MassWildlife’s Hunters Share the Harvest Program is a generous and practical effort to distribute venison to food pantries and other hunger relief agencies. Over 1,500 organic protein meals were donated to needy families in its pilot year of 2022. Hunters can choose to donate a portion or all of their deer. Some processing and packaging fees are covered through a monetary donation fund.

Deer hunters also provide an eco-service. With few natural predators, exploding deer populations leads to starving deer, deer killed by vehicles, and a decline in  forest biodiversity. If a forest has too many deer, its replenishing seedlings and saplings get eaten up.

Still, there is one dangerous oversight that needs to be addressed. Venison needs to be checked for lead before it is distributed. Lead is highly toxic and even the low levels of lead in residue left by fragmenting ammunition can lead to a host of poisoning effects, especially in children. No gift to children should include poison. There are some other states that require testing venison for lead and a few where lead ammunition has been outlawed in some habitats.

MassWildlife and responsible hunters should be working for this to happen in Massachusetts. The lead ammunition sprayed all over our wildlands is toxic to every species of wildlife, especially scavengers and birds of prey. Wildlife rehabilitators in recent years have seen 35% of the bald eagle population with acute lead poisoning.

People who would like to see this addressed can contact Martin Feehan, MassWildlife’s Deer and Moose Project Leader, at martin.feehan@mass.gov or your state legislators. More information can be found online http://tinyurl.com/4dr6kv8h and http://tinyurl.com/4zw39ex2. 

Mary Metzger

Westfield