Social Zombie Deer Disease Reaches Yellowstone, Fears Raised That It May Jump To Humans

[MeatWagon06]

I blame Ric Flair’s energy drink, one of the ingredients is cordyceps.

Well shit. I drink mushroom coffee and take a performance mushroom supplement, and both have cordyceps. Guess I'll see if I become brain dead and start drooling on myself.

 

[mkess101]

Yeah, it isn't something that has just suddenly appeared out of nowhere, but rearing its head in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is a good way to draw attention and get into the mainstream news.



Judging by the idiotic and reckless behavior from far too many national park visitors, you'd think they were already infected with some type of degenerative brain disease. Grand Canyon actually claims more scalps, but Yellowstone probably has the highest overall FAFO potential. It isn't sad when these arrogant shitheads are drowned, boiled alive, or gored by a bison.

People are stupid AF. We were driving through Smoky Mountain national park and about 50 feet off the road was a bear cub. Was digging in a log or something, but people in other cars were getting out and walking toward it. I'm watching and I said to my daughter "See that, that is dumb as hell. If that cub's mother is behind them on the other side of this road somewhere, those people are between her and her cub. And she will attack them if she thinks her cub is being threatened."

I doubt those people thought about that for one second, as they had their small kids standing 25 feet from this cub.

 

[Deorum]

Whoa...easy bro LOL. What did we ever do to you?

Sorry.

I just disagree with the sentiment that because the risk of it going zoonotic is negligible (for now), it should be allowed to run rampant without any care or concern in a place as extraordinary and unique as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. A 25% infection rate for a brain disease with a 100% fatality rate at Wind Cave NP in SoDak for example is fucking terrible.

 

[mkess101]

Sorry.

I just disagree with the sentiment that because the risk of it going zoonotic is negligible (for now), it should be allowed to run rampant without any care or concern in a place as extraordinary and unique as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. A 25% infection rate for a brain disease with a 100% fatality rate at Wind Cave NP in SoDak for example is fucking terrible.

Nah all good, I agree in general with the sentiment. I just don't want us Wisconsinites seen as expendable LOL.

 

[Deorum]

Nah all good, I agree in general with the sentiment. I just don't want us Wisconsinites seen as expendable LOL.

Of course not. I sarcastically went scorched earth on Wisco (and Illinois) because IIRC that's where Hockey is from/lives, lol. I'm just really protective about our NPs -- not simply because of their innate exceptional value as some of the world's greatest natural attractions and existing representations of Vintage America but because there's a deep connection there with childhood and adolescent memories, road trips with my family and especially with my dad who I miss deeply.

 

[Zookeeper Gabe]

They’ve been crying about chronic wasting disease since the 90s and it’s never gotten bad in the wild, and only significantly impacts deer farms and high fence “hunting ranches” that should be shut down

No human has ever even gotten sick from eating cwd venison, much less contracted CWD itself

I swear it’s a ploy by insurance companies to cull more deer so that they wreck fewer cars

The way prion diseases work that’s not something we really want to take a chance on. Hell, mad squirrel disease took out an entire family before.
CWD has slowly and slowly been spreading and part of the big issue is we don’t have enough native predators any more.

 

[Deorum]

The way prion diseases work that’s not something we really want to take a chance on. Hell, mad squirrel disease took out an entire family before.
CWD has slowly and slowly been spreading and part of the big issue is we don’t have enough native predators any more.

It's one of the worst posts I've ever seen him make. He's a great poster, so there aren't many to choose from tbf, but the blatant disregard and handwave over it raised my eyebrows and nearly made my jaw drop reading it.

 

[HockeyBjj]

The way prion diseases work that’s not something we really want to take a chance on. Hell, mad squirrel disease took out an entire family before.
CWD has slowly and slowly been spreading and part of the big issue is we don’t have enough native predators any more.

Predators for what? The deer? Hunters kill 200,000 deer in a week of rifle season in Wisconsin alone each year. The wild deer populations are way way down from what they used to be

The problems are the densely packed venison farms and high fence ranches that should be shutdown

I don’t want the deer populations decimated, and that’s what has happened in each county the DNR declares a CWD hotbed. They have extra doe rifle seasons and even send in sharp shooters over bait piles in the off-season. And the deer herd is brought down to unsustainable levels that it may never come back from.

 

[Teppodama]

The issue is not the need to cull more but rather the impact on humans as a food source. I know plenty of people who's primary red meat source through much of the year is venison they've hunted. As various farmed protein sources continue to rise in price many families in rural and semi-rural areas will rely even more heavily on hunted sources. Generate enough scare about the potential to infect humans and you might see a drop in deer hunting.

Less hunting makes the Peta / Vegan types happy. Less hunting makes the anti-gun lobbies happy. Less hunting makes those people more reliant on convential grocery sources or they simply learn to Eat Ze Bugz

 

[fedorthegoat777]

Zombie Deer disease, black plague, Zika, Covid, all of this stuff is just fear mongering by the media. These are all things they have pushed over the last 5 years.

