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Bowhunting Articles |
WI-Massive deer kill sought
By MEG JONES
of the Journal Sentinel staff
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Mount Horeb - Every wild white-tailed deer in the area where chronic wasting disease has been discovered must be killed in an effort to stop the deadly disease from spreading throughout the state, more than 2,000 hunters, farmers and landowners were told Wednesday night. State Department of Natural Resources officials said for the first time that the entire herd - 14,000 to 15,000 animals - will have to be killed in a 287-square-mile area near Mount Horeb. The idea is "reducing the population of deer as close to zero as we can," DNR veterinarian Julie Langenberg told the group at Mount Horeb High School at the first of five meetings scheduled around the state to get public input to the DNR's proposal to combat the disease. Two weeks ago, the DNR proposed "radical" steps to help reduce the spread of the disease, including thinning the deer herd in that area - in parts of Dane, Iowa and Sauk counties - by 90%. But Langenberg said Wednesday that the eradication will have to go beyond that. While totally eliminating the deer population in that region is the DNR's goal, it's unlikely that every deer will be killed, DNR officials said. Farther away from the eradication zone, the DNR hopes to cut the herd to 10 to 15 deer per square mile. While DNR officials said they wished they didn't have to depopulate the area, they said it's a necessary step to stop the disease from spreading throughout Wisconsin. "It's possible if left alone for the next 10 years, we would see the collapse of the regional deer population," said Langenberg, who later added that the area will repopulate with healthy deer eventually. Just how long it will take to kill off the herd and keep it as close to zero as possible in the eradication area is unknown, but officials told the crowd to expect the project to take a minimum of five years. The DNR will begin passing out permits next week to landowners in the area where infected deer were found, allowing them and the hunters they allow on their property to shoot thousands of the animals. In addition, the DNR is considering establishing a special 14-week general hunting season in 10 counties in south-central Wisconsin to help reduce the size of the herd. That hunt would run from Oct. 24 through Jan. 31. All weapons, including handguns, bows, muzzleloaders, rifles and shotguns, would be allowed during the special hunting season. The DNR expects to take its proposal for an emergency rule to handle the change in hunting regulations to the Natural Resources Board in June. The drastic steps come about two months after the DNR first announced that three bucks shot in November 2001 near Mount Horeb tested positive for the disease, the first time it was found east of the Mississippi River. Since then, 516 deer have been killed in that area and tested for the deadly brain disease. Eleven of those animals were infected. |
Few answers At Wednesday's meeting, DNR officials answered some questions and floated their recommendations on ways to combat the disease, but they also admitted they don't have many answers. And that admission prompted several people to criticize the agency. "You don't have definitive rules here," said Dave Coyne, who lives in Barneveld. "You're just taking shots in the dark." Bill Vander Zouwen, DNR section chief for wildlife ecology, acknowledged that "some regulations will seem very radical" but aid the state plans to err on the side of harvesting too many deer rather than not enough. Mike Miller, state veterinarian for Colorado, where wild deer and elk have been infected with chronic wasting disease for decades, said his state didn't do enough to stop the spread of the disease when it was first discovered. If Colorado authorities had done something back then, Miller said, chronic wasting disease might not have spread to Wisconsin and other states. Among other issues will be carcass disposal. Vander Zouwen said carcasses shot in the chronic wasting disease management zone will likely not be allowed to leave the zone, which would mean the venison would have to be processed in the area. Any unused parts will have to be disposed of in landfills to prevent the spread of the disease. Farmer concerned Although chronic wasting disease has been found only in deer and elk, Joe O'Connell, a dairy farmer and deer hunter from Blue Mounds, said he's worried about the possibility it could infect other animals, such as his cows. "We have deer eating out of our silage bags. They say it can't transfer from one species to another, but we don't know for sure," O'Connell said. During a question-and-answer session following presentations by Langenberg and Vander Zouwen, one woman held up a small stuffed deer and said she was there to speak for the animals. "Deer can't vote," said Patricia Randolph, a former member of the Dane County Conservation Congress. "We didn't kill everybody who got AIDS. 98 percent of the herd aren't infected." |