Far Afield
Hunting faces new PZP challenge
With Oak Duke

We always like to say that one of the essences of hunting is that, "It's a challenge."

But it appears that in the future, it may be even more so.

One way the phrase is taken is that in order to fool a wild game animal's superior senses, a hunter needs skill as well as good luck.

And two, we are competing with other hunters for the wildlife, and that adds a second ingredient to the challenge of the hunt.

But now we are faced with a third challenge, and this one of a totally unique kind. We are faced with a challenge from the biochemical industry for the very viability of one of the reasons why we hunt deer.

And we would be blind to believe that there are not political, social, and economic forces positioning themselves to literally poison our way of life.

I know it might sound crazy and paranoid, so accuse me of fomenting another "conspiratorial theory." But the threat has surfaced in a number of places around the country, most recently right next door in New Jersey, the heart of the "Fine Chemical" or biopharmaceutical industry in the United States.

That's right.

Big business, politicians, and the "cottage industry" of anti-hunting drive this brand new challenge to deer hunting. And that's a pretty powerful three-headed snake. And snakes don't leave much sign to read.

Here is a synopsis of the proposed law (passed out of committee in June 2007. And not yet voted on at the time of this writing):

Assembly Bill 3275 was introduced by Assemblyman Michael Panter, DShrewsbury, will change the makeup of the New Jersey Fish and Game Council. It will remove the six sportsmen and three farmers who represent the nine geographical zones in New Jersey (similar to New York's nine Regions,) and replace them with seven appointees recommended by the governor.

The bill also directs the council to investigate "nonlethal wildlife management options" prior to setting hunting, fishing or trapping programs, and removes the council's authority to consider the use and development of fish and wildlife resources for public recreation and food supply when adopting the State Fish and Game Code.

The first proposed change in the bill, alluding to the makeup of the Fish and Game council is pretty chilling; but the second part, the "directs the council to investigate non-lethal wildlife management options," sounds like a rattlesnake's tail buzzing.

Probably not many deer hunters know what "PZP" is. But believe me, you will in a very short time.

PZP is a non-hormonal form of immuno-contraception for whitetail deer.

Porcine zona Pellucida costs about $20 a shot and attacks the doe's ovary. One of the principal researchers for PZP, Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick, likens PZP's contraceptive efficacy as, "like putting superglue in a lock," as it surrounds, penetrates, and attacks the outer tissue of the whitetail's egg in the deer's ovary.

One of the key elements of whitetail hunting is the "game management" aspect. We know that in part, "hunting season," is in effect, "game management season."

The alliance of pharmachemical research and development, politicians with pharmacological firms in their districts, and antihunting groups is a potent cocktail for those of us who define ourselves as hunters to swallow.

But that's what we face.

It's easy to figure out their trail.

Once legislation has been enacted, source funding would come from taxpayers to purchase the whitetail contraceptive PZP, thereby eliminating hunting as the only game management tool to control deer.

And once chemical control of the whitetail population worked in New Jersey, the pattern could spread like a bad case of the flu; sold quickly across the borders into New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and beyond.

The philosophical and scientific foundation of the entire pesticide industry is reeling and under tremendous pressures these days.

Non-hunters who experience overpopulations of deer consider whitetails as pests. These people are ripe to be sold a management paradigm that excludes hunting as a control mechanism.

Recent history has shown us that many pharmaceuticals are continually less and less effective as time goes on. They just don't work as well as they used to because every critter from bacteria to insects, to unwanted plants, al l develop resistance.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM,) which means using different successful ways of dealing with pests, now include biological, physical, mechanical, as well as cultural answers.

Our chemical solutions to our biological problems have in the short term produced the desired results, but with unseen environmental consequences because as we know, no species of wildlife should be viewed by itself.

Nature is interrelated.

For example, DDT was an effective insecticide, but caused such serious environmental ancillary effects the chemical was banned by the FDA.

At the present time, PZP has not been synthesized in a laboratory; the protein has to be taken from pig ovaries. But with genetic engineering, who knows what the future holds?

This chemical pill is a tough one to swallow when considered that its ingredients are one part politicians, added to one part chemical industry, and then stir in a liberal amount of anti-hunters.

But at the least, these socalled "non-lethal management options" are certainly a challenge to choke down, and at the most, a recipe and a threat to poison our way of life.

Oak Duke writes a regular column on outdoor issues.