Tuesday, December 28, 2010

EAT Wild Game Meat!

If the world's health experts formed a committee to seek out the perfect red meat, they would discover venison.

Free-range venison is some of the purest, most nutritious meat available. However, consumers are often unaware of the tremendous health benefits of free-range venison. The Axis deer and South Texas Antelope harvested by the Broken Arrow Ranch are naturally low in fat and calories – comparable to chicken breast. They are also excellent sources of protein and iron – comparable to beef.

Click here to visit their website!

Not all meat was created equal. 

There is a difference between Broken Arrow Ranch venison and other meat you can buy. 

Some distinctions Broken Arrow Ranch products offer you are:



  • Tastes great! 
  • Free-Range Not Farmed
  • Fully Government Inspected
  • Medication/Antibiotic Free
  • Humanely Harvested
  • Low Fat Content
  • Sustainable Resource
  • Full Money Back Guarantee
  • Broken Arrow Ranch venison is the only truly wild venison, which is harvested and processed under full inspection. These two factors - "truly wild" and "full inspection" - are differences we believe are important to you and worth more.
Free-Range Not Farmed

About 85% of the venison sold in America is imported from deer farms in New Zealand. Farmers there and elsewhere are raising red deer and fallow deer in huge numbers on intensively grazed pastures. Subsisting on a diet of almost exclusively grass, these deer produce venison which is of good quality but which chefs often describe as bland-tasting. The free-ranging deer and antelope harvested by Broken Arrow Ranch are truly wild and free-ranging, living on 1,000,000 combined acres in Texas. The wide variety of natural vegetation in their diet gives the meat a more complex flavor profile.

Chefs who should know tell us they can taste the difference. Chef Mark Miller, in his "Coyote Cafe Cookbook" says:

"Venison supplied by Broken Arrow Ranch does not have an unpleasant over-gamey flavor that many people associate with frozen venison or venison that has not been harvested properly. It has, instead, a satisfactory subtle flavor that includes tones of the wild herbs and bushes that the deer graze on in the open Southwest ranges."

We often describe the difference between our venison and farmed venison as the difference between free-range chickens and pen-raised chickens. We are not implying that farm raised venison is not a good product. We simply believe that our product is better. We think you will agree.

Medication Free

Our free ranging venison has another advantage that is important to today's consumer. Farmed deer are routinely given medication in the form of worming medicines and, when necessary, antibiotics to control disease problems associated with animal farming. Our free-ranging deer are able to maintain separation between small groups and avoid the potential spread of disease among their numbers. Medication is not needed and they have little, if any, exposure to medicated feed. This means the free-ranging venison you get from Broken Arrow Ranch is virtually free of any medicines and antibiotics.

Humanely Harvested

Reducing stress during slaughter is a major factor in controlling meat quality. An animal that senses a threat or unusual situation will react with an increased flow of adrenaline which in turn creates a rapid increase in lactic acid within the muscles. This acidic condition causes the meat to become tough, strongly flavored, and reduces the shelf life of the meat. Farmed deer are slaughtered by loading them into a trailer, taking them to a slaughter house, and running them through an apparatus where they are killed and processed. Even though these deer are domesticated and relatively tame, there is certainly some stress introduced during this process. Our field harvesting technique is to quietly search the ranch for deer and antelope and harvest the animal by a long-range, single shot to the head using a sound-suppressed rifle. The purpose of this unique technique is to ensure the animals are never under any stress and the resulting meat quality is the highest possible.

Extremely Low in Fat

The low fat content of venison is a major reason for consumer interest in venison. While all venison is relatively low in fat, it can vary based on the species, geographical location and season. Animals that evolved in colder climates (i.e. red deer, elk, fallow, and sika) develop a genetic tendency to acquire large quantities of fat to survive winter. Animals that evolved in tropical climates have no seasonal need to develop fat and remain extremely lean throughout the year. Broken Arrow Ranch harvests both cold and warm weather species. Located in Texas, however, we have the advantage of raising primarily tropical species and can harvest them throughout the year with almost no variance in fat content. Our venison from axis deer, blackbuck antelope, and South Texas antelope will almost always have less than 2% fat content. Compare that with other protein options available, especially other red meats. We believe this is a significant difference to nutrition-conscious consumers.

