N.D. food pantries halfway to deer goal

BISMARCK — A North Dakota program that distributes venison to the needy is halfway to its goal of collecting 700 deer carcasses despite a hunting season that barely got off with a bang.

“I was a little worried about the hunting season,” said Ann Pollert, executive director of the North Dakota Community Action Partnership, which administers the Sportsmen Against Hunger program. “It was a little slow that first weekend, but the numbers are looking good now.”

The program collected 64 carcasses last year, when the program was limited to deer killed with arrows because of worries about lead fragments from gunshots.

This year, food pantries are distributing venison killed with firearms, Pollert said. The meat is labeled with warnings for pregnant women and young children, who are most vulnerable to lead poisoning.

Officials in North Dakota and other states have warned about eating venison killed with lead ammunition since last year, when a Bismarck physician conducted tests using a CT scanner and found lead in samples of donated deer meat.

That led North Dakota’s Health Department to order food pantries to throw out about 4,000 pounds of donated venison. Groups organizing venison donations called such actions premature and unsupported by science.

By including animals shot with firearms this year, Sportsmen Against Hunger should be able to provide 700 deer, Pollert said. About 350 carcasses have been donated so far, each one providing about 50 pounds of meat, she said.

The venison gives poor residents a much-needed source of protein, Pollert said.

“We’re just exited to get that much venison into the pantries,” she said.

Karen Edwards, a nutritionist at one of about five food pantries in Bismarck, said most people are relieved venison is back on the shelves.

“People were asking if and when they could get it again,” she said. “Venison is extremely important. Very few people will turn it away.”

North Dakota’s deer gun season began Nov. 6 and runs through Sunday. The archery season runs through Jan. 3.

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department said 144,440 North Dakota deer gun licenses were available this year.

, down about 3 percent from last year. Aerial surveys have shown fewer deer in parts of the state hit by heavy snow last winter.

Hunting may have been hurt this year by a lack of snow and crops left in many fields, said Brian Masseth, owner of Butcher Block Meats in Mandan. Deer hide in the crops, and hunters can’t go into the fields. Without snow, the animals are less likely to move around.

Hunters have donated only about four deer this year at Masseth’s shop, compared with about 15 for the same time last year.

“I think the harvest is down,” Masseth said. “Guys are having a tougher time filling their own tags before the donated tags.”

Bob Timian, the state’s chief game warden, said the opening weekend of deer season seemed to bring fewer hunters than usual, but it’s picked up since.

“By the second weekend, hunters seemed to be out in pretty good numbers,” he said.

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