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next spell we have is 1202 representative Becker Finn on Farm survey day requirements represent Becker Finn welcome to the committee as since you are not on the committee I will move that house file 1202 be recommended to be re-referred to the Judiciary finance and civil law committee uh see that you have uh an amendment so we'll start with your amendments and then you can do the bill presentation so we have the A8 amendment I move the A8 Amendment representative Becker Finn tell us about your Amendment yeah uh thank you madam chair happy to to be here in your committee uh talking about what we can do about chronic wasting disease today um the A8 Amendment deletes section five I know there was some consternation about uh that section and we decided it would make the bill better if we took that section out so we're deleting that section and then there's a line about uh the DNR potentially uh Contracting with the board of animal health after speaking with Board of animal health they that I uh removed that line because that's just not a thing that they do so removing that line at their request as well all right discussion to the A8 Amendment see none all those in favor the motion saying say I I opposed say no the eyes have it the motion prevails the amendment A8 is adopted to the bill as amended represent backer friend please tell us about your bill yeah thank you uh chair Vang is many of you but not all of you know we've been trying to do more about chronic wasting disease for a very long time the idea with this bill is that we can kind of take a more comprehensive approach and do everything in in one bill instead of moving various different bills and in lots of different places and so this is um bringing together some ideas that have come forward over the last at least the whole time I've been in office since uh this is year seven I've been working on this issue it did not run for office uh to be the CWD person but um here we are and so this pulls together um area you know that's why we have several stops with this bill it pulls together several different things um to go through really quickly um section one has to do with premises location data so the public is where aware of where these facilities are section two has to do with when there is a um running at large prohibited so when you've got a a deer or survey who escapes and a hundred and we have known incidents where this has happened where Hunter has then shot the deer because a whitetail deer looks like a white-tailed deer and we've had Hunters who fully licensed doing everything they're supposed to be doing who have accidentally um you know unknowingly shot a deer and then realized when they go up to the animal that oh my God there's an ear tag and so and in the past we've had some issues around uh then the the farm owner of that deer than wanting the deer back even though it was legally taken by the hunter so that this addresses uh some of those issues I understand representative Nelson has an amendment that we'll get to that I'm I'm supportive of on that issue section three has to do with fencing I was listening earlier I know you talked about fencing earlier but um so there's a couple different things in here that require different fencing requirements again we took out section five which was the ear tagging section um section six uh is uh essentially the the moratorium on new licenses for these kinds of operations um and then we've got some movement uh restrictions and changes in here in the next section and then we also added in Section 8 is a liability section um you know we've got some scenarios for example uh with the the farm owner up north who dumped uh CWD carcasses on public land and we as taxpayers had to pay uh for everything afterwards to take care of that so we're putting in some liability sections that's why you're sending it to my Committee in judiciary uh next um section 9 has to do with uh importing uh bringing importing and uh bringing in different deer or server day as well as semen um section 10 is on uh federal funds that may come in and how that can be used and then section 11 is consultation required so essentially just telling the board of animal health and the DNR that they they should be working with the U of M and the good research they're doing there as they're making decisions section 12 is a notice requirement so if they're uh is Farm surveyed that tests positive for CWD you would have to immediately notify the local governments including tribal governments section 13 has to do with testing of animals and section 14 is transferring specifically white-tailed deer to the authority of the DNR where have tried uh joint uh Authority and it just isn't working it's really difficult to have two different entities who um trying to make decisions uh so we're moving that into the dnr's uh wheelhouse and then uh section 15 uh is some funding for the U of M uh to continue to do their research which we're seeing really great things uh with what they've been able to learn even just in the last couple years so that is the bill I know uh that's a lot I did want to I you know I know we're a little behind where we were supposed to be on the schedule but I'll just say uh they're more than half a million deer hunters in our state uh I am one