 

[panem-et-circenses]

Predators for what? The deer? Hunters kill 200,000 deer in a week of rifle season in Wisconsin alone each year. The wild deer populations are way way down from what they used to be

The problems are the densely packed venison farms and high fence ranches that should be shutdown

I don’t want the deer populations decimated, and that’s what has happened in each county the DNR declares a CWD hotbed. They have extra doe rifle seasons and even send in sharp shooters over bait piles in the off-season. And the deer herd is brought down to unsustainable levels that it may never come back from.

Slightly off topic, but I think the degrading of hunting culture is tied to the newer rules state to state. They say there needs to be a new generation of hunters, then you clear cut, kill anything that moves via baiting and blind hunting on farms, leaving a diminished ecosystem from which to cull and hunt, so even if you got the younger ppl to join, it's going to be a difficult entry for the youth of the day, not to mention the hunting dropouts. CWD might be tied to the former, too. Something to think about...maybe.

 

[Samjj]

Zombie Deer disease, black plague, Zika, Covid, all of this stuff is just fear mongering by the media. These are all things they have pushed over the last 5 years.

Pretty sure there were a few documented cases of folks who caught “teh gay” after eating gay frogs. It’s a real thing.

But really, zoonotic illnesses will become more and more prevalent as ecosystems break down and our biodiversity buffer gets destroyed.

 

[Deorum]

People are stupid AF. We were driving through Smoky Mountain national park and about 50 feet off the road was a bear cub. Was digging in a log or something, but people in other cars were getting out and walking toward it. I'm watching and I said to my daughter "See that, that is dumb as hell. If that cub's mother is behind them on the other side of this road somewhere, those people are between her and her cub. And she will attack them if she thinks her cub is being threatened."

I doubt those people thought about that for one second, as they had their small kids standing 25 feet from this cub.

I've always thought the Great Smokies would be a fun place to visit, and it seems to be considered the jewel NP of the eastern United States. I doubt it'll happen though, I have rarely ever bothered to travel east of the I-35.



Around 80% of Americans live to the east of it, lol.

 

[Deorum]

Judging by the idiotic and reckless behavior from far too many national park visitors, you'd think they were already infected with some type of degenerative brain disease. Grand Canyon actually claims more scalps, but Yellowstone probably has the highest overall FAFO potential. It isn't sad when these arrogant shitheads are drowned, boiled alive, or gored by a bison.

 

[KnightTemplar]

It's not a Zombie Disease unless I'm legally entitled to shoot random strangers in the head.

Stop prick-teasing me, MSN!

 

[mkess101]

It's not a Zombie Disease unless I'm legally entitled to shoot random strangers in the head.

Stop prick-teasing me, MSN!

 

[oldshadow]

This is not new other then spreading to some new places.

Hunters know about this and during the season will shoot any dear they see with this and give up a tag to help prevent the spread. You also have to report it. Off season the will report it and if it's approved shoot it or the game warden will.

 

[Deorum]

It's not a Zombie Disease unless I'm legally entitled to shoot random strangers in the head.

Stop prick-teasing me, MSN!

The Zone of Death is the 50-square-mile area in the Idaho section of Yellowstone National Park in which, as a result of a reported loophole in the Constitution of the United States, a person can avoid conviction for any major crime, up to and including murder.[1][2][3][4][5]

The United States District Court for the District of Wyoming is currently the only United States district court to have jurisdiction over parts of multiple states. This is because its jurisdiction includes all of Yellowstone National Park, which extends slightly beyond Wyoming's boundaries into Idaho and Montana. In addition, the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction over the park, so crimes committed in the park cannot be prosecuted under any of the states' laws.[6]

Trials in the district court are normally held at the federal courthouse in Cheyenne, Wyoming. However, the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution decrees that "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed". Because of this, charges for a crime alleged to have been committed in the area of the park in Idaho would have to be tried before a jury consisting entirely of residents of that area.

However, the Idaho portion of the park is uninhabited, so a jury of residents of both the state and district could not be empaneled. As the Constitution guarantees the right to a jury trial, specified three separate times (Article III, Section 2; Sixth Amendment; Seventh Amendment), a defendant facing any felony or misdemeanor charge, being unable to receive a constitutional trial, could not be legally punished regardless of guilt or innocence.[7]

 

[fungi]

They’ve been crying about chronic wasting disease since the 90s and it’s never gotten bad in the wild, and only significantly impacts deer farms and high fence “hunting ranches” that should be shut down

No human has ever even gotten sick from eating cwd venison, much less contracted CWD itself

I swear it’s a ploy by insurance companies to cull more deer so that they wreck fewer cars

There are enough biolabs around the globe, like in Wuhan, etc.

Don't you worry, Hockey, "they" are prolly funding gain-of-function research as we speak.

 

[Deorum]

There are enough biolabs around the globe, like in Wuhan, etc.

Don't you worry, Hockey, "they" are prolly funding gain-of-function research as we speak.

Are we sure there are enough? They're doing great things.