812-926-3368; Switzerland, Old School Custom Processing, Canaan, 812-667-6689.

In exchange for the donation, hunters will receive a coupon from the DNR for a replacement antlerless deer license at a reduced price of $14.00. "It's a win-win situation for hunters who just like the sport of hunting and have a heart to help others," noted Bill Beville, conservation officer from Jennings County. He noted the unique program is just a "pilot" this year, but believes it could be an annual event that will benefit a lot of people.

After the deer is taken to one of the special stations, the Department of Corrections officials will collect the deer and process them as part of an offender training program.

"This is a great opportunity for our inmates to learn the skill of meat processing and to give back to our local communities," said J. David Donahue, Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Correction.

The processed venison will be donated to the FisH (Feeding Indiana's Hungry) initiate. FisH is a public-private partnership that links hunger service providers, food producers, and processors from around the state.

Kyle Hupfer, DNR director is excited about the program and noted, "This unique deer management initiative should help in the DNR's efforts to reduce Indiana's growing deer population. While our deer herd is healthy from a biological perspective, the negative sociological human encounters, primarily in the form of auto-deer collisions and crop damage, need to be reduced." He further said, "We are very pleased that the Department of Corrections has partnered with us on this project and that the venison will have a positive impact here in Indiana."

In a press release from the DNR, it was noted that their best measurement tool for herd size - the annual deer harvest through hunting and reported deer-vehicle accidents - have both been on the rise in the past few years. In 2004 Indiana hunters harvested 123,058 deer, which was a 15 percent increase over the previous hunting season.

Hunters are allowed more deer than ever to help stop the growth of the deer herd in Indiana. The latest effort to pull three separate agencies together, is another tool DNR officials are using to help alleviate the herd problem creating a positive impact beyond their initial goal. You can go online to find out more information about Indiana's deer reduction county bag limits: www.IN.gov/dnr/fishwild/huntguide1/hunting1.htm.