By Howard Whiteman
Murray State University

Crawling through a mass of willows in an attempt to stalk a cow elk, I heard the approach of a large animal right in front of me. As I hugged the ground, the massive antlers of the bull became visible, just feet away. I could smell his stench, see the whites of his eyes and when he let out an ear-piercing bugle, my nerves were just about shot.

Not having a bull tag in my pocket, I was praying he would walk away without noticing me, and he did.

I’ll never forget that close encounter, and the majesty of a mature bull elk bugling over my head. I can still feel the hair on the back of my neck in full salute. There are just few experiences in life that even come close.

Every hunter wants that experience, and many non-hunters similarly crave such a close encounter with nature. To that end, many eastern states have worked hard to restore elk populations, including Kentucky. Some have found ways to make money off of such encounters, and guide for a living, a boon for hunters, nature watchers, and local economies. Everyone wants a taste of the wild.

Others have chosen to exploit elk by create a façade, purporting to sell a piece of that experience as one of your fast-food offerings.

Arby’s recently released the Big Game Burger, which is made of a mix of venison (deer), elk, and beef. They are marketing it as a way of getting a taste of the wild without the work, like our other domestic culinary delights.

It’s not just Arby’s. You see venison and elk in jerky and snack sticks, and even in “wild” dog food. None of it is wild, and all of it causes harm to wildlife in the end. I, and hopefully you, should boycott all of these products and the companies that make them, and let the companies know why. Consider this my letter to Arby’s.

Why would a hunter conservationist like me be concerned about eating elk? It’s not the eating that is the issue. It’s the raising and selling. There are multiple significant issues with farming wild game.

First, farming game species like deer and elk is one of the main reasons that we now have Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) infecting our wild deer and elk herds. Deer are commonly moved across state lines, being bought and sold by farming operations. This transfer is one of the ways that CWD has spread so quickly into the eastern states.

Game farms, and there are literally hundreds of them in multiple states including Kentucky, are not regulated by state wildlife agencies, but rather by Departments of Agriculture. As such, they are often not regulated as closely as needed to minimize the transfer of disease, particularly with a disease that can only be evaluated in a dead deer. Although wildlife biologists are closer than ever to having a test for living deer, right now we cannot test for CWD without killing the animal.

No deer farmer wants to kill one of their stock just to check to see if a disease is present. Additionally, few farms want to invest in double-fences to minimize the interaction of native deer with those in pens. All of that just costs too much money, and hurts the bottom line of the farmer. State legislators, who could regulate such activities by law, sit by and do nothing, or even work to relax the rules on deer farmers. And yet, CWD has not only hurt our wild deer populations, it has hurt deer hunting and the economic benefits that it brings to states.

The second problem with farming wild species requires some background. The North American Model of Wildlife Conservation (NAMWC) is the guiding principle that all wildlife biologists use in their management decisions. The tenets of the NAMWC, often called the “seven sisters”, have helped guide the remarkable restoration of wildlife in North America.

This may seem hard to believe, but there was a time less than a century ago that deer and turkeys, now quite abundant, were rare. Habitat loss and overhunting for markets—yes, wild game was sold openly in markets—led to their demise. Elk were also sold, and are still feeling the effects of the slaughter, as their current range is a tiny fraction of its original extent. Bison were almost driven extinct, and now are “wild” only in a few select protected areas. Passenger pigeons did go extinct: yes, we ate them all.

Because of this slaughter and our understanding of the power of market forces to decimate wildlife, one of the tenets of the NAMWC is: Commerce in wildlife is eliminated. That is, we will no longer sell wildlife as food, or anything else, with very few exceptions.

That is technically true here, as the deer and elk used in the Big Game Burger and other products are not from wild animals. But putting things called deer and elk on the marketplace at all, particularly with the marketing strategies companies use to try to make their products seem wild, implies that wild deer and elk would be fine products to have on our dinner tables. If we want to keep them around for another century, they are not. Most people are too busy to even know the difference: they just think something that says “wild” is cool, because it is.

Finally, there is an ethical dilemma here. We cheapen the memory of these amazing animals every time we advertise their use in our burgers, jerky, and dog food.

It’s tough to look back at the majestic bull that almost stepped on me, and bugled so hard that my ear drums hurt, and then think about his cousins being held in a pen and ending up in someone’s fast food bag. To me, it’s a slap in the face to the entire species, and what they represent as a wild, natural animal, part of North America’s wildlife heritage. We should cherish and nurture that heritage, and keep restoring elk, rather than making money off of their farm-raised meat just to exploit the urge we all have to try something wild, without actually stepping into the wilderness to find it.

So, yes, I will be taking a break from Arby’s for the foreseeable future, and letting them know why. How about you?

Dr. Howard Whiteman is the Commonwealth Endowed Chair of Environmental Studies and professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Murray State University.