Louisiana Forces Homeless Shelter To Destroy $8,000 Worth Of Deer Meat

[Nobody]

Couldn't they have just given the meat back to the hunters?

I'm sure there would be some 'official' reason why they couldn't.

Reading the whole article, this department has no good excuse for this action.
This wasn't a 'commercial' issue.
"Although the meat was processed at a slaughterhouse (Bellevue) that is permitted by the Louisiana Department of Agriculture to prepare and commercially distribute meat obtained from approved farms, deer are not an approved meat source to be distributed commercially,” the department said on its Facebook page. “And because hunters brought the deer to the slaughterhouse, there is no way to verify how the deer were killed, prepared or stored.”

This was donated, not to be sold, but to be prepared after a licensed slaughterhouse prepared the deer.
If the deer had been unable to be processed for some reason, if anyone would have the expertise to know that it would be a slaughterhouse.

This deer wasn't being prepared to be distributed commercially. I.E. for sale. It was being donated to Shreveport-Bossier Rescue Mission and served to homeless people there for free.

Now the authorities are going to get with hunters and help them to understand how they can donate meat to shelters. Even though this meat was destroyed, because deer meat is not allowed to be distributed commercially.

"The department says it is now working with hunters in ways to donate extra game to homeless shelters. "

So what exactly are they going to teach these hunters?

When the regulations have to be changed before the hunters can use any information they are given by the department relative to donating future deer as a meat source for homeless shelter kitchens.