Outdoors

Minn. testing finds lead in donated venison
The Minnesota Department of Health will begin testing all donated venison before it's distributed by food shelves due to fears of lead contamination.
Venison donation program undergoes changes
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has new requirements for processors who want to donate venison to Minnesota food shelves, after discovering lead fragments in packages of hunter-donated meat last spring.
James Nichols was convicted last month of second-degree intentional homicide in the death of Cha Vang of Green Bay. The slaying rekindled racial tension in northern Wisconsin, where a Hmong deer hunter fatally shot six white hunters three years ago.
State picks up bill for butchering, if hunters donate their game
The gun deer hunting season begins on Nov. 3 in Minnesota. The venison donation program, in which hunters give deer meat to food shelves, has been around for three years. But this year, for the first time, the state is picking up the cost of butchering the animals.
A House committee approved the surcharge on a 10-5 vote. The money it would raise each year -- almost $500,000 -- would repay meat processors who turn donated deer into venison for food shelves.
Group files suit to block Minnesota trapping
An animal rights group has filed suit to stop Minnesota trappers from catching and often killing endangered species. The California-based Animal Protection Institute says it filed papers in federal court in Minneapolis.