So a few years or so ago someone found the deer herd in southern Wisconsin had some animals with CWD. I belive that they found it in a captive deer or elk herd and then found it in the wild population but it really doesn' t matter what' s done is done.

The solution that they came up with was to kill off as many deer as they could. They opened the flood gates to hunters to take out the local populations of deer and then test them to see if they carried CWD. The bad new is that there was a good number of deer with CDW. THERE WAS NO GOOD NEWS.

The hunting in these areas is now nil and I' m sure that the hunters are a little nervous about eating the meat from their hunts without proper testing.

There is a solution to this problem that we as sportsman need to take to our DNR offices, legislators and even the National gov. We must swallow hard and eliminate the raising, transportation, and domestication of elk and deer. Captive deer and elk ARE the reason that a single desease was transmitted accross 1000 miles of open grasslands.

The arguments here are that we would be, in effect, putting people out of business for good. That is not completelly true. These people own land and farms that could be turned into other domestic meat operations such as bison, beef, poultry, etc. Yes that is not as lucrative as elk and deer but we must be strong and look at the bigger picture.

Hunting in WI is a billion dollar industry. Hotels, resturants, meat lockers, bars, gas stations, sporting goods stores, and even web sites need this seasonal income to make a good living. In the area that I hunt I purchase morning coffee and rolls, gas, dinner, beer, etc at leaset 15 days per year. I' m usually never alone I have one or two friends with. The dollars spent on these luxury items will be spent elsewhere if I have nowhere to hunt or have to relocate my hunting to a non-infected area. Now let' s look at the " non-resident" hunter. They purchase hotel rooms at a time that is generally slow for tourism and travel. They eat out nearly every meal. They frequent the bars and purchase drinks and food. They purchase extra gear that they forgot or could not bring with them. They may even lease land from a local farmer that can use that money to subsidise his/her income. Without our spending many of the mom and pop country stores, cafes, bars, and motels will be without that " 1 good week" that makes the difference between making it and boarding it up.

These " game" related farms could have policed themselves. Spent money on research and found tests for CWD that were less invasive (currently the animal must be killed to preform the testing), they could have set up a certification process that would track the animals and trace back the animals to the original farms. But they didn' t. They didn' t and now it' s time to do what is best for the population of animals that bring so much joy AND financial stability to so many people.

Send a letter to your local DNR or Game Department. Let them know how you feel. If they say that it is out of their hands go to your representative and get the bar, resturant, hotel, and convienience store owners to sign up too. Get rid of the cause before you too sit around wondering what you are going to do come fall.

Mac