of them many of you are uh to my knowledge I know some of you are um and every single one of us has deer hunters who live in their District so this is not just a rural issue not just an urban issue not just a Suburban issue this there are deer hunters who live in every single County of the State uh many of those families who are deer hunters their families consume the Venison and that uh that is really an important part of this for me deer hunting is integral to who we are uh as minnesotans our tradition is of deer hunting is really strong and folks may not know uh on the AG committee but we actually have in our Minnesota state constitution we have a constitutional right to hunt and fish in our state so um hunting and fishing and the taking of Game and Fish are a valued part of our heritage and shall be forever preserved for the people and shall be managed by law and regulation for the public good so that's in our state constitution and that really is where I am grounded in this work um as well as for folks who are lucky enough to get some of the testimony uh and the environment committee from chair dupe from The Fond du Lac Nation you know we as anishinabe people this is our way of life um the way that we interact with our natural world and the way that we have access to being in able to use Venison and and um eat you know that I always tell people my primary source of protein for my family is venison and so the idea that deer who are infected with CWD because of the things we're not taken care of as a state would not be safe for my family to eat um that's that's really uh the biggest fear is we are doing this work for future generations and making sure that we're protecting those things so I know we're in the AG committee but I think that the overlap there where we've got the same species on both sides of the fence and a disease that can easily be transmitted back and forth um that's really where we're at so um I was always taught to take care of the animals and they will take care of us and so that is really what grounds me in this work and um I don't know if you want to take up most of the Amendments um I think are helpful and happy to continue discussion and make the bill better we have a couple of amendments so we'll start with the A4 representative Nelson uh would you please move your Amendment yes I will uh thank you madam chair I will move the A4 Amendment and it uh um as a representative Becker Finn had uh stated you know if a hunter where to harvest a an escaped um deer survey that it would uh you know there's several steps they have to do and one of them is testing but uh you know if you're and I probably most areas already have uh you know some areas I don't already require testing maybe on the opening weekend of deer just surveillance but if you don't know what to do you harvested deer and find out it has a tag in it well what do you do well this uh this gives a little bit of direction it would just uh that they would immediately not notify the commissioner of Natural Resources I think part of it there needs to be probably an investigation going on why is this deer out of the fence and that I think also of just uh I think there's also a potential of reducing conflict between a hunter and the the animal owner you know if the hunter contacts the owner you could have a immediate conflict and escalate things where they don't need to be so I spoke in the chair and I believe uh it's a an agreeable Amendment and I thank you for that and uh I would improve encourage its adoption representative Becker Finn uh yep that's accurate we had a good conversation and I support the amendment okay all those in favor of the motion say aye aye opposed say no the eyes have it and the A4 amendment is adopted or prevails is adopted uh we have the A5 Amendment which was posted representative Nelson I believe you want to withdraw it I'm going to withdraw that to a similar language but I think we've got it clarified between the author and also the commissioner of the DNR so thank you all right the A5 amendment is withdrawn uh the next Amendment we have is the A6 representative Merkel messenger amendment I will move the sixth amendment um and I did have a conversation with representative Dr Finn on the floor just a little bit about this um possible voluntary uh whitetail deer buyout program it was it was actually proposed last year it was a bill that representative heitzman offered or dropped actually and never got hurt but um we've had a lot of discussion about the dangers of CWD and the danger it is to our Hunters you mentioned 500 000 hundreds in the state I know the letter that was submitted in your packet and we haven't referred to it yet but if you have it take a look we got the Minnesota deer hunters Association referencing a buyout as well and in support of it I'd like to think that if we're going to do the right thing here for for these deer farmers who are kind of caught in the middle of this thing um and for our deer hunters that we look seriously at a volunteer buyout program so that's really the amendment there's not much more to it appropriate 10.6 million dollars in 24 and a half a million and 25 um and that's really the the guts of the amendment thank you madam chair representative beckerfin I thank you and and uh so I would oppose the amendment I think it's it's