Your Wisconsin Outdoor Community

Doyle's new term begins with appointments
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle has appointed Sean Dilweg as the state's new commissioner of insurance.

Dilweg will ensure that the insurance industry continues to be a vibrant part of the Wisconsin economy

Other appointments for Doyle's second term as governor, which began today, include:
- Dan Schooff as deputy secretary of the Department of Administration. Schooff most recently served as campaign manager for Doyle's reelection campaign

Patrick Henderson as the executive assistant at the Department of Administration. Henderson previously was Doyle's legislative director.

I am very pleased and excited about the partnership that has been forged with Whitetails Unlimited to bring the reward program into reality this fall. The $400 reward for each positive deer removed during the hunting season recognizes the importance of cooperation between landowners and hunters by giving $200 to the hunter and $200 to landowner on whose land the positive deer was shot.

There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that hunters and others who consume venison containing the proteins that cause the deadly brain ailment chronic wasting disease will get the disease, according to Wyoming Game and Fish Department scientists.

Wyoming officials said the risk of death to humans who eat such meat appear nonexistent.

"Nobody has ever died from CWD and people have been eating (deer meat that could contain prions) for 25 years," said Terry Kreeger, Supervisor of the Game and Fish Department's Veterinary Research Services.

scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggest that certain soil types serve as natural prion repositories in the wild. As animals regularly consume soil to meet their
mineral needs, it's possible that prion-laden soil particles contribute to the
transmission of prion disease such as CWD among animals.

"Prions most likely enter soil via excretion or from the carcasses of infected
animals,"

"We also wanted to determine how difficult it is to remove prions from clay,"
says senior author Joel Pedersen, a UW-Madison assistant professor of soil
science. "It turned out to be extremely difficult."

In fact, prions could be released from clay only when the scientists boiled the
clay-bound proteins in a detergent solution.

Also regarding Chronic Wasting Disease, I was quite shocked to learn that the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in 1988 inoculated live animals with CWD. One type of animal that was inoculated was mule deer. And I find it more than a little suspicious that a mule deer, shot by a hunter in the Mt. Horeb area during that time, was immediately confiscated by the Department of Natural Resources. Why were the Department and the University not forthcoming with this bit of information? Could these mule deer, infected with CWD by the University be the source of the disease in our native whitetail population? I requested the Committee to inquire with the University as to the nature of the CWD experiments and what happened to all of the animals infected. 

30 years of testing to see if they could infect other animals with CWD has resulted in NO test animals getting the disease other than other deer. I would rather eat raw venison off of an infected deer, than handle a rabid Bat. Why not put a big circle on the freakin map and kill all of the bats?? Probably becuase the govener is not getting a kick back from auto insureance companies to reduce the number of Bat / car accidents. Yes freinds... Rabie's is far more dangerous than CWD, and nobody is doing anything to stop it.

Simply put, with the size of the infected area and the factors involved, deer eradication is unrealistic as a means to control the disease.

There has been research done that shows the disease can be obtained from the environment

the highest we have seen is 10-12% of the adult population infected.

I assume the two guys who almost shot me in the last two years probably  took a hunter safety coarse. I had one guy draw a bow on me in pitch black darkness as I was heading out of the marsh after tracking a friends wounded deer. I heard the arrow slide back and quickly lit the guy up with my flash light, he was at full draw. He started screaming at me, something about how I am going to get myself shot by walking around at night without a flashlight... Yep, the DNR is right, this guy should have a rifle in his hands and several tags to shoot any deer... After all, he had a hunters Safety coarse right? How about the time I walked out of the marsh and had a bowhunter at full draw aiming at the trail waiting for me to walk out? He just let down his draw and staired at me... Both guys I just walked away, it aint worth it to argue with idiots. Would you take your kid out in the cattail marsh where there are guys jump shooting deer but can't see through the cattails at whats beyond?  It is the DNR's responsability to keep hunting safe! I agree, that individules should be held responsible for not following every safety rule. But allowing people to shoot at any deer they see, and encouraging it,  is going to cause people to get shot. It could be your son or my kid that gets it. Opening rifles in these same areas is insane. They closed rifles becuase it was too dangerous, now that we can shoot any thing we see it suddenly becomes safe?

The QDMA acknowledges that total herd eradication may appear to be the most effective method to contain and control CWD.

At this time, however, the QDMA considers total herd eradication impossible under most circumstances, unacceptable to many segments of society, and impractical as a long-term CWD management strategy.

. . This episode shows that a scientific bureau, confronted with a question of wildlife eradication, may prefer to lose the wildlife than to lose time in scientific research for alternatives. In one sense this is water over the dam, but in another it carries a lesson for the future. At best, the scientific base in this case was sketchy, and no imagination had been used in searching for less destructive alternatives."
"It is time for us to learn caution and restraint in our power to eradicate wild things." --Aldo Leopold, December 5th, 1944

The DNR’s rush to kill 100% of the deer population in a 361 square mile area in Southwestern Wisconsin
- as soon as possible - is meeting strong resistance from many hunters and landowners. As outlined here,
CAIDS-Wisconsin and these two groups support a more reasoned, balanced approach to successfully
addressing and containing Chronic Wasting Disease in Wisconsin.
Hunter-sportsmen oppose the kill because it is neither for food nor sport. Ninety-eight percent (98%) of
the deer to be killed and incinerated or dumped in the landfill will be healthy animals. The traditions that
mark the sport of deer hunting are being cast aside. What the DNR has proposed is an all-out “War” against the deer, not a sporting deer hunt.
Area landowners opposed granting the DNR the power to abuse private property rights and view the
plan as a threat to the right to live safely and securely in their communities. Conducting a war-like assault
to search and kill all deer will produce “collateral damage” and materially upset the ecological balance of
the area. The DNR rush to judgement – without adequate research, testing and preparation – simply
adds further insecurity and anxiety that accidents and harm are a certainty.

“My strong opinion is that CWD and other diseases never will be eradicated from wild deer  herds.  They just become a factor to consider in management.”
Professor James C. Kroll, Founder & Director, Institute for White-tailed Deer Managament & Research

The agency's lead scientist on CWD and an early proponent of culling, Mike Miller, said data collected over the years don't show that thinning herds has had any significant effect on the rate of the disease in the wild.

CWD has never taken down vast numbers of deer as once feared. In fact, in the most infected pockets of the state, the rate of disease among deer is about 10 percent, not much different than it's been for several years.

One prominent critic of the culling approach has been retired University of Colorado biology professor Charles Southwick, who has argued that culling might actually exacerbate the spread of CWD.

That's based on his view that clearing deer out of a "hot spot" just opens the door for more deer to come in and contract the disease from the environment, where research suggests the agents behind the disease can subsist in soil and feces.

In addition, Southwick has argued, it might be that most deer and elk have a natural resistance to CWD. By killing off mostly healthy populations, the division might be reducing the creatures that have that resistance, under his view.