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Contact: Tim Lilley
(800) 209-3337
tlilley@qdma.com
Quality Deer Management Association News Release

Bogart , Ga. (July 12, 2006) – The Quality Deer Management Association announced today its opposition to the World Hunting Association (WHA) and its proposed deer hunting tournament series. “We have been following this issue closely since it surfaced and now have enough facts to state unequivocally that the QDMA does not support the WHA or its proposed hunting competition,” QDMA Executive Director Brian Murphy said.In an effort to fully understand the WHA program, Murphy recently accepted an offer from WHA CEO David Farbman to meet and discuss the details of the program. Murphy and other QDMA staff members met July 6th with Farbman at the QDMA’s National Headquarters in Georgia .

During the meeting, the QDMA staff raised numerous objections to WHA’s program and encouraged Farbman to terminate the program or, at the very least, to make radical changes including, among others, eliminating the darting/drugging aspect in favor of actual harvest and moving the “competition” outside of fenced enclosures. However, even if WHAmakes these and other suggested program modifications, the QDMA will remain opposed to WHA’s hunting tournament format, where “hunters” will be rewarded with cash and prizes for drugging or killing deer in a competitive environment. “There are too many objectionable issues associated with this program to be something the QDMA can support – even if it is substantially modified,” Murphy said. “Deer hunting is not a competitive sport, nor is it similar to bass fishing or any form of angling where competition can and does occur.”

Simply put, WHA’s program violates many elements of QDMA’s mission of ethical hunting, sound deer management and preservation of the deer-hunting heritage – values shared by the vast majority of deer hunters in North America . The QDMA is a national nonprofit wildlife conservation organization with more than 40,000 members in all 50 states and several foreign countries. Membership in QDMA is open to anyone interested in better deer and better deer hunting. To learn more about the QDMA and why it is the future of deer hunting, call (800) 209-DEER [(800) 209-3337] or visit www.QDMA.com.