REGIONAL- Minnesota’s struggling deer farming industry suffered a serious blow last month when a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit and petition for a preliminary injunction aimed at preventing the state from enacting regulations that farmers say will irreparably harm their operations and force many to shut down.
Figuring prominently in the lawsuit was former deer farm operator Dennis Udovich, of Greaney. After voluntarily ceasing his deer farming activities, attorneys argued that Udovich is prevented from re-entering the profession due to a moratorium on new registrations for white-tailed deer farming. The regulations also limit the transfer of existing registrations to immediate family members, effectively prohibiting non-family members like Udovich from entering the industry. The lawsuit asserted that Udovich has a constitutional right to pursue the profession of his choice.
The ruling
In dismissing the lawsuit and denying the preliminary injunction, Minnesota U.S. District Court Judge John R. Tutheim found that deer farmers are, essentially, collateral damage in the state’s fight against chronic wasting disease, or CWD.
“Plaintiffs argue that the statute is not rationally related to the prohibition of new white-tail deer registrations because the ‘evil’ the state seeks to control is CWD, not white-tail deer farmers,” Tutheim wrote. “However, the Minnesota Legislature passed the statute to prevent the spread of CWD, not to eliminate the white-tail deer-farming profession. The eventual elimination of white-tail deer farming in Minnesota, while unfortunate, is incidental.”
Tutheim also found that, “The liberty to pursue one’s chosen occupation is not a fundamental right.”
New restrictions
In order to combat the threat of chronic wasting disease, the state Legislature passed regulatory amendments in 2023 imposing new restrictions on the registration and operation of white-tailed deer farms. CWD infection rates in confined farm herds can be higher than in free-ranging deer populations, and a 2020 study found that movements of cervids between farms presents a risk for spreading CWD in Minnesota. Preventing the spread of CWD gained additional steam when researchers promoted a belief that the prion-based disease, similar to mad cow disease, could be transmitted to humans.
In December 2023, the Minnesota Deer Farmers Association and 40 individual plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the Department of Natural Resources seeking to prevent implementation of the new rules. They argued that the state was violating their constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, and unjust property seizures by prohibiting new deer farm registrations, restricting the transfer of registrations to immediate family, imposing costly new fencing requirements, and restricting individual rights to enter or continue in the deer farming industry.
An industry on the decline
Once a thriving statewide industry with more than 700 registered cervid farms, today the DNR lists only 101 deer farms in the state. With the moratorium on new farms and the restriction of sale, one time, to a blood relative, the regulations will put an end to deer farming in the state, MDFA President Scott Fier told Outdoor News.
“I don’t feel like justice was served,” Fier added. “Family farms are being ruined. Between those two things, the industry is dead. It’s very obvious that (elected and state officials) are trying to regulate us out of business. We understand what we do isn’t for everyone, but it isn’t against the law.”
Erick Kaardal, attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement following Tutheim’s ruling that his clients would appeal.
“We are disappointed with the district court ruling,” Kaardal said. “The principal legal disputes are over whether there is a constitutional right for Minnesotans to pursue state-recognized occupations such as deer farming and whether the state of Minnesota is using unconstitutional legal procedures to terminate deer farming in Minnesota,” he added. “How can it be legal to prohibit such a person from pursuing a state-recognized occupation which others enjoy? If the Minnesota government can have partial bans on people pursuing the deer-farming occupation, why not similar partial bans on certain Minnesotans pursuing other occupations such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters, doctors, lawyers?”
Meanwhile, the DNR said in a statement that the agency will follow the rules as created by the Legislature. “The Minnesota DNR takes very seriously its responsibility to protect the health of Minnesota’s deer population. We will continue to work with deer farmers and follow duly enacted laws within our regulatory authority as we engage in that important work.”