Government health agency forces charity to destroy $8,000 worth of venison donated for the hungry

Monday, April 08, 2013 by: Jonathan Benson, staff writer
Tags: government, food charity, oppression

(NaturalNews) Ringo Starr, the famous British musician and former drummer for The Beatles, once stated, "Everything government touches turns to crap." Little did he know that the American government would one day become a literal embodiment of this quote, most recently in Louisiana where busybody bureaucrats decided to not only decimate a notable charity program that feeds the needy, but also force the destruction of $8,000 worth of perfectly healthy venison meat in the process.

The Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission (SBRM) in Louisiana has been serving specially-prepared venison, or deer meat, to hungry folks throughout the region for many years. The state's deer management program actually encourages hunters to donate their extra venison to this and other non-profit endeavors, as deer meat is high in protein, full of nutrients and best of all, clean and untainted by concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).

The program has been so successful, in fact, that many state representatives routinely donate money and other resources to the deer processors that volunteer their own time and resources to prepare the meat and ensure its safety before shipping it out to local food kitchens like SBRM. What better way to salvage all that deer meat that would otherwise go to waste as a result of deer population control than to donate it to people with no other food to eat?

The Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals (DHH), however, has a different opinion on the matter. After catching wind of the program, DHH took swift action to completely destroy it, claiming it violates state law. Even though SBRM receives absolutely no funding or support from the state, DHH basically assumed the authority to declare that serving venison to hungry people in need is off limits.

According to officials from DHH, deer meat is apparently "not permitted to be served in a shelter, restaurant or any other public eating establishment in Louisiana." So, without a second thought, the soulless agency swooped in like a vulture and demanded that the program end immediately. DHH even went so far as to declare that the 1,600 pounds of deer meat in SBRM's possession be immediately thrown into a dumpster, and have bleach poured all over it in order to ensure that nobody ate it.

"Hunters are going nuts over [this]," Richard Campbell, one of the founders of the group Hunters for the Hungry, a non-profit that has been donating wild game to shelters since 1993, is quoted as saying by Fox News. "It's created an outrage across our state and even over into Mississippi."

SBRM denied due process in challenging the state's egregious handling of the situation

Even if it is technically illegal in the state of Louisiana to distribute venison in public eating establishments, SBRM was denied its due process rights in challenging the actions of DHH. Like many of the other government raids that have taken place in recent years, officials came ready to destroy the meat, and had no intention of handling the matter with any semblance of diplomacy or even decency.

"You would think we would have due process," said Henry Martin, executive director of SBRM, to Fox News. "But they meant to destroy the meat, that's for sure. They actually took it out to the dumpsters, split the packages open and poured Clorox (bleach) on it."

According to Martin, SBRM serves 200,000 meals a year without any assistance from the state or federal government. The 1,600 pounds of venison forcibly destroyed by government lackeys could have fed 3,000 people, he said.

To help support the Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission in this time of distress, visit:
http://www.sbrescuemission.com/

To contact the Louisiana Department of Health & Hospitals to share your thoughts on its aggressive behavior against SBRM, visit: http://dhh.louisiana.gov/index.cfm/page/3/n/3

Sources for this article include:

http://www.occupymonsanto360.org