Iowa considers Contraceptive?
 

DES MOINES, Iowa - Iowa wildlife experts are looking into a new deer contraceptive that could curb the state's multimillion-dollar-a-year overpopulation problem.[/align]
The new, single-dose birth control vaccine would neutralize sex hormones in the famously fertile and polygamous animals. It would result in infertility in both males and females.
"It's not something you want anyone or everyone to use," said Dale Garner, wildlife bureau chief at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "We want to make sure it's not used willy-nilly in the state."
In order to do that, there's a bill before the state Legislature aimed at regulating wildlife contraceptives. The proposed legislation would also restrict the use of growth hormones in deer, as well as drugs for sedating animals or treating them for disease.
The contraceptive vaccine, called GonaCon, is being developed by researchers at the National Wildlife Research Center, a branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March, said Gail Keirn, a spokeswoman for the research center.
The EPA wouldn't likely approve the drug until early 2008, making it the first wildlife contraceptive available for nonresearch purposes.
Researchers say the vaccine, a protein, shouldn't be dangerous for people to eat meat from a vaccinated deer. However, Garner worries about what could happen if people are accidentally injected with the drug.
"What if some people in a neighborhood get a deer down ... and it's kicking or takes a side step or a roll and some guy or lady gets injected in the rear end?" he said. "Or if somebody's shooting a dart gun at deer in a park, and it misses an animal and hits a person? Or if a kid picks up an unspent dart and the injection goes off?"
Use of wildlife contraception in Iowa is not a common practice, so far, said Chad Machart, president of the Iowa Whitetail Deer Association. Other vaccines have seemed impractical because they required singling out females for an injection, then finding the same animals again later for a booster shot.
Garner said it could cost anywhere from $300 to $1,000 to capture and inject each deer with the vaccine, adding that its effect lasts only two years
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RE: Iowa considers Contraceptive?
 

That's so stupid.. I really hope they don't do that.[:@]

RE: Iowa considers Contraceptive?
 

HOLY CRAP!! WHAT IDIOTS!

I'll send an email to your reps in just a minute...then if it hasn't already been posted, I'll let the folks at TNUSA know about this. I KNOW they'll help out by send emails and the Nuge might even give your reps a call to tell them what "numbnuts" they are!

Wouldn't it be easier to lower the price of tags or allot more tags! Geeze anything but contraceptives!

RE: Iowa considers Contraceptive?
 

Those reps got a good piece of my mind.

Take a minute and write to them. Let them know it is NOT okay!

Yeah, it might not be your state it's happening to...yet.

If this passes in Iowa, the rest of us are screwed!!

RE: Iowa considers Contraceptive?
 

Saw it on AT. It will never fly with IAtaxpayers. Hunting is the only viable way to keep the deer numbers in check in the state. Hunting brings revenue in the millions with deer hunting and doesn't cost the state money. Contraceptives cost money and then with the publics' fear and uneasiness of eating a deer that has been injected with drugs, this will never be implemented. IA deer hunters have stepped up to the plate and have been killing large numbers of deer over the last few years as directed and suggested by the DNR. The herd is getting closer in a comfortable deer density according to the state DNR wildlife Bureau head. From what I have heard,the state DNRis not considering it, just propaganda by antis with that article. Notice the 1st line in the report above....wildlife experts; more like anti hunters. The IA DNR states that hunting is THE ONLY VIABLE WAY TO CONTROL THE DEER POPULATION. Money talks and B.S. walks.

RE: Iowa considers Contraceptive?
 

They've done some of that with pigs in Texas, not sure what the results have been though.

RE: Iowa considers Contraceptive?
 

I think there needs to be a public funding of ads hung around the trees teaching the proper use of trojans and the benifits of two ruts. That would educated the bucks better and be more cost effective.

RE: Iowa considers Contraceptive?
 

It will never happen, they proposed that in special reg areas in Pa awhile back- they ended running the numbers and found it would cost hundreds of dollars in materails and man hours to steralize just one deer...no tax payers in their right mind would pay that.

RE: Iowa considers Contraceptive?
 

The Iowa DNR is trying to get legislation passed to RESTRICT this! They don't want cities (for some reason Iowa City comes to mind, due to their refusal to allow hunting yet hiring White Buffalo as sharp shooters) and private citizens taking matters into their own hands. I hope they ban this, because I sure don't want to eat a deer that has been shot up with some experimental pharmaceutical. If this ever comes about, the DNR wants complete control over the who, what, where, when and why.

RE: Iowa considers Contraceptive?
 

They have tried to push this in some east coast states and even have tried it in some study areas. All have failed miserably. As in the deer need to be repetitively done and results were not favorable and costs were in the hundreds of dollars per deer at the cheapest!!!!! Along with the fact that you are now introducing drugs into wild animals that could have who knows what future cosequences! You should be able to search and find some of the results to add to your emails to your reps.