The Minnesota Deer Farmers Association is suing the State of Minnesota over its moratorium on new deer farms. The ban was put in place by the legislature this past year to limit the spread of chronic wasting disease. The lawsuit contends the state cannot directly link CWD in wild white-tailed deer with farm-raised deer or vice-versa. MDFA President Scott Fier said that the moratorium is interfering with preventing their constitutional right to run their businesses. “The law is basically a death by a thousand cuts,” Fier told RRFN. “They keep implementing new rules and regulations every year until we can hardly do commerce.” With the new regulations, deer farms can only be sold one time and that sale must be to a family member. In a proactive step, Minnesota deer farm operators are breeding animals that are resistant to CWD.