premature at this point um to be talking about especially exactly what that number is I think also the fact that this amendment is voluntary um it probably means we have no way of knowing if if the ones that are the highest risk vectors are the ones that we're buying out so I'm um you know if we were ever to get to a point where we were talking about a buyout I think we would want to just be done with farming whitetail deer there are wild species um you know if we could have gone back in time we probably never should have started farming them um I will also say I think the other problem that you'd run into is with valuation some of these uh operations for folks who don't know they're essentially genetically modified bucks that are given feed and hormones and different things to make their antlers grow to kind of ridiculously you know sort of abnormal proportions and um there are people out there who will pay tens of thousands of dollars to shoot essentially these uh these mutant animals with abnormal racks I don't call it hunting because it isn't legally hunting you don't actually need a license because you're killing a domesticated animal within a fence but it's uh people pay a lot of money uh for this and so I I think there's still a lot of questions about the valuation and and how we would even figure that out so would recommend a no vote on the amendment members I just uh wanna encourage you all to keep your remarks concise we do have testifiers here today that I want to make sure we give them time to testify so representative Merkel I'll be quick man I'm sure thank you um yeah the number came about from you know we looked at the number of deer on the ground now the USDA indemnification numbers up to three thousand dollars that's really where the number came from as far as the voluntary part you know there's just a lot of hobby Farmers that are caught in the middle of this thing and uh you know I really think if we're honest about eradicating CWD we have to have an honest conversation about some kind of a bio program that's all right I would appreciate a a yes vote and I'd like a roll call if possible please all right represent Nelson did you have something to say yes absolutely thank you and um you know whether it's this amendment or something else I do support a buyout I think um you know many of the Farms had gotten into this maybe they were uh you know Family Farm And they they transitioned into this is an opportunity they had to make money at the point and and unfortunately through no many of them no fault of their own this has become an issue and uh Unfortunately they maybe painted themselves in a corner and I think we um uh what you know whether it's this amendment or something else I think the biota is something that we need to be looking at for the public good I think of what do we do with the property once if it is CWD infected I think that there's a long-term cost to the public what if the bank is owning these properties forever I think that I think it becomes an issue and um whether it's this one or another time I think we do need to be having a serious discussion on this so thank you all right all those in favor of emotions oh there was a roll call being quested yeah all right uh we'll start with roll call Matthew saucer er no representative Purcell no representative Anderson Anderson Eye representative cha no representative Frederick nope representative Hanson no representative Rheem no representative Center Murray no Representative tapke no representative of birkel I representative harder aye representative Jacob I am representative Nelson aye there being eight no's and five yes the Nays the Nays have it and the motion does not Prevail we have the A7 amendments uh representative Berkeley I believe that's your Amendment again please move your Amendment thank you madam chair and I'll move the seven Amendment really simply uh if you go to section is it four of the bill and fencing I forgot yeah no sorry yeah I just just one clarification really the amendment really clarifies on on the double fancing that that producers would have the opportunity to use the agree livestock and program to put those fences up um and really that's that's it for the pillow I'll be short um but they are eligible for that under the program now I just want clarification that they that they could be uh eligible still representative uh Becker Finn thank you uh we didn't talk about this one but I'm I'm supportive I I think it's a reasonable uh Amendment and again happy to make the bill better all right uh all those in favor of the emotions say aye aye opposing nay the eyes have it and the motion prevails I believe that is all our amendments uh we'll move on to testimony uh once again due to unlimited to limited time uh we'll please keep your remarks under a minute uh the first one is Brad gaussman executive director Minnesota conservation Federation if you can identify yourself before the committee and proceed foreign thank you to the chair and members of the committee my name is Brad Gosman I'm executive director with the Minnesota conservation Federation I'll edit my uh my comments on the Fly here so excuse me um this afternoon I am testifying on behalf of the Minnesota conservation Federation and members of the CWD Action Coalition I did submit a document with my testimony