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01-07-2003 | 09:14 PM

#2

TJD

Fork Horn

Joined: Feb 2003

Posts: 381

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From: Sussex WI

RE: WDNR to allow baiting in Eradication Zone

Focus if you will on the following two paragraphs:
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quotequote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>The emergency rules is intended to help meet deer herd reduction goals in the Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Eradication Zone. Without the use of this efficient management tool, Department of Natural Resources wildlife managers said herd reduction may not be sufficient to reduce the spread of CWD from the infected area.

"If we get snow, shooting deer over bait in winter is a very effective deer culling method," said Tom Hauge, chief of wildlife management at DNR. "The rule will allow the department to enlist landowners as cooperators in culling efforts during the winter of 2003 by exempting them from the statewide baiting prohibition enacted by the Natural Resources Board last June."<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

Let's see: "efficient management tool" and "effective deer culling method". Really?!

Funny, but here is what the VERY SAME Wisconsin DNR said last July (From "Question and Answer Sheet on Wildlife Feeding and Baiting Restrictions, July 3, 2002)
<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>WON'T A BAN ON BAITING REDUCE THE HARVEST OF DEER AND CAUSE MORE DEER POPULATION PROBLEMS AND MORE RISK OF CWD?
Current data from Department 2001 hunter surveys shows that 40 percent of bowhunters and 17 percent of gun hunters in Wisconsin use bait. The difference in success rates among gun hunters with and without bait is negligible. The difference in success rates for archers is greater, but the overall impact of hunting without bait is expected to be minor. Some argue that eliminating bait and feed may actually increase the harvest by increasing the activity of both hunters and deer. In addition, deer will be less likely to concentrate and be held on some parcels where they are unavailable for harvest by hunters on other lands.<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

So let me get this straight: baiting does not increase success rates of hunters, and may acutally lower the chance of success. But the DNR thinks it is a great idea to get all of these infected deer together around bait piles, even though in their own words "Some argue that eliminating bait and feed may actually increase the harvest by increasing the activity of both hunters and deer." So are they now saying that all that stuff they fed us last July was a bunch of bunk...or a bald-faced lie...and that baiting really does increase hunter success rates? Or are they so stupid that they don't even refer back to their own data on the subject?

Also, let me get this straight as well:
---Baiting was outlawed because supposedly CWD may be spread by deer being brought into close proximity around bait piles. Right?
---We have CWD in one area of the state currently, occuring at a rate of around 2.5% of the population.
---Baiting is outlawed all across Wisconsin, EXCEPT for now, NOT in the CWD infected area.

Man, you gotta love the logic of those Madison bureaucrats!

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