Just a couple things to add to the great debate
Stats show Mule deer infection rate significantly higher than the whitetail deer which is the prime target when utilizing artificial bait as a means to capture pictures, study or hunt over.
Sask has allowed baiting for the purpose of hunting and in all reality should show an increase in CWD positive tests in the whitetail deer along or greater than the mule deer tested, it dosn't.
Here is why.... ( see pic )
We can not stop deer from herding up and coming into contact with each other with all the man made "bait" that exists in our culture. Even if there were 500 bait piles with-in a mile of this hay stack, do you really think these mule deer would not feed and come into contact here ? By the way, this is farm country and plenty of leaky bins, alfalfa flats and dozens of other stacks in this area...
Funny that people believe in commercials
As Dean indicates a bag of magic does not produce 200 inch jumpers.. It's an attractant and certainly aid a little in the health of the herd, but genetics rules and thinking a certain animal with the genetic disposition to only grow at maturity 160 inches of bone will pack 40 more on cause the bags says so, well you were sucked in.
Onto looking at possible bright sides to the baiting issue, those who are dedicated to this method may actually be doing us all a favour in the long run.. As we all can agree, the rut is hard on the males of ungulates, so providing high sources of feed in a time when mother nature pounds them, well it just may aid in the survival of a few that may have parished ?
How about the females carrying young through the winter ? Would some easy groceries in the tougher months help the doe carry through winter and possibly have twins instead of a single fawn ? Pretty sure in Alberta there are clubs that have and possibly still feeding ungulates to aid in the survival rates come spring...
So, in a nut shell, with some scetchy data, less than a half dozen whitetail deer found to test positive for CWD per year would baiting actually hinder or help the general population ? Pretty sure in my mind that the thousands of baits in Sask have ensured more than a half dozen whitetails survived till spring than actually contacted a disease
