Add Louisiana to the list of state and local governments around the United States that are forcing homeless people who look to shelters and soup kitchens for meals toward an all processed food, junk diet.
The former Mayor of New York City, otherwise known as Nanny Bloomberg, famously banned food donations to homeless shelters, even from charities donating freshly cooked traditional foods that had long-standing and excellent track records.
Now, the Department of Health and Hospitals in Louisiana has ordered the privately funded Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission to dump 1,600 pounds of venison donated by Hunters for the Hungry into garbage bins. It seems the state would have be more comfortable if the hunters had donated this form of venison instead!
Yes, just as ridiculous!
Here’s the kicker. The staff was also instructed to split open the packages of meat and pour Clorox on them as an “extra precaution so that animals would not eat it from the dumpster and become sick or die.”
Wild animals getting sick from eating what they’ve always been eating … wild game? What planet are these bureaucrats living on?
While there would have been good reason for this order had deer in the area been found to have some sort of infectious illness or the meat itself was tested and found to be tainted, the fact is that there was no good reason for this order.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with this meat.
It is simply another case of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats running amok and crazed with their own power, barking out orders to privately run organizations and law abiding citizens.
It seems that health authorities would rather homeless people be eating drug residue laced meat from sick animals confined on filthy, disease ridden feedlots than from healthy wild game freely roaming and eating natural forage.
Henry Martin, executive director of the mission, said that the staff has been serving deer meat for years in dishes such as deer chili and deer spaghetti.
“This was really good meat. It’s high in protein and low in cholesterol. It’s very healthy.”
Martin continued by saying that he was extremely concerned about the way state health inspectors handled the situation. No due process was followed. They just ordered the meat to be destroyed and that was that.
Martin said that the rescue mission serves 200,000 meals a year and not one cent comes from the state or federal government. He estimated that the senseless confiscation resulted in as many as 3,200 healthy meals being lost.
“It seems like this was a senseless act, I don’t think hungry people who come to our mission appreciate the fact they could have been eating some really good venison and as it is now — no one can eat it.”
Louisiana State Rep. Jeff Thompson, a hunter himself who has personally donated deer to this mission before, was outraged.
“You hear about these stories anywhere and it’s a concern — but when it happens in your own backyard it’s insulting.”
Thompson said that he intends to meet with the heads of the state agencies along with state lawmakers over the incident. He said that the meat should, at the very least, have been returned to the hunters who donated it.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Sources: Health Dept: Homeless Can’t Eat Deer Meat
I live in Canada, across the river from Detroit. A few years ago the city health department poured bleach over sandwiches that a charitable organization had provided at a festival as a fund-raiser. This, even though it had been been happening for many years.
The provincial health department banned kibbeh, a Middle Eastern raw meat that has been a traditional dish for centuries, from all restaurants, This resulted because some people became sick eating raw supermarket meat made in their home.
I was talking with someone just this past weekend who said they’d tried to give Venison to a homeless shelter and the shelter told them they couldn’t take it. I live in Maryland, near the Pennsylvania line. The person took the venison to a shelter in PA and they accepted it. Nice one, MD regulators.
Can you say unintended consequences? Another job well done by big government…NOT.
This makes me so angry.
Not only is that stupid, I agree it should have been returned. The fact that their concern for the wildlife who may consume the meat in the trash and die is also crazy. Those deer gave their life to feed the hungry. Does that not have value?
There is always a loving solution ! Why is there so much left over deer meat? Thank you deer friends for sharing <3
I think that a lot of people are looking in the wrong place. Those folks in the health department have rules and they don’t get paid to think (likely get fired if they tried to). When you find something this stupid always ask “Who profits”. Fix that problem and a lot of other things will cease to be a problem.
This insanity won’t let up until the American people AS A WHOLE stop allowing the government to CONTROL every aspect of our lives! When is enough going to be ENOUGH!?
On a side subject: I did a pep talk recently to a couple I know about GMOs and Roundup. Later I find out that a deer the man recently shot, well, he gave the meat away.
Why? He said they forage through the uber-sprayed fields (Northeast Indiana where corn and soybeans are KING) and he felt he would be injesting the Roundup.
I think it sounds plausable. In Northeast Indiana we have patches of forests.mixed in with large fields. Deer meat tested for Roundup residue from this area must surely be in a different range than deer from the Rockies.
I’ve seen many deer hanging out in a GM corn field near my husband’s aunt’s house in Southern Indiana, every time we visit. We’re not hunters, or venison eaters, but I’ve often thought it’s really not a safe, clean meat, like everyone thinks. Unless the meat is coming from an area where there are absolutely no GM corn or soybean fields.
The grazing livestock are also exposed to the runoff from these fields. The local municipal water co. post a warning in the paper every spring stating that the city water exceeds the limit for ag chemicals. This is due to runoff into the reservoir. If you drink the water you may as well eat the deer.
Such a crazy state of affairs. Thank you for your excellent reporting! Your articles are truely top notch.