A pro-deer hunting voice for intelligent alternatives to CWD and Chronic Wasting Disease hysteria.
The Wisconsin CWD Watch website reports the efforts of a coalition of Wisconsin deer hunting, landowner, and wildlife conservation groups formed to provide reasoned, affordable, and common sense alternatives to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Chronic Wasting Disease program.
Dateline December 23, 2009
Fascinating. The DNR Agency who prides itself on "Adaptive Management" seems unable to adapt to reality. The only adaptation they have done is figuring out how they can continue to do - with less money - the same things they have always done . . . to fail.
The most recent example is the recently released 5 year CWD Management Plan - Read it Here
Those of you who have followed this issue for several years know that CWD eradication was driven by the fear and the conclusion of DNR management that if CWD was not eradicated "Deer and Deer Hunting in Wisconsin" would disappear. The disease would wipe out Wisconsin's herd. Well here I sit many years later in the Garden of Eden of Wisconsin CWD (Vermont Township), the place with the highest incidence of CWD in the state. We've had CWD in our herd for perhaps 15 years but curiously Whitetail Deer are as numerous as ever and apparently the DNR agrees because if you read the 5 Year CWD Management Plan you'll discover they still want to waste taxpayer dollars by wasting deer through shooting them at night over bait piles.
Here is the reality that the DNR seems to have trouble accepting. The more the DNR uses extra-ordinary means to kill deer in CWD zones - like hiring sharpshooters to waste deer over bait piles - the more clearly the DNR says by their actions and words that " Wisconsin Deer" can be toxic - a waste product unfit for human consumption and only fit to be thrown away and buried in an environmentally secure landfill. What does this do for the sport of hunting and the ethic that "I only kill what I'll eat?" Without hunting and an interest in consuming venison, how do they control the deer population? Answer: more sharpshooting, more waste disposal, and huge amount of more money. And even if huge sums of money were available I doubt whether the DNR could achieve their population reduction or eradication goals. There are just too many practical barriers to success, regardless of budget. Like my Dad always told me "If you can't do a job right, don't bother doing it."
Here's more reality that I can't figure out why the giant brains at the DNR can't seem to connect into their plans.
Fact 1. No human has ever contracted "wasting disease" from consuming a deer found to be CWD affected.
Fact 2. There are dressing techniques which greatly minimize the chance of harvesting a CWD protein.
Fact 3. Accurate testing is available to determine with a high degree of accuracy whether or not a harvested deer has CWD.
Fact 4. Eating store-bought animal protein carries a greater known risk of disease and death than the venison product harvested by a hunter in a CWD zone . . . and this is especially so if testing and proper dressing techniques are followed.
Why isn't the above at the center of how the DNR is responding to the disease?
It is almost as if there is this massive government cover-up. As if there have been here-to-fore undisclosed discoveries of localized deer die-offs from CWD or several incidents of wandering animals found in the latter stages of the disease - hidden from the public because we'd panic if we knew the trutyh. Or there have been undisclosed and carefully covered up incidents of serious illness and death from consuming venison, but again hidden from us because such a terrible thing must be kept under wraps.
Lets get real DNR. CWD ain't the bogeyman you thought it was. Sure it is worth watching and within reason working to limit its spread. But keep your eye on the ball. Your primary goal should be supporting deer hunting and the healthful consumption of venison.
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To date the clear results from the DNR CWD program are: miilions of dollars diverted from other wildlife & environmental programs, widespread fear of eating venison, and significant damage
to the venerable sport of deer hunting by corrupting it into a panic slaughter
of white-tailed deer in Southwest Wisconsin.
The DNR response to this disease has created what no one thought possible - putting animal rights activists and advid deer hunters on the same side! In both camps there is repulsion at slaughtering wild deer for the dumpster - like rats - and starving them to death through unreasonable restrictions on feeding. This has led some pundits to suggest there is an outbreak of another form of the cognitive disease whose locus is the GEF II State Office Building in Madison, Wisconsin. A newly discovered disease called CPD* (Chronic Panic Disorder) appears to be spreading at the agency headquarters!
