The quest for trophy bucks is one that’s shared by millions of avid American hunters, but recent advances in genetic science may raise serious questions about modern game-management practices and ethics—and the future of deer hunting as we know it.

In new research being performed at the Louisiana State University AgCenter located in Clinton, Louisiana, the semen from a dead white-tailed buck has been successfully harvested and used to impregnate multiple does at the facility. According the center coordinator, Dr. Dearl Sanders, the experimental process had earlier proven successful for cattle, but this marked the first time it had been attempted with deer.

The semen utilized in the research was collected from a massive trophy whitetail killed in November on a private game preserve (translation: high-dollar and high-fenced) located near Vienna, Illinois. According to an Associated Press article appearing May 12, the deer’s testicles were removed, placed on ice and transported to the LSU facility soon after it was killed.

The semen was subsequently extracted and frozen in liquid nitrogen, providing 200 samples, or enough for approximately 100 potential deer pregnancies (based on a 60-percent insemination success rate).

Presently, six does at the facility are pregnant with semen extracted from the dead buck’s testicles, Dr. Sanders reports.

According to the article, LSU attorneys are investigating if the process may be patented and licensed.

“We can become the repository for this genetic material and reproduce offspring from ‘giant’ deer in the wild,” Sanders said in an LSU press release.

Could this mean “Frankenstein-deer” may be coming to your state in the future? Artificial insemination of deer on private game farms is nothing new, but it utilizes the semen from live bucks owned and kept specifically for that purpose.

You may remember my blog post from February about the Quality Deer Management Association and its opposition to the expansion of the captive deer-breeding industry and its fight against the passage of laws that could liberalize the private practice of deer breeding.

The idea of harvesting the genetic material from a dead deer, transporting it to another state or region, and using it to impregnate random, chosen females is simply too complex a matter for some of us to fathom.

Where could this be heading? Possibly to some useful things, like strengthening a local deer herd’s genetic resistance to certain diseases. But on the negative side, an uncontrolled, widespread usage of genetic harvesting and procreation has the potential for a disaster.

So, who owns a dead deer’s genetics? The hunter who shot and recovered it? And where do you think the use of a dead deer’s genetics could lead—the best and the worst-case scenarios? I look forward to seeing your comments below.