And suddenly the tons of limp and headless game hunters tried to donate looked less like generosity than, well, dumping.
Less like helping the poor than dosing it. (see: blankets; smallpox)
Some food pantries refused the "donations" outright; others gave recipients an informed consent flier which told them the meat was probably fine but there was a slight chance it was not fine and actually lethal. Bon Appetit.
Nor did anyone want the meat in a landfill "where other animals can eat it and the blood can be filtered through the soil and enter the ground water," as McCabe wrote.
Now comes news there's a second problem with Sportsmen Against Hunger's heartfelt donations: lead poisoning.
Last week health officials in North Dakota told food pantries to throw out donated meat after 53 packages of ground venison out of 95 revealed lead fragments from bullets when X-rayed.
Health officials in Minnesota and Iowa promptly followed suit, though the meat in Iowa was eventually released, with warnings for children and pregnant women, after ten samples showed only traces of lead.
The impoundment leaves Sportsmen Against Hunger with 1.2 million perfectly good meals no one wants on their plate.
317,000 pounds of meat "harvested" for no reason.
And looking less like humanitarians than criminals trying to find someone to dispose of the evidence.
"This is disheartening, and we certainly don't think this program should come to an end on the unscientific assessment that has occurred here," lamented SCI lawyer Doug Burdin upon hearing the states' decrees.
"The state is needlessly creating a scare upon hunters that has no basis in science," echoed the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
Maybe Safari Club International needs to do more PR.
The meat may contain CWD and lead fragments but it still has no injected hormones, after all.
And it didn't end up in the School Lunch Program. End
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