that lists the members of our broad Coalition and then I would encourage you to take a look at that document the spread of CWD in Minnesota is real and its impacts are being felt by deer hunters across the state mandatory testing is already a reality for many deer hunters depending on where you hunt especially on opening a firearms and although it's primarily down in the Southeast portion of the state areas near Bemidji Brainerd and Grand Rapids have also been affected by the spread captive service farming represents a primary Vector for CWD to travel across our state and in fact captive deer inside a fence and wild deer outside of a facilities property in 2021 the DNR and board of animal health issued a report dealing detailing their concurrent authority over the regulation of farmed whitetail deer in part the report detailed some of what some of what was found during joint inspection of Catholic server facilities and the report reads from the end of August to December 2021 DNR and board of board of Animal Health Inspectors jointly inspected 50 registered server Day farms and identified 17 compliance and fractions including 10 Farms with an inadequate fencing two Farms with an adequate inadequate redundant gating two herd owners failure to submit death reports within the required timeline one herd owner's failure to submit samples for CWD testing one Farm where inspectors could not visualize official ID and one farm with official identification missing during the inspections DNR staff evaluated the potential for farmed and wild deer to interact near fence lines since this is a potential risk for the spread of CWD the DNR found good deer cover or habitat at the fence line on 35 of 50 Farms close or direct contact potential between farmed and wild deer on 22 of the Farms evidence included feces rubs and scrapes tracks and wild deer sightings in the vicinity of the fence Mr Gossman if you can finish your thoughts yep absolutely the report indicated that uh the deer had the ability to co-mingle hf-1202 represents legislation that will create a stronger regulatory environment for these Farms our Coalition sees the potential uh the the regulation of the industry as modernizing served farming in Minnesota thank you very much all right thank you uh we have next Tony kowas and Eric simmonsson uh Tony's from Minnesota elk breeders if you can identify yourself again before the committee and if Eric if he could also make your way to the testifying team Madam chair um Tony coolest again for the record representing Minnesota elk Breeders Association and there are a number of concerns with this bill and I will try and get to them within a minute first one starts in section one Madam chair where every other entity that reports and has to be regulated by the board of animal health including cattle and turkey has their data private and this would make it public and it is very concerning that that data would be public especially for the families and children of those Farmers Madam chair um I'd like to also touch on section three where it talks about fencing we need some clarification there where it talks about physical contact and what that would actually look like would it be shade cloth electric fencing we've been working with as referenced earlier the University of Minnesota specifically Dr Scott Wells on some biosecurity and no other state requires this contact Madam chair and you're going to see unfortunately for us in the next 24 to 48 hours why we think removing the the determination and reasonable time for the board of animal health to repair a fence if we get what we've got going to come down today it's going to be hard to get into repair offense we can secure the animals and make sure that they're okay but getting a chance to repair that fence might be a tough due to Natural Resources talks about fencing and after being detected for chronic wasting disease holding that fence up and not raising Farm on the farm for up to 10 years is going to be the change the federal rule right now enforced by the USDA is five years oh man I'm sure so I just wanted to point that out representative Becker Finn referenced the liability section and I agree with her that anybody that has unlawful disposals should be prosecuted but this also includes the sale of animals and the incubation period on elk is three years there's a chance that you're going to be able to sail an elk and have no control over it whatsoever inserting uh language that would say at least known to be infected by and Madam chair I think the artificial insemination section would help decrease movement of animals and I think it'll be tough to enforce and regulate Madam chair thank you for the ability to comment on house file 1202 thank you Eric simmonsson if you can identify before the committee and please keep it concise thank you madam chair my name is Eric Simonson I'm a lobbyist that represents the Minnesota deer hunters Association uh in the interest of time I won't repeat everything that's been said but we want to express our gratitude to representative Becker Finn for bringing forward house file 1202 and we want to express our support of the bill as amended to members of this committee I don't have to tell any of you about the impact CWD has had and seems to continue to have on the wild deer habitat in Minnesota and