News from the Hot Zone - "Momma, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Sharpshooters" Tony Grabski sent us this humorous news article about a resident in Vermont Township who didn't appreciate having DNR Snipers shooting over bait piles in his neigborhood. - - - See the article here.
Notable Quotes |
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"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."
Dr. James Kroll in December 2002
"North American Whitetail" |
"Duncan proposed: '. . . If the deer are so numerous, why not shoot them . . .?'
For a moment Arthur sat pondering, then began slowly ". . . you must forgive my plain speaking, but you are a stranger in our parts and don't understand our ways. Hereabouts we hunt deer, we don't shoot them."
From the "The Running of the Deer"
by Ewan Clarkson |
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". . . 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 best kept secret in this field is that (prions) in any form have never shown infectivity,”
Laura Manuelidis, head of the neuropathology section at Yale University's Surgery Department in New Haven, Conn.
--from Washington Times Article on Prion Diseases |
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After over four years of experimentation with CWD Eradication in
and around the Mount Horeb, Arena and Blue Mounds killing zone triangle,
it is clear to those of us in the center of the "zone" that eradication is
an impossible mission. Deer remain numerous despite massive amounts
of money and firepower being employed to eliminate them. And evidence
is mounting that CWD is much more broadly distributed than alleged by
the DNR.
It is becoming an axiom: the more we test for CWD, the more we find. And with further testing, the original zone continues to expand (it has more than quadrupled in geographic area) and new zones are defined.
In order to mitigate this dramatic expansion of the area of known CWD, the DNR has developed the "sparks theory" of CWD spread. This allows single new cases of CWD found several miles outside of the current disease zone boundaries to be characterized as isolated "sparks" from the original zone . . . and not an indication that the geographic extent of the disease is larger than the current designation. Only through such Orwellian concepts as their "sparks" program, is the DNR is able to claim they are containing CWD.
Wisconsin CWD Watch and related advocacy groups
support:
- Increased
research on distribution, causes and transmission of CWD.
- Expansion
and Improvement of Chronic Wasting Disease testing capability serving
hunters, including delivery of test results within 15 days.
- Deer
herd reduction
in areas of clear overpopulation.
- Reasonable
controls (not wholesale elimination) on baiting and feeding.
- Meaningful
involvement of groups of concerned citizens, hunters, land owners,
local government, and residents in affected areas in decisions
about CWD management.
- Protection
of Property Rights as well as the rights of non-hunting residents
and other recreational users of woodlands.
- Restore Traditional
Deer Hunting Season and related traditions and ethics of Wisconsin
deer hunting.
 www.CWD.cc/ - A website with articles and journal references on CWD management,
 with particular attention to implications in Colorado.
www.UplandsDeer.org - Uplands Deer Management Association - Assisting Wisconsin landowners
and hunters in their stewardship of Whitetail deer and woodland habitat.
www.UplandsDeer.org/heritage - Our Whitetail Heritage.
A new Online series of hunting nostaglia by noted Deer Historian Rob Wegner.
DeerFood.com
Website
of Bio-tec Research & their related community & human service
activities
United
Special Sportsmen Alliance
Dream
Hunts for kids with special needs and challenges.
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Wisconsin's
Defense of Marriage
Amendment.
Is it really a Ban on Gay Marriage? |
*Chronic
Panic Disorder (CPD)
is a cognitive disease known to spontaneously occur among Natural Resources
bureaucrats. The disease is progressive in that it leads to implementing
increasingly irrational programs and chronically wasting taxpayer dollars.
To date the disease is confined to the State of Wisconsin but because of
its unknown rate of infectivity, unknown cause, and unknown means of transmission,
"experts" are cautioning against direct contact with Wisconsin
DNR officials. Many experts believe there is no known cure for CPD and therefore
urge that "removal of the infected individuals" from the Department
is the only way to prevent its collapse. 
