Breeders get second stay stopping planned killing of 500 deer
Story by Craig Nyhus, Lone Star Outdoor News
On April 5 one minute after midnight, the bullets were scheduled to start flying. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department shooters planned to take out all the deer at RW Trophy Ranch, owned by Robert Williams, a deer breeder in Kaufman and Hunt counties. However, Kaufman County Court at Law #2 Judge Bobby Rich intervened on April 4, granting a temporary restraining order and halting the plan.
This was the second stay the 83-year-old Williams received, the first of which stopped TPWD from killing the deer in late February.
The action stemmed from three deer that tested positive for chronic wasting disease last year at the facility.
“In February of 2021, we had three deer die in the cold spell,” Williams who has been in the business for 35 years, said. “We had all three tested and they claimed one was positive.”
Williams had the body of the deer dug up and located the microchip.
“I requested samples be sent to Genesync (a Wisconsin lab) to test and I would pay for it, but they refused,” he said.
Williams later live tested (rectal and tonsil) all of his deer, and the Texas A&M lab claimed four of them were positive. In April, he put down 49 bucks and all of the tests came back undetected.
“I darted them and sent samples to a Wisonsin lab. They came back nondetected. Then we killed the deer and sent the samples to Wisconsin. But the lab said they couldn’t accept any Texas deer and forwarded them to the lab in Ames, Iowa. Someone had called them.”
After the February stay was obtained, the stay expired while TPWD and Williams were sent to mediation, which took place March 22.
Williams said he wasn’t optimistic, especially since two days before the mediation, TPWD sent him a letter notifying him they would kill all of the deer April 5.
“We offered them several plans, including adding a double fence in the middle of a pasture for the deer that are negative,” Williams said.
TPWD offered essentially the same herd plan it had previously prepared and Williams refused to sign, which would have allowed Williams to release some deer to the pasture.
“They would only allow a small number,” Williams said. “And if we didn’t kill them all during the season, they would come and do it themselves and charge me for it. The plan made us dig dirt out and bring new dirt in and burn all of the wood.”
Williams is still baffled how CWD could have been found at his ranch.
“There hasn’t been a deer come into the ranch for six years,” he said. “They killed every deer I sold for the last five years and there were no positives. My pens are in the middle of the ranch. I don’t have exotics. I grow and cut my own alfalfa. And there isn’t CWD anywhere else for more than 100 miles.”
State Sen. Bob Hall (R-Rockwall), got involved, and inquired why the facility isn’t used for research, saying the ranch is the perfect place to study the deer and the disease.
“I think they just want to kill them because I wouldn’t sign their herd plan,” Williams said.
For Williams and his daughter and ranch manager, Maree Lou, it’s all about saving the deer. The next step is a hearing on whether a temporary injunction should be granted, which is set for April 13.
“I’m not broke,” Williams said. “I might be when this is over, but I don’t want them to kill all my deer.”
