Syracuse.com - Church's wild game dinner halted by Madison County health officials

[HuntingNY-News]

More than 200 folks turned out to the Open Door Baptist Church in New Woodstock to taste a variety of dishes made of wild game, along with more than 50 pies the church's women had made.

New Woodstock — The annual Wild Game Dinner at the Open Door Baptist Church in New Woodstock, a tradition spanning 27 years, came to a screeching halt Saturday evening, according to a story on the Cazenovia Republican website.

More than 200 folks turned out to taste a variety of dishes made of wild game, along with more than 50 pies the church's women had made. Shortly after the event began, though, an official from the Madison County Health Department arrived.

Church officials were told the dinner violated the county health code -- specifically the serving of home-made dishes without a permit. Church members were asked to take all the food out of the building or face getting ticketed for creating a public health hazard, the weekly newspaper's website reported.

Geoffrey Snyder, director of environmental health for Madison County, told the Cazenovia Republican that the main issues were the wild game, noting the uncertainty of its origin; and the fact that dinner was open to the public, as opposed to being limited to the congregation.

I have calls into both the health department and to pastor of the church. I'll file an updated story later today with more comments from these sources on this incident.

View the full article on The Syracuse Outdoors Blog

[growalot]

gee isn't it nice that the government can now tell you where and what you are allowed to eat...free country this is....

[Dom]

WTF Thats the dumbest thing I have ever read.Churches have allway's had open to public dinners

[pewlodar]

Guessing they were serving SODA at this event too! Can you imagine the damage they could cause to the general public? A home made meal, probably cooked with butter, maybe eggs, served withe possible coffee and soda!

Glad someone is looking out for general public. I shutter to think that kids may have been exposed to this crazy event.