LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Governor Gretchen Whitmer has vetoed a package of bills that would allow baiting deer and elk populations in the state.
After being voted on in the state legislature, the republican backed bill received a veto from the governor on the morning of Thursday, December 19th.
House Bill 4687 was meant to override actions by the Michigan Natural Resources Commission, which authorized the ban in 2018 as a way to curb the spread of chronic wasting disease. Wildlife officials cited concerns that baiting has lead to sparse populations being drawn into unnatural contact, speeding the transmission of the condition.
Cases of CWD have been confirmed by researchers in Clinton, Eaton, Gration, Ionia, Ingham, Jackson, Montcalm, and Kent Counties in recent years.
In a statement made after her veto the governor said that the bill would put michigan livestock and deer populations at risk and also overstepped on the authority of the natural resources commission to set environmental policy.
While environmental groups praised the governor’s decision, legislators backing the bills say that hunting is a more effective way of controlling wandering populations and disease transmission and the effects of baiting are negligible.
