Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Bob Crook, Capitol lobbyist for the Coalition of Connecticut Sportsman and editor of “Hook ‘n Bullet,” the bible of Bambi blasters, warns that the state Department of Public Health wants to make it harder for hunters to donate deer meat to soup kitchens, as they have for years.
He’s hoping, though, to push legislation that would make it easier for hunters, by freeing up about $25,000 so hunters don’t have to pay $60 to $75 to butcher a deer that’s headed for a soup kitchen.
“I understand that that the DPH wants to impose federal food standards on donations. We’re opposed to that. We passed this bill about 10 years ago and we donate about 6,000 to 10,000 pounds of deer meat a year. There’s never been a problem. Nationwide there’s never been a problem. We’ll fight those federal standards because there’s no problem.
There are a lot of guys who could shoot a lot more deer. We could supply soup kitchens with more meat for a buck, a buck twenty five. Ninety five percent of the country has this program.If you impose USDA standards, where it has to be stamped and marked, it’ll turn into a bureaucracy and there’ll never be any meat donated to soup kitchens.If the state would support that with $25K we could get more deer.”
This probably isn’t the best fiscal atmosphere to ask for more funding for anything, but it makes sense, can feed the hungry and remove more deer for the pool headed for your front bumper on the parkway.