Game Wardens Bust Big Illegal Deer Operations Across Texas

It's hard to believe that there is black market deer trading and illegal deer breeding in this country and it's even stranger to think that this is going on in Texas.

Texas Game Wardens have been working hard on this investigation, which started when they discovered a White-Tailed Deer smuggling operation earlier in February. Now, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says they have discovered that this is a much larger operation than they thought.

This investigation now has 1,200 charges pending with 22 suspects across 11 Texas counties involving the deer breeding industry and black market wildlife trade. Did you know this kind of thing took place?

The charges and suspects are all tied to legal and illegal breeding facilities, release sites and more. These suspects and places were receiving deer with no respect to registration requirements and disease reporting. This is very important as authorities try to track things like wasting disease.

These illegal deer operations compromise the health of the deer population as they can expose thousands of deer and other wildlife to uncontrolled diseases.

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Col. Ronald VanderRoest, the TPWD law enforcement director said in a press release,

These individuals and ranches operated with impunity, repeatedly violating established laws designed to protect Texas’ natural resources and safeguard the state’s wildlife against disease transmission.

Let's hope the Game Wardens can put an end to this illegal activity and keep our Texas wildlife healthy.