Baiting during deer season vs out of season question

[Hookem]

I have been told that baiting during hunting season is not allowed because of the effort to reduce the risk of CWD in Tennessee. However, feeding the deer for the majority of the year outside of deer season is not illegal. So, that makes no sense to me if deer are congregating to eat out of season vs in season isn't the risk the same? Why isn't feeding deer illegal all year long if that is really the purpose for the law? Furthermore, if the effort is to reduce the congregation of deer, why are food plots legal as they congregate deer also?

Would love an explanation as this does not seem very logical to me.

 

[scn]

I'm away from my computer until Sunday night. It will take too much typing to do by phone. I'll get to it when I have some computer time.

Baiting is illegal in Tennessee due to a statute passed by the legislature over forty years ago. There are a variety of reasons ranging from disease to hunting ethics that make this a great law. CWD is a reason to keep baiting out of TN as it concentrates deer in very small feeding areas where saliva, urine, etc carrying the prions can contaminate feed that other deer are eating. There are other diseases out there where nose to nose transmission is greatly increased in confined feeders. You do not get that close of a concentration with food plots.

TWRA has had statutory language drafted for over a decade that would prohibit feeding wildlife year round. Unfortunately, the agency is told every year that such a law would be unlikely to pass in the legislature. If it ever appears a good possibility to ban wildlife feeding through a statute, the agency would support such a law. As it stands, it is not something TWRA or the TFWC can do on their own.

From someone that watched our deer herd get restored and has been around deer hunting for fifty years, it is very concerning to me to watch "hunters" opting for the easy way out with bait. Woodsman skills go by the wayside with folks more interested in shooting a deer than hunting a deer. Hopefully our legislature will continue to make baiting illegal.