Chronic wasting disease, sometimes called "zombie deer disease," is spreading across the country, and it always kills. Now, at the exact moment scientists say we need stronger protections, Louisiana lawmakers are moving to weaken them. If this works in Louisiana, expect other states to follow.

The disease has no cure. It's been detected in 36 states and has crept into four parishes in northern Louisiana since its first detection there in 2022. Scientists at Louisiana State University are testing up to 120 deer samples a day during hunting season, and researchers across the country are clear: once the disease takes hold in a landscape, it can contaminate the soil for years, if not decades.

But instead of listening to those scientists, Louisiana's legislature is rewriting the rules. A new Senate resolution ties disease management zones to infection rate thresholds rather than proximity to known cases, meaning restrictions can't kick in until the disease is already spreading fast. A separate bill would legalize the rehabilitation of injured white-tailed deer, something scientists warn will "certainly increase geographic spread" of the disease. Fawns infected with chronic wasting disease can carry the illness for up to a year before showing any symptoms, making them nearly impossible to identify without rigorous testing.

The political pressure isn't coming from nowhere. Hunting advocacy groups, including one with Ted Nugent as a spokesperson, have argued that scientists are using the disease as a pretext to restrict hunters' freedoms. In Missouri, backlash forced wildlife officials to suspend a culling program and issue a public apology. Research shows that hunters living in counties where the disease is already prevalent are increasingly skeptical of wildlife officials, the very people most qualified to manage it.

Here's the problem: chronic wasting disease does not negotiate. Scientists studying the issue warn that relaxing protections now means states will "look back in five or 10 years and say this didn't work." Deer herds are a cornerstone of American hunting culture. Losing them to a preventable spread would be the real threat to that heritage.

We're calling on Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, the Louisiana Legislature, and the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries to reject these weakened containment measures and keep science-based management in place, before a political compromise becomes an ecological catastrophe.