Rocco Sloboda at his Boyers deer farm feeds an apple to one of his breeder does. Sloboda receives certification from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture for having animals not infected with chronic wasting disease.

VENANGO TWP — Rocco Sloboda bottle feeds newborn whitetail fawns four times a day at his deer farm, which receives herd certification for not having animals infected with chronic wasting disease from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

He said he enjoys hosting local college students who come to his 400-acre farm near Boyers to learn about genetics and Boy Scouts who come to see his 55 deer.

Sloboda, 70, even names some of the bucks and the does that carry genetic characteristics for massive antlers. When the bucks turn 3, he sells them to hunting preserves across the country where hunters pay thousands of dollars to hunt them.

He said he makes enough money to cover his costs, but raising deer is not easy and fulfilling the requirements of the department's certification program makes it even harder and adds to his business expenses.

All deer farms and game preserves with captive deer are required to participate in one of two CWD programs run by the Department of Agriculture. The Pennsylvania Game Commission manages CWD in wild deer.

Sloboda hopes research to provide a better understanding of the disease leads to easing some of the department requirements and results in the Pennsylvania Game Commission culling fewer wild deer, which he also cares about.

“They need funding for research. The state isn't giving them any money. Their solution is just kill them. They need to allocate funding to solve the problem instead of shooting them,” Sloboda said.

He said he hopes a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-15th, that would provide $15 million for CWD research, becomes law.

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