From the October 2002 Idaho Observer:

Feeding prion disease to the poor

Drs. Len Horowitz and Joseph Puleo established through investigative analysis of medical and scientific literature that mad cow, scrapie (pigs/sheep), wasting disease (deer elk), whirling disease (fish) Creutzfeld Jacob (humans) are caused by a protein crystal called a”prion.” they were also able to trace the laboratory development of prions after being isolated from “kuru” -- an encephalopathic disease that affected Indonesian cannibals. And now prion diseases, which do not seem to be species-specific as public health officials would prefer us to believe, are up and down the food chain to such an extent that hunters do not want to eat the meat. So, what do we do? We feed it to the poor.

by The Idaho Observer

Neil Rhines of the Herald Times recently reported that in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, the “Hunt for the Hungry is on, and Rose Erdmann is hoping for a bountiful harvest.”

Rhines explains that Erdman is optimistic there will be more deer donated this year because of Chronic Wasting Disease in deer, elk and moose. “A lot of people are skeptical about eating them this year,” she said.

“That could mean fuller cupboards at the pantry, which provides food to low-income individuals and families,” wrote Rhines, who added, “only deer and elk are susceptible to CWD. Misconceptions about humans being at risk from the disease still pervade common thought.”

According to Drs. Horowitz and Puleo, who conducted an extensive review of the medical and scientific literature, CWD, a prion disease, is not species particular and, once it enters the body, proceeds to the brain where it causes lesions that promote swelling. It is the brain swelling, encephalopathy, that causes people and animals to behave as if they were “mad.”

According to Rhines, since its inception, 2,210 deer have been donated to Hunt for the Hungry. This year's goals are 1,000 donated deer, in addition to 30,000 pounds of other wild game.