Senate passes deer baiting ban reversal; heads back to House.

Senate passes deer baiting ban reversal; heads back to House.

LANSING — The state Senate today approved House Bill 4687, which would reverse the Natural Resources Commission ban on baiting and feeding deer in the entire Lower Peninsula.

Sen. Curt VanderWall, R-Ludington, was one of the senators who voted in favor of the bill that was sponsored by Rep. Michele Hoitenga.

The bill passed the Senate 21-14.

“Proponents say the deer baiting ban is in place to help prevent chronic wasting disease, but it is not the answer to that problem,” said VanderWall. “The ban doesn’t help prevent the disease, and it harms our hunting industry and the economy.”

VanderWall introduced the same measure, Senate Bill 37, in the Senate.

  In the late 1990s, almost 800,000 people were hunting deer in Michigan. Twenty years later, that number has dropped by around 25%. VanderWall cited this decline as one of the reasons behind the legislation.

HB 4687 now heads back to the House for concurrence before heading to the governor.

If the reversal is passed and signed by the governor it will not take effect this hunting season.