Donating Venison

[MYellowRose]

I read in the paper the other day about a program in MD where hunters donate deer they shoot but don't want or need to the food bank which passes the meat on to rescue missions, soup kitchens, and so on. Anyone else live where they have a program like that?
Though I don't hunt I LOVE venison but can never find anyone who is willing to give me some! LOL
I don't however see any point in killing deer or other wild game if you're not going to use it yourself.
What are your thoughts here?

[Star1pup]

Our group is Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry. It is nationwaide and there is a website. In our county in Ohio FHFH teamed up with a couple of county agencies to see that the vension got to the needy. It must be processed by an approved butcher and it is all made into hamburg as that is easier to combine with outer fixings to feed a lot of people. So far we have donated 39 deer, but muzzleloader season begins Tuesday and there might be a few more. We do not advocate over hunting deer, but just to donate what you cannot use.

[CarolAnn]

We still have a problem with that "mad deer" disease here - and our deer population has only gotten larger. Lots of people still want to hunt, but they're afraid of the meat.

Some of it gets donated, but I don't think I'd want it if it came from Wisconsin! :P

They opened up the seasons to try to thin our herds down, but not as many people hunt here now, so our diseased herds will only spread.

[shadowwalker]

I had/have a problem with that here in Tennessee. I have met several hunters here that kill as many as 30 to 40 deer a year. They all say they give the meat to people that want/need it. It seems to me that this is a good idea to a point. I myself shot 4 deer this year. My freezer is full. I also took two deer that other hunters in my group didn't want to a friends. She has alot of mouths to feed. I hear we still have alot of deer here in the state. Our game laws state two bucks a season, we have three. And three does aday. We have over two and one half months of seasons. Last year I shot three in one day. Boy that was a long weekend. I had all three in the freezer by sunday night-late. I won't do that again. I still have the blurred line between meat hunter and sport killer. I guess as long as the game is not going to waste. That's the main point. Back in wyoming we didn't have that much game. We did have alot of different game. And if you want I did figure that you could hunt about 9 months out of the year legally for something. In some part of the state.