MEADE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) \u2014 There is growing controversy among wildlife rehabilitators and animal lovers after the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife euthanized more than 20 fawns at a Meade County facility earlier this week. The agency says this difficult decision was made as part of an effort to curb Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) in the state\u2019s deer population.<\/p>\n
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CWD is a fatal disease that affects deer and related species. There is currently no vaccine or cure for infected animals.<\/p>\n
However, wildlife rehabilitation professionals are voicing concerns over the necessity of euthanizing the deer in this situation. Some questioned whether less drastic options were considered.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, and honestly to come right to the point, destroying these 22 fawns does exactly what to stop chronic wasting disease?\u201d asked Jerry Mraz, chairman of the board of directors at Nolin River Wildlife, a rehabilitation organization near Elizabethtown.<\/p>\n
In a statement from Kentucky Fish and Wildlife, a spokesperson said, \u201cWith the cooperation of the new operators of the Broadbent Wildlife Sanctuary, a wildlife rehabilitation facility, Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources staff on Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2025, humanely euthanized more than 20 deer being illegally held at the unpermitted Meade County facility in violation of a state regulation in place to limit the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) [fw.ky.gov]<\/a>.<\/p>\n The previous operator of the facility illegally accepted the animals into the facility\u2019s care after Meade, Breckinridge and Hardin counties [fw.ky.gov]<\/a> were added to the state\u2019s CWD Surveillance Zone<\/a> in October 2024. Rehabilitation of deer is prohibited in CWD Surveillance Zone counties, per administrative regulation (301 KAR 2:075 [apps.legislature.ky.gov]<\/a>).<\/p>\n Despite these regulatory concerns, it remains unclear whether any of the euthanized deer had tested positive for the disease\u2014or where the fawns originated.<\/p>\n Mraz told LEX 18 that curbing chronic wasting disease is top of mind for rehabbers like him, but at times, the rules and regulations put in place by Fish and Wildlife are confusing.<\/p>\n \u201cI look at this, it\u2019s almost not a scientific issue, it\u2019s a communications issue or a failure to communicate,\u201d Mraz said. \u201cWe seem to have gone to the fire-ready-aim approach and have taken an action that I\u2019m not sure how or what it benefits other than potentially casting some bad looks toward Fish and Wildlife.\u201d<\/p>\n Furthermore, Mraz worries about the ramifications of the euthanasia controversy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe in the rehab world are concerned,\u201d Mraz said. \u201cWe\u2019ve lost people that do rehabilitation across the state, numbers have drastically decreased, and to be perfectly honest, some have been frustrated in attempting to follow regulations\u2014a situation like this just furthers that.\u201d<\/p>\n A spokesperson for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement, \u201cWhile the agency regrets the need for euthanasia in this situation, regulations were put in place to limit the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MEADE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) \u2014 There is growing controversy among wildlife rehabilitators and animal lovers after the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115711,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-115710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}