Sustainable Resource

We work with about 100 Texas ranches as an integral part of their animal population management programs. With few natural predators remaining, ranches can quickly become overpopulated with wild deer and antelope resulting in overgrazing and, eventually, starvation for the entire herd. Our field harvesting methods helps ranchers maintain naturally sustainable deer and antelope populations, which preserves the herd and land as a future resource.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

South Africa Rhino Poaching

  • South Africa: Bloody butchers - More rhino poached in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park

    Conservation News

    Friday, 03 December 2010

    Rhino killers struck three times in the past week, twice in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park and once in the iSimangaliso Wetland Park. On Monday, field rangers found the de-horned carcases of two White Rhino in the iMfolozi section of the Park. They were lying close together and their horns had been brutally hacked off.

    This follows the discovery on Friday by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife field rangers of the de-horned carcase of a young adult male White Rhino in the southern area of the iSimangaliso Park Western Shores.

    A post-mortem examination established that the animal was probably shot about a week earlier. And in yet another incident, three suspected rhino poachers were confronted on Tuesday morning inside the Tembe Elephant Park near the Mozambique border.

    Challenged by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife field rangers, the suspects opened fire and one was wounded in the ensuing gun battle. He was given emergency medical treatment and taken to hospital in Kwangwanase (Manguzi). The two other suspects were arrested. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, the SAPS Hawks and Organised Crime Units from Richards Bay and Pietermaritzburg are investigating the cases. The national rhino poaching figure is now 289 and the KZN figure is 27, with 25 rhino poaching suspects arrested in KZN to date.

    Despite the latest onslaught, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife CEO Dr Bandile Mkhize is confident the war against poachers can be won. He announced that 18 more field rangers were being deployed to the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park from 1 December and that additional anti-poaching equipment has been issued.

    'We will fight the war against poaching in this province until we win. No retreat. No surrender,' said Mkhize.

    http://www.zululandobserver.co.za/


  • Over the past few years there are has been an incredible increase of poaching rhino in southern Africa. I remember when I heard Dr. Ian Player speak about his work with saving the white rhino in Natal.  He spoke about how the numbers slowly increased through years of building awareness and work on the ground. He was a pioneer in conservation, one of my heros... It breaks my heart to see this happening to area that was a world-wide conservation success story. Please help. Please contact the WILD Foundation and tell them you want to give to their South African anti-poaching efforts. We NEED to stop this NOW!

    WILD's website: http://www.wild.org/

    WILD's Secure Donation: https://www.gifttool.com/donations/Donate?ID=1274&AID=445

    Thank you, Britt Hosmer Peterson

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Nature Needs Half TM

New data demands a new global conservation vision

Protecting and interconnecting at least half of the planet’s land and water is necessary to sustain the health, function, and diversity of all life.

The escalating global ecological crisis – characterized by loss of natural habitat and ecosystem services, increasing species extinctions, and rapid warming of the planet – has demonstrated that conservation efforts to date have not been sufficient to sustain life on earth. While this has been happening, our ecological knowledge has also increased dramatically, especially concerning how much land and water we must protect to support life on Earth. Many assessments over the last 20 years have typically determined that nature needs at least half of a given eco-region to be protected, and needs to be interconnected with other such areas, in order to maintain its full range of life-supporting, ecological and evolutionary processes, the long term survival of the species that live there, and to ensure the system’s resilience in the face of environmental change. Some ecosystems will require more than half.

Until now, the conservation community has been cautious in setting such significant, science-based targets for protecting nature. This cautiousness has been due in part to uncertainty regarding how much of an ecosystem must be protected to ensure its viability (on which there is now much clearer science) and in part to the fact that the conservation community has sought to provide estimates that policy makers would find politically acceptable enough to act upon.
Composite Image of the Earth at Night, by NOAA and NASA (2005)
Composite Image of the Earth at Night, NOAA & NASA (2005)
The conservation community and policy makers should now fearlessly embrace a global goal of protecting at least half of the planet’s lands and waters, region by region, in interconnected protected areas. We have a duty to speak frankly about the clear implications of the science. Failure to do so would be the ultimate disservice to people and planet alike. There is a compelling need for a new vision for how much of the planet can and should be protected. Simply put, Nature Needs Half™, and it is time to say so.

Nature Needs Half™ is a vitally necessary target – and also one that is already proving highly inspirational. Region by region, through collaboration, creativity, and inspiring others we can – and urgently need to — protect at least half of the planet!


09 March 2010 : The WILD Foundation - 717 Poplar Ave. Boulder, CO USA 80304 - Tel: (+1) 303-442-8811 - info@wild.org