Why Ted Nugent will ‘keep fighting’ to reverse deer baiting ban in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula

The ‘Motor City Madman,’ Ted Nugent, returning home for a concert in 2019

Ted Nugent performs the national anthem with a guitar solo during a campaign rally for Republican U.S. Senate candidate John James on Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2018 in Pontiac. Trump Jr. headlined the rally for James, joined by Kimberly Guilfoyle, musician Kid Rock and a host of other Michigan Republican candidates. (Jake May | MLive.com)Jake May | MLive.com

Michigan-born rocker Ted Nugent is planning a big fight against the recent ban on deer baiting and feeding in the Lower Peninsula.

In an interview with MLive, the musician known for hits like “Cat Scratch Fever," “Stranglehold” and “Fred Bear” said he’s in the process of setting up a June rally in Michigan to support stopping what he calls the “definition of insanity” - the baiting and feeding ban approved by the state Natural Resources Commission in August 2018 as part of a series of changes to deer hunting rules designed to limit the spread of chronic wasting disease.

“It breaks my Michigan heart, and I will not give up - I’m going to keep fighting,” said Nugent, who now lives in Texas but returns to Michigan each year for hunting season. “I live for the fall in Michigan, and when I see dishonest bureaucrats ruining it I’m just not going to sit back and take it."

Chronic wasting disease, or CWD, is a contagious and fatal neurological disease found in deer, elk and moose. Since the first free-ranging white-tailed CWD-positive deer was found in Michigan in May 2015, CWD cases have been confirmed in Clinton, Eaton, Gratiot, Ionia, Ingham, Jackson, Kent, and Montcalm counties. A CWD-positive deer was also found in the Upper Peninsula in Dickinson County in October of last year.

The baiting and feeding ban in the Lower Peninsula went into effect Jan. 31, 2019, and was part of an array of efforts from the Natural Resources Commission and Department of Natural Resources to keep the disease contained to the 16-county CWD Management Zone.

But many hunters, including Nugent, argue there’s not enough of a correlation between baiting and feeding and the spread of the disease, and believe the practice causes no more harm than areas where deer gravitate towards naturally, such as apple trees, corn fields or licking branches.

“They don’t need a Michigan hunter to drop a sugar beet for them to have nose-to-nose contact,” Nugent said. “Deer lick and kiss and nibble and groom each other throughout life. It is so insane that someone would tell you that dropping corn might cause a deer to swap spit.”

Nugent alleged state officials supporting and enforcing the ban are “anti-hunting liars," and said he is considering suing the department and commission on grounds that the ban isn’t sound science.

Department of Natural Resources officials contend that based on the research that’s available, feeding and baiting is detrimental to disease control efforts because it increases animal contact rates above what is normal.

“There are always going to be people who have different opinions, there’s always going to be people who seem to feel that they have some reason that we would lie about it,” said Dan O’Brien, veterinarian specialist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. “We’re dealing with the published science.”

Once a deer is infected with the disease, it can be a year or more before symptoms begin presenting, which O’Brien said makes it extremely difficult to find new cases or predict where the disease might turn up next. He said prevention tactics like banning baiting and feeding are critical, because once chronic wasting disease is discovered in an area, it’s harder to combat it.

“You’ve got to try to set up conditions to make it difficult for diseases to get established,” he said. “The best thing you can hope for is to minimize spread, so we have to do the best we can to prevent the disease from getting established in new areas.”

“Recreational feeding is an additive to what happens in the natural world, essentially making the situation worse,” he continued. “To the extent that we want these resources for our children and grandchildren to enjoy, we have to be willing to make the sacrifices now that are going to prevent this disease from becoming established or spreading.”

Sen. Curt VanderWall, R-Ludington, said he’s supportive of putting specific plans together for each area where deer test positive for CWD, but he’s concerned a wide-ranging baiting and feeding ban will have lasting negative effects on Michigan’s hunting population and on businesses that rely on them.

That’s why he sponsored Senate Bill 37, which would lift bans on feeding the animals, and allow for baiting during open hunting season. VanderWall’s bill is currently before the Senate Natural Resources Committee. Committee members held a hearing on the matter earlier this month, but haven’t yet taken a vote.

“To just blanket a policy with no firm data is alarming,” he said. “The worst thing we can do is lose hunters and lose deer take.”

VanderWall said Nugent has reached out to him and appreciates his support, but noted hundreds of others have also voiced their concerns with the ban to him.

Nugent said his ultimate goal is to stop the feeding and baiting ban before hunting season opens this year - otherwise, he said a lot of people might decide not to go, or to run the risk of feeding or baiting regardless of the rule.

“We just want to go hunting,” Nugent said. “We want to get some deer. We want to balance that herd. We want to save the agriculture and the highway slaughter from an overpopulation. We want to have fun with our family, and we want to eat venison. Just leave me alone.”

Nugent hasn’t been shy about wading into political issues during his career. He’s performed at rallies for President Donald Trump, former U.S. Senate candidate John James and other Michigan Republicans, and he referred to Michigan as a “California s***hole" after Democrats won several key races in the state. He’s also been critical of Ann Arbor’s deer culling and management techniques, calling it proof that the state has “lost its soul.”

Some of Nugent’s commentary has drawn controversy in recent years - he’s been accused of being anti-Semitic, calling survivors of the Parkland shooting ‘liars,’ disrespecting Native Americans and dodging the draft. During an October 2018 appearance on WKAR’s Off The Record, Nugent refuted those claims, calling the criticism against him “fake news from hell.”

Although Nugent hasn’t ruled out a political run of his own in the past, he said for now, he’s planning on continuing his musical career and hunting pursuits while “performing the most powerful political responsibility in the history of mankind...demanding constitutional accountability from our elected employees."

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