The white-tailed deer is so beloved in Illinois that schoolchildren voted to make it the official state animal in 1980. So proposals to mess with the health and habits of the forest-dwelling does and bucks tend to generate ferocious debate.
Such is the case with a bill that would launch a trial program to see what might happen to the state's wild herd if Illinois lifts a 15-year-old rule that makes it illegal to feed deer. In a five-year experiment, feeding deer would be legal in some parts of the state in a study gauging the health effects of doing so.
Supporters, including the makers and distributors of deer feed, say the test will show whether the wild animals could better fight off some illnesses if they are given a nutritional feed infused with supplements like proteins, vitamins and minerals.
A leading proponent is Dr. Clifford Shipley, a newly retired professor at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine who raises deer and has consulted on deer feed formula. He hopes the study would show feed with nutritional supplements helps deer thrive.
"Instead of you going to McDonald's every day and having three Big Macs and fries, it would be like sending you to a health-food place where you're going to get a balanced diet," said Shipley, who added that the supplemental feed is more sophisticated than simply throwing down a pile of corn for deer to pick over.
"It's there to make the deer healthy," Shipley said. "It's not just an ice cream store."
Foes fear that establishing feeding stations would attract large gatherings of the animals, making healthy deer vulnerable to catching and spreading a variety of diseases. The most worrisome is chronic wasting disease, often known by the shorthand CWD. It's an infectious, debilitating condition that wrecks a deer's nervous system. It is present in deer saliva, urine and feces. And it is fatal.
The proposed change in state policy, even if temporary and in controlled settings, could cause a rapid increase in the spread of the disease beyond the 17 Illinois counties where it has been found, they warned.
"It opens the door to statewide devastation of the deer herd, and no one knows the human or livestock implications," said Brent Manning, a leading opponent who formerly served as director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. "This is the biggest wildlife bungle the General Assembly could possibly make."
The measure is now just a signature away from becoming law, sitting on the desk of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner, who has until late August to decide what to do with it. The governor's office says the bill is under review. For Rauner, it's a challenging issue, given the fissures in the hunting, wildlife and environmental communities.
