The Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society will offer a recently completed community deer cooler to Vineyard hunters this fall. In cooperation with the Dukes County Tick Program, the Ag Society will also offer a $100 incentive for hunters to bag three does in a bid to reduce the Island deer population, and correspondingly, the Island tick population.
The new deer cooler has a capacity of 40 carcasses, and is meant to keep venison from spoiling before it’s butchered. The cooler will only be open to Vineyard hunters, and costs $50 to use from Oct. 7 to Dec 31. The cooler is free for Ag Society members. Ag Society member Joe Capece and other volunteers recently donated many hours to turn an old semi trailer, donated by Clarence “Trip” Barnes, into a modern cooler outfitted with two CoolBot units, Ag Society president Brian Athearn said.
If a hunter donates a deer to Island Grown Initiative (IGI), the cooler fee can be reimbursed, according to Athearn.
Ag Society facilities manager Marc Macfarlane will be on hand or on call from 8 am to 8 pm seven days a week to receive carcasses and to catalog does. In order to qualify for the $100 incentive, hunters must bring at least confirmed tags in so that they can be cataloged by Macfarlane. The incentive is triggered upon proof of the third harvested doe.
Hunters do not have to utilize the cooler in order to have their does logged for the incentive, according to Ag Society executive director Kristina West. Any Vineyard hunter who donates a deer to the Ag Society — a donation that will be given to IGI or the Island Food Pantry — can use the cooler at no charge. The maximum time a deer can hang in the cooler is 14 days, according to Macfarlane. Any deer left beyond that period will be considered donated. All deer carcasses brought for storage in the cooler must be field-dressed and dehoofed, Athearn said.
Anyone who enters the cooler must wear Tyvek booties, Macfarlane said, and the Ag Society will have them on hand for hunters.
Island Grown Initiative, via the Ag Society, will only be accepting carcasses 75 pounds or larger, according to IGI program coordinator Marie Ambrose. IGI is having carcasses butchered at the Larder in Tisbury, Ambrose said.
Hunters with any questions about the cooler or the incentive program are encouraged to call Macfarlane at 774-563-0702.