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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

State curbs game from Dakota

North Dakota and Virginia this year have been added to the list of states from which the meat of big-game ungulate species cannot be brought back into Washington.

The two states have discovered chronic wasting disease in wildlife, a disease which state Fish and Wildlife officials are trying to keep out Washington. Idaho also remains CWD-free.

The restrictions, which already apply to 11 other states and two Canadian provinces, are aimed at protecting Washington’s deer and elk populations from the disease.

The disease also has been found in free-roaming animals in Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming, plus Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Hunters who bag an animal in any of those areas may return to Washington only with:

•De-boned meat.

•Hides or capes without heads attached.

•Finished taxidermy.

•Skulls and antlers, antlers attached to the skull plate, or upper canine teeth from which all soft tissue has been removed.

•Samples of tissue reserved for diagnostic or research laboratories.

Most states with CWD in specific locales already prohibit the movement of embargoed animal remains.