Deer bait ban piles up money problems | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press

Bid to curb disease hits farmers, vendors

BY MARGARITA BAUZA • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Farmers and vendors who provide deer bait are facing a major financial hit this hunting season because of a ban on using bait to hunt.

Hunters caught using carrots, sugar beets and other vegetables for bait face up to $500 in fines and 90 days in jail if convicted. The state enacted the ban after a deer infected with chronic wasting disease was found in a contained pen in Kent County.

The disease is contagious and has been found in other states, which have enacted bans similar to Michigan’s.

In Michigan, the deer feed industry is believed to be as high as $100 million a year and a ban will hurt farmers, gas stations and roadside operations that sell bait as well as manufacturers of deer feed, said attorney Ed McNeely, who filed a lawsuit against the state to lift the ban.

Mike Van Den Bosch, a manager at John A. Van Den Bosch, a wholesaler for deer feed and scientifically engineered deer attractants in Holland, says the company’s inventory is backing up by the truckloads.

“Lots of orders have been canceled,” Van Den Bosch said. “We have accounts all over the Lower and Upper Peninsula. Customers are afraid. Even though it’s still legal to sell it, everything’s stopped. It’s going to cost millions of dollars of losses in Michigan.”

His company will lose $750,000, he said.

“It happened at the worst possible time,” he added. “And we’re just one business. There are many small independent guys that need this money to help them through winter months.”

Chad Stearns, manager at Jay’s Sporting Goods in Clare, said its two stores will continue selling bait despite the ban. Retailers are allowed to sell bait but hunters are banned from using it.

“We have de-emphasized marketing it,” said Stearns, speaking of products it sells such as corn, apples, sugar beets and supplements like Acorn Rage and C’Mere Deer. “We’ve moved it to the back but we still have it available.”

Tony Wright, owner of the Wright Stuff in Emmet, near Port Huron, which sells carrots, apples, sugar beets, corn and sweet corn for deer, said bait represents about 70% of his business.  Full Story

Deer bait ban piles up money problems | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press.