They try the best they can and are probably pretty good at it.
"If" they cull by air they try to salvage as much meat as possible, no doubt there are limits about getting every tidbit off a carcass.
They have increased the hunter harvest quota in an attempt to give the public an opportunity to fill their freezers too if they want.
They are well aware that there is poor public perception about culls of this sort, deserved or not.
This is from an SRD biologist in 2008 regarding that cull:
"There have been some recent newspaper articles and photographs circulating that are grossly misrepresenting the CWD disease control program. As many staff are being sent these items I thought it would be good to bring all staff up to date with the program. There is a small group of individuals who would like to shut the disease control program down. We have met with them, together and individually several times but they have decided to pursue a campaign of misinformation accompanied with graphic photographs. I stress that this is a small group of individuals, most of the farming communities where this work is being done are supportive of the program.
The chronic wasting disease control program, as it is currently being run, is conducted according to the most prudent and appropriate means to respond to the risks posed by the disease. Our goal is to find and remove infected deer before they infect others, and to control further spread by eliminating deer in targeted small high risk areas where CWD has been found. The program goals and assumptions were reviewed recently by an external panel of wildlife disease experts and they recommended that we stay the course of using combined hunter recreational effort in the fall with targeted government action in the winter. They agreed that our assumptions and actions were fully reasonable and responsible in light of the current knowledge of this disease. Our approach is very similar to what happens when CWD is found on a cervid farm and all animals that possibly have come in contact with the infected animal are eliminated from the farm.
One difference with the deer removal is that we salvage much of the meat. We have done this on all of our CWD programs since 2003 but we have never said we salvage every deer. The meat is salvaged according to protocols which are based on human and occupational health and safety. Several factors are considered to determine if the deer is to be salvaged. The internal organs are inspected for disease and parasites and the general body condition is examined. Anything tainted, contaminated, or unsafe for staff to salvage is not processed. There has been a fairly high incidence of pneumonia in deer this year as well as quite a few deer with evidence of previous infections. As a result our salvage rate is about 65 to 70%, which is down a little from last year. What appears to be a high proportion of unused deer in photos of the disposal pit is a direct result of the salvaged carcasses sliding down between the unskinned deer. In addition, the salvaged carcasses are much smaller (because we removed the meat!) and so they do not show up as prominently as the unskinned unsalvaged deer from which we only collect the head.
Last year we supplied 1000s of pounds of meat to First Nations, Métis, and local residents as well as to needy families through the food bank programs. We also provided 800 lbs of hamburger to the Edmonton food bank. All salvaged meat is held until the head tests negative for CWD and then it is released for distribution (meat from positive deer is removed and incinerated). We currently have a full-sized reefer truck stacked nearly full of salvaged meat. This meat is very much appreciated by the communities and individuals that receive it. In addition the salvaged hides are donated to the Alberta Fish and Game hide donation program, which then sells them to tanneries and uses the money for habitat development and enhancement. We continue to provide antlers and other teaching materials to the Alberta Hunter Education Instructors Association as well as research samples for a variety of academic projects.
The deer carcasses are disposed of in a deep burial pit. This method has been thoroughly reviewed and accepted in Canada and the USA as a method of disposing of large numbers of carcasses, including those that may have CWD. It is in fact the recommended procedure and is used specifically by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency when they depopulate cervid farms where CWD is identified. There is no risk to the cottage owners at Dilberry Lake as a result of burying deer carcasses.
The misinformation about the lack of public meetings and input is simply not true. Since we began our CWD programs in the Barrhead/ Ft Assiniboine area in the winter of 2003, we have hosted numerous public meetings, particularly along the eastern border from Lloydminster to Empress. Further to this, Chauvin/Dilberry is one of the central sites where we have hosted repeated public meetings - either before or after, or both before and after, delivering our winter control programs in 2005, 2006, and 2007. We have two ongoing CWD Public Advisory Committees, one of which meets regularly in Chauvin and one in Empress. In addition, we have repeatedly mailed information bulletins to local residents in CWD risk areas - most recently in January 2008. We also provide ongoing updates to stakeholders and residents via our disease web pages. This year our staff and the advisory committees indicated that local residents generally were aware of the disease and our response programs, and they recommended we only conduct a follow-up public meeting to report on what was accomplished and to invite input into how the disease control programs should proceed based on new information gained from the most recent fall and winter programs.
On a final note, we have now amassed a considerable amount of data and information specific to CWD in Alberta and our various response programs. We are moving into a period of data analysis that, in addition to the recommendations from the recent external peer review, will provide additional information to guide future plans."
