My wife shot a doe on Sunday. It was processed at Whitakers in Iowa Park. It was a mature doe and nice size.
We just got the text below. When I responded, he said they are monitoring for CWD and asked for permission to test this doe and where our ranch was.
Anybody else get a text like the one below:

Ms. Walton, this is Charlie Newberry, I'm a wildlife biologist for this area with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. I'm contacting about a deer you took into whitakers. Nothing is wrong. If you would please give me a call back at your convenience that would be great my number is 325-203-2037

Probably on the up and up since he divulged his personal information but I would probably make a confirming call into Austin TPWD headquarters as well.

He is listed as a Wildlife Biologist in Baylor county. Looks legit.

Biologist called me asking for permission to test the buck I shot opening day. I gave permission. They must be testing a certain number of deer in each county. I suspect they are doing it early in the season to catch any problems. Deer can have CWD for a long time before they start going downhill.

Charlie is legit, but I wouldn’t give permission. CWD has been in Texas for over 50 years at least and not been a problem. It’s text book example of government justifying funding or seeking more funding (tax dollars). Follow the $$$.

I ran into the biologist in Spur last weekend and he was checking every deer he could for CWD. We let him check the buck my son got.

There was a TPWD biologist at the game processor in Wellington opening day when I dropped off. She did an age test and a few measurements. Mentioned that they were screening for CWD.

Yep CWD same thing here

Have it tested.

One deer having CWD is a problem. I don't know how you can argue otherwise. Would you knowingly eat a deer with CWD?

Have it tested.

You stand a greater chance of getting Covid than killing a deer with CWD.

^^^ My feelings on the whole deal too.

Seems I find myself in the conspiracy camp more and more lately...but is it a conspiracy if 6 months to a year later it is shown to be accurate? I think it could be ground work for them to attempt to take hunting away from us.

Doubt that will ever happen - close to 50% of TPWD operating budget is derived from license/stamp sales.

I got a call like this a few years ago, except the biologist didn't say "nothing is wrong", so it had me worried that he thought we did something wrong.

Never saw the stuff happening the last two years...funny how "conspiracy guys" have been right the last year or so. I hope I'm wrong and you're right.

Could be unrelated to CWD. They look at a lot of different stuff. Land owner at the ranch I hunted a few weeks ago took a section of gut from each deer to give to biologists. They were looking for some type of parasite based on food sources.