we believe very strongly in fact it's been a long standing legislative priority of our association to advocate for double fencing and better enforcement on servant Farms thank you representative Becker Finn chair Vang members of the committee for the opportunity to testify in support of house file 1202 as amended we have Tim spreck and Scott fire from the Minnesota deer farmers if you can identify yourself before the committee and proceed Madam chair and members good afternoon my name is Tim spreck and I'm here today representing the interests in the Minnesota deer Farmers Association Madam chair I would love to have the opportunity to go through this bill line by line because there are a lot of very concerning and industry-ending Provisions members should have already read the bill so we don't need to go through line by line but please make your remarks on on where you think uh please that was not my intention Madam chair I would like to have the opportunity but I'm not going to do that today so if any members would like to meet with me or meet with deer Farmers we're open at any time the concern we have with 1202 is that it really brings an end to Deer farming and in four significant Ways by increasing costs by decreasing Revenue by increasing regulations and by phasing it out over time um I do want to thank representative chair Becker Finn for accepting a couple of amendments that make a little less heartburn and in the spirit of cooperation I will make myself available to her at any time she would like to have additional discussions and at this point I'd like to stand aside and let the folks at dros uh lengthy amount of time to get here today have the opportunity to testify thank you yourself I'm Madam chair members my name is Scott fear I represent uh Minnesota deer farming industry as uh as the president and on behalf of our association I want to acknowledge how devastating uh tells floor 1202 would be to our business um it put virtually all of us out of business bankruptcy um you know this is how we provide for our families so we put food on our tables this is how we put our kids through college I also want to acknowledge all the revenue that we uh we provide for our local businesses and our communities um also wanted to point out that uh I think there's a lot of misinformation and maybe at times even some disinformation on CWD um you know when I do we're going to run the numbers on the board of Animal Health Data and even the DNR data over the last seven years we're talking about an infectious rate of less than a half a percent um I agree with you CWD is real but to is this really about CWD um there's not one person not one group now one Association in this entire state that wants to solve CWD worse or more I should say than the Minnesota deer Farmers Association um so we would encourage you to work with us and also as far as feed I guess there's a comment I made about feed and hormones and genetically modified animals um we feed our animals just a very natural it's uh it's a lot like a caffe feed there's no hormones there's no modification president Scott if you can finish your thought please all right thank you for your time uh Dr Scott Josephson if you can identify yourself before the committee and proceed thank you madam chair committee members I'm Dr Scott Josephson I I own and operate Tri-County veterinary clinic in Taunton Minnesota I've been in business for 38 years running a general Veterinary practice and I serve reproductive work for 60 plus whitetail deer farms throughout the Midwest from here to Louisiana and Pennsylvania and back I'm here to discuss the um the the Seaman article in the bill that you're considering and I mean and I'm trying to offer a path forward and a solution to this problem the board of animal health has has very uh well presented the resistance that we found in these whitetail deer and both the 50k genomics and in the alleles that are found to be giving us resistance in these animals I would say that the number one when we breed these deer the number one selection criteria that these Farmers have is what are the resistance traits in those deer so that's an important factor that these guys are using when they're trying to establish the rooting programs within their Farm the thing that needs to be mentioned is that 70 percent of the Wilder up to 80 percent of the wild during Minnesota don't possess these resistant genes they are almost exclusively the high most highly susceptible animals genetically to the disease Dr Scott we can please finish your thought yeah I'll finish quickly um semen semen that is used in these programs is from deer that are likely have been harvested and Most states require testing CBD testing on these deer when they're harvested or they die on the on the deer farms so the the semen that we're using likely has come from an animal that has been already tested for CWD and found to be negative or it would not be used in the system there's a scrapey model that can be used the USDA has used that very effectively in the last 20 years scrapey which is the same disease in sheep as in whitetail deer has been eradicated from the United States in in in in 20 years so that's a very effective program that we need to use for a model I urge you to use the scientific approach to achieve the goal of eradicating CWD