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Pay hunters for killing CWD+ deer

From Paul Smith column in MJS: A proposal was presented at the Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference in Milwaukee. It would pay hunters and landowners who kill CWD-positive deer. Presenter (retired DNR wildlife supervisor) suggests substantial compensation like $1,000 for the hunter and $1,000 for the landowner for each CWD deer. Could it fly?

I think this would ONLY fly if somehow the DNR could make money off of it. Otherwise no.

good grief,,,,, I have lost faith if this is the best, from our wild life management team,,,,

And people say the State of Wisconsin has no money. If this goes through it only Meagan’s Scott Walker is doing a better job then most ????

Sorry that my first reaction is so cynical, but I am a product of my crappy environment.

My first thought was, "Great! Now some chit-heads are going to find some way to get dead, CWD infected deer from somewhere else outside Wisconsin and import them so they can catch a payout.

Some deer farm in IL realizes it has a dozen cases of shaky deer, you think it's impossible they'd try to make them disappear and make some money?

I think a plan like this would invite problems. Sorry to be a pessimist.

They did this a years ago, $20.00 per deer and $100.00 per deer that tested positive in the core area. It's nothing more than a damn bounty. At one time they were throwing the idea around of giving the township that shot the most deer a prize. I thought after the reactions of the hunters they'd abandon all this bounty crap. They even brought this up in a conversation here in Washburn County. They were thinking about giving prizes away, but they never did. I gave them an earful just for mentioning this to me. Yup - treat the whitetail deer like vermin, kill'em all.

Just think that this was proposed by a perplexed, retired, DNR wild life manager of our state, shows to me, what kind of thinking in total, in deer mgt, was coming from this agency, thru the last 15 years,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, what a sad comment from him, what a sad mentality, its easy to lose faith, in those you think, are trying to really manage the deer herd for the best......................

Yes, the forty-some million the state has already spent on CWD was not enough.

I see he is worried about the affect on the big business of deer hunting, however he mentioned nothing about the wolves,,,, put a bounty on them

SCARY Just goes to show how bad the herd management practices really r.

I saw where Montana has it's first case of CWD and they want to take the approach Wi first took. Not going to work especially with mule deer that migrate up to 150 miles.

I saw where Montana has it's first case of CWD and they want to take the approach Wi first took. Not going to work especially with mule deer that migrate up to 150 miles.

CWD

This is an interesting idea. The part that made me think first is Harvesting infected at a rate larger than the spread of the disease. This seems to include a glimmer of hope.

The maps of concentration areas is a good idea. I hope they take it right down to the 40 acre parcel or at least section discrimination. First cut should be to apply this strategy to only specific areas near infected samples, not entire counties. The deer should be targeted right there where the infected deer was found, and some reasonable radius. That is where the infected deer are most likely to be. This might prevent unnecessarily wiping out healthy populations.

Then the sampling data could be analyzed and adjusted every month with new maps. Year round. Probably fawns should not be included for hunters unless they are contaminated. Have any fawns ever tested positive? Fawns are pretty obvious, but the sampling peeps should have to be qualified to look at the teeth if it comes down to it.

The problem I see with the payout system is nothing for clean deer. Access is the issue, and the landowner needs to be compensated for the healthy deer as well. Maybe not the hunter, he gets a clean deer to eat and all that opportunity. I think this might work at $500 to the hunter for contaminated deer, only $100 for a clean one. Landowner gets the full grand for each. There probably is no shortage of hunters willing to get paid at those rates. Should the land owner be allowed to double dip if he does the shooting? That might be plenty of incentive.

Now, this looks a lot like eradication. And has to be bad news for those in the zone. But it might just save the rest of the state.

Hunters should have to register for the program beforehand. A free validation to your license on the web site. All these deer would be above and beyond your tags. This could help draw in hunters from other parts of the state if they didn't have to sacrifice their home area buck opportunity, and this would be purely bonus hunting. They would be obligated to do the testing. Any sort of shenanigans should have severe penalties.

If they really want to take a cut into the infected herd, it should be any weapon year round.

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