Deer breeders challenge ruling on disease regulations

Some breeders of captive deer for the multibillion-dollar Texas hunting industry are continuing their fight against the state’s wildlife agency and its regulations aimed at curbing the spread of a deadly contagious disease that can infect the animals.

A court ruling last fall upheld the authority of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to enact rules to curtail chronic wasting disease, which is fatal to deer, elk and moose, either in captivity or the wild.

A pair of deer breeders who challenged the agency’s regulations — Ken Bailey and Bradly Peterson, who were ordered to pay about $426,000 combined to cover the state’s legal expen ses — are appealing, arguing among other things that the court erred by not recognizing that the agency had trampled on their private property rights by issuing rules for the handling of captive-bred deer as well as for wild deer.

“It is undisputed that (the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department) now contends that all deer, including Peterson’s captive-bred deer, are the property of the state,” the appeal says.

Chronic wasting disease was first discovered in Texas in 2012 in free-ranging mule deer in far West Texas. More than 50 cases have been documented since then — including many involving white-tailed deer either in or originating from captive deer breeding facilities, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The disease, which doesn’t infect humans, is a neurological condition that causes weight loss, behavioral changes, brain lesions, excessive salivation, pneumonia, difficulty swallowing and head tremors.

The wildlife agency has put in place a number of measures