Joe the butcher will again cut up deer for charity

Joe the Butcher will again slice up venison for charity.

This is the forth year that Mentor resident/Leroy Township-based Joe O’Donnel has donated his services to butcher deer that hunters have donated for local food banks.

Included would be any deer that a properly licensed and permitted archery hunter in Mentor wishes to donate, says O’Donnel.

Last year O’Donnel unzipped, cut, wrapped and froze 78 deer that found their way into area food bank freezers.

That many donated deer likely translated into at least 800 pounds of venison, O’Donnel says.

“And I’m going with the same program this year, too,” O’Donnel said. “I’ve all ready been contacted by hunters who said they’re willing to donate deer and the archery season just started Saturday (Sept. 29).”

While O’Donnel is being forced to raise his processing fees to $75 for animal taken during the archery season and to $85 for animals shot during the firearms deer-hunting season, those rates are

There is no charge if a hunter drops off a deer and indicates that it is for charity, O’Donnel says, importantly.

Clearly, says O’Donnel, his program of accepting deer for charity and then processing them for food banks has gained traction since the project began four years ago.

In 2010, O’Donnel processed 24 deer, or about one-third the number of deer that hunters donated

And while most of the venison is donated to the Painesville Salvation Army unit, O’Donnel has presented venison to a few folks he knows that are in need.

“People are broke, and all the time I’m getting ‘thank you’s’ from those families who get the venison,” O’Donnel said. “I even had one hunter give me a $50 donation along with his deer. There are a lot of nice people out there.”

For further information about the program, contact O’Donnel at 440-667-6907.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischkorn@News-Herald.com
Twitter: @Fieldkorn