Hunters donate venison

HARLEM VALLEY — Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009, was a beautiful, sunny start to deer season in New York State, with hunters waking up before dawn or camping out in tents the night before. Last year more than 200,000 deer were taken in New York State and many of them ended up, not in family freezers, but in food pantries and soup kitchens.  Deer hunters all over New York State can donate their tagged deer to the Venison Donation Coalition, which arranges for processing and then distributes the meat to help feed the hungry. Each animal provides about 160 individual servings of high protein, low-fat, all natural meat.

Since its founding in 1999, the Venison Donation Coalition of New York has paid for the processing of more than 300 tons of venison, delivering over 2.7 million meals for the hungry. In the Hudson Valley area Malafy’s Meat Processing on Milan Hill Road is a designated processor that expects to see 50 to 70 deer donated at its busy location this season. On the first day of the season, 70 hunters arrived with tagged deer, about average for the first day of deer season, and seven deer were donated through the Venison Donation Coalition.

Joe Malafy commented that donations increase later in the season after hunters have already taken their first deer of the season. Frank Tambarino, who conducts area hunter safety courses, has plans to donate a deer if he’s lucky, because he’s the only one in his household who likes venison.

In order to donate a deer, the hunter must attach a New York State deer tag on its antler or ear, field dress the body and bring it to a designated processor. The Venison Deer Coalition pays the $100 processing fee with donations from corporate sponsors, sportsmen’s groups and individuals. Then the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley distributes packages of ground, frozen meat to soup kitchens and food pantries to help feed hungry people throughout Dutchess County.  

Pat Vissering, wildlife biologist for the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), was at Malafy’s on Saturday afternoon, carefully examining tagged deer as they arrived.  She checked tag numbers, location of the kill, age, sex and health.  This collected data helps the DEC to ascertain the size and health of the deer population in each wildlife management area  and will help determine the volume of hunting tags — including doe permits — to be issued next year. Another part of the DEC’s research is an analysis of deer heads, which has found no evidence of a recurrence of chronic wasting disease over the last five years.

Dutchess and Columbia counties both require hunters to use shotguns rather than rifles because of population density.

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