on these whitetail deer farms thank you um we are over committee time but I'll allow for two questions for members if you have questions to the bill author representative Anderson I think Madam chair I would first ask if it could be held over there's a lot of a lot of questions we could ask it's very important to the AG situation well that'd be up to you but my question to the bill author is the live animal test is that recognized by USDA and would there be indemnification if an animal had to be put down uh because of that that two-time test representative Becker Finn I thank you and thank you for the question um not a gotcha the USDA is behind um in getting this this test uh confirmed I know I had a really good conversation actually at the forks that Folks at Board of animal health yesterday about things we can all be doing to put pressure on the feds to get uh this test um verified as far as they're concerned is it's verified as far as many scientists believe what would happen and and one just a discussion point that uh I had with the board was about doing some kind of voluntary program and so if I we recognize that RT quick is not recognized by the USDA and their indemnification program but you could follow up that testing so for instance if you are positive for CWD under RT quick you could then do the additional testing and have the results that you would need to be indemnified uh represent a child thank you madam chair my question is um annually how much does the Board of animal health and the DNR spend on no policing or managing the CWD problem do we have somebody here Robin Becker Finn I don't know the answer to that off the half of my head again there's like all these different things that are happening in different spaces um on that front but I I I'm sorry I don't have an answer to to that off the top of my head representative Berkel thank you madam chair and I really just have a comment I think I think it's just it's poor for us to be moving this bill this quickly it's obvious we have a lot of questions um Dr Josephson had some really interesting testimony in the environment based on the alleles and genetics going forward um and just the fact that we've got Farmers on the line here in their livelihoods and we're rushing this through is it's irresponsible and it makes me shudder to think of what we do to the rest of our AG industry if we treat it in the same way I'll just add that this is not a new bill we've heard these bill before I think the new language was the live testing one and so I believe representative Becker Finn you would like to add on to that too as well yeah I was just gonna say thank you madam chair uh representative Berkel you know this isn't a new issue like I said we've been working on this for seven years um as to the genetics piece I think the idea that we would somehow want to mess with the wild herd by somehow putting genetics that I I just don't think that's a a path that we want to go through go to um with messing with a wild animal um you know I understand folks may have questions about that but that's sort of I think that's a bad policy Choice uh for us to be messing with the genetics of wild animals all right uh represent Anderson ma'am I would motion to uh table this bill it was mentioned that this bill's been around for seven years but looking around there's a lot of freshmen on this committee who haven't heard this bill at all I moved to a table of Bill and ask for a roll call a roll call being quested uh motion to table discussion to is there a discussion since it's a table emotion there's no need for discussion uh roll call Matthew saucer Ving no uh representative Purcell no representative Anderson Anderson I representative cha no representative Frederick representative Hanson no representative Reem no representative sensor Murray no no Representative tabke no representative Burkle I representative harder aye representative Jacob Jacob I representative Nelson aye there being eight no's and five eyes the nose habit the motion is not adopted uh just to the bill seeing none I will renew my motion to recommend house file 1202 as amended to be to re-refer to the Judiciary finance and civil law committee is that representative Becker Finn uh thank you chair if I could just have a closing uh all right closing costs yeah thank you um I just want to say for the record this is about CWD there is no conspiracy as we talk about the safety of people's families and their children um myself and other members of this committee have been have experienced threats because of our work about this so I think it's important that we dispel any of that misinformation and disinformation that is happening this is about public policy um at the end of the day we are legally constitutionally required to weigh the need to protect deer as a wild game species uh above the desire to support a commercial interest we're not out to get anybody we're trying to do right by the people of our state uh thank you for your support Madam chair all right I renew my motion to recommend house file 1202 as amended be refer to the Judiciary finance and civil law committee all those in favor of the motion say I I opposed say no no the eyes have it the motion prevails house file 1202 as amended is recommended to be referred to the Judiciary finance and civil law committee