A recent crackdown on smuggling operations in Texas has shed light on a market about which many of us are probably entirely unaware. In fact, for an urban dweller, reading about the illegal smuggling of deer and deer breeding operations is a little like reading a science fiction story. It turns out that many hunters, and particularly big game hunters, are willing to pay a very high price for a deer with trophy size antlers. Since the native deer of Texas have more diminutive antlers than do the white-tail deer found further north, the illegal smuggling of big antlered deer exists in Texas. Transporting white-tail deer into Texas is restricted to help protect the native deer species from diseases not found in their herds. However, the breeding of deer with white-tail deer sperm is legal in Texas but it is very expensive. Thus, the illegal importing of white-tail deer has become a lucrative, black market in Texas.

Today’s market size is the estimated value of the legal deer breeding business in the United States.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2007
Market size: $650 million
Source: Cindy Horswell, “Authorities Target Texas Deer Smugglers,” South Texas Outdoors, October 19, 2011, available online here.
Original source: Texas A&M University
Posted on October 16, 2011