In Wi. we have certain units that are Earn A Buck units. Fox 11 has been running a story the last 2 days about WI hunters trying to register road kill doe to get there EAB sticker. To me this is a black eye for WI hunters and also a little irresponsable reporting on Fox 11's part.
Why? Because the DNR really has no way to stop this. To register a deer in WI. you take the deer to a gas station or bar, the gas station attendents and bartenders are the people who actually register the deer. They have no training, half of them don't hunt and don't even want to touch the dead animals to tag it.
This means that evey red neck trophy hunter who watched fox 11 now know how to register road kill to get around the EAB program if they didn't know already.
To make things worse, these road kill doe are ending up at the local food panties.. If you've ever butchered road kill, you know that there usually isn't much meat left to eat and only God knows how long that animal layed along side the road. I've volenteered to help butcher deer for a food pantry and it really waists a lot of time and effort for the food pantry, making the venison program more of a dump sight for spoiled bloody meat. What a bummer.
Now I don't agree with everything the DNR does but they are all we have and like it or not we need to follow the laws and get them changed if needed, the right way.
What should we do about this situation? What do you think about Earn A buck system? I think the DNR is spread too thin, has too many laws and rules, and have to depend on honest hunters bartenders and gas station attendents to enforce the laws. It doesn't work. You practically need a lawyer now days just to understand the rule book. You also have t be good at reading maps. We've got units that are CWD zones, they have there rules, you have regular units, we've got no bait units and baiting units, EAB units, T zone units.....it's crazy.
If they're not registering road kill, some are hunting reg. zone until they get a doe, then register that doe in a EAB unit just down the road. If that deer tests pos. for CWD, the DNR have no idea where it came from, they assume it came from the unit it was registerd.The DNR is trying to maintain healthy numbers throughout the state, but if hunters are not cooperating then herd control is impossible. In WI. hunting is pretty much on the honor system, we have no where near the number of wardens needed to enforce all the hunting laws. They depend on hunters to register you deer correctly and in the unit it came from. To many know it all hunters think they're smarter than the DNR and are going to do things there own way. That attitude is going to kill hunting.
I don't want to see a warden behind every tree. I want to see good honest hunters doing the best they can to follow the rules and police each other. Step up to the plate and earn your buck, make your buddies do the same. If you don't like it, do it anyways, and voice your opinion to the DNR and lawmakers, and make your buddies do the same. Remember that almost every DNR employee is a hunter and fellow outdoors people just like you and me. They're the system we have, they're all we have, they are not the enemy and if there is a problem, it affects them too. Going around them doesn't help anyone, just screws up everything. You are either part of the solution, or you're the problem.
So what can we do? If FOX 11 stuck a camera in your face for your reaction to hunters regisreing road kill doe to get thier Earn A Buck sticker, what would you have to say? How do we deal with this black eye? I saw the story last night and again this morning. Makes me mad that WI. "hunters" would stoop so low. They aren't hunters, they're scum in my book.

That is sad and if indeed being done, shame on any WI hunter doing such an unethical and immoral thing. A try blackeye for all hunters for sure.

And why is it that all news channels jump at the opportunity to slam hunters and you never hear anything about the illegal activities of PETA and the sort?

It's a darn shame, that's for sure. Poachers are, and will always be, poachers. No matter what the rules are, poachers will try to get around it. MO, almost went to the EAB program, but instituted AR's instead, in certain counties. Well, guys were shooting illegal bucks and reporting that they shot them in a legal county. It's always gonna be something.

The media is, GENERALLY speaking, anti hunting and anti gun. If that's the case for this particular station, this story is playing right into their hands.

thats just sad

If that were happening, here (and I wish we WERE "earn a buck").....I'd go to my NCWRC regional meeting and floor an amendment that would have these people forfeit their hunting rights in this state PERMANENTLY.

I'd take everybody I could haul over there with me, too.

That's one of the most "UN"sportsmanlike, "SLOB" things I've heard of.

I'd say do nothing. The vast majority of hunters....at least 95% IMO are good honest people that wouldn't do this anyway. It's just like anything else. There's always a bad apple.

The guys that think they might be EAB the following season should be smart enough to take a doe the season before. Simple. I believe we need to be "herd control" for 2 years before the unit can to EAB.

Wack I hear your there. It is a real shame. I have heard of guys that registered the same deer 4 or 5 times. I know that in the county that I live in, the station that use to register the deer lost the right to because they refused to slit the ear. (fire dept)They didn't agree with the EAB law. I don't agree with the DNR for the most part but law is law. By not following this law it is just going to back fire in the future. We have to many deer in our area. Plain and simple.A black eye for sure. I will have to check the fox site as I missed the broadcast.

I gun hunt inZone 58 (in mostly Eau Claire County, WI). We're literally surrounded by EAB zones, and more guys are pushing into that county because of it.Zone 58 is probably looking at EAB status this next year if not enough does are culled. The only thing keeping it from that status the last 2 years has been the kill numbers....top 5 inthe state, and very high in does taken. Funny because according to WI Sportsman magazine, the % of bucks to does is rather high there, as well. That's what's got me worried.

5 of our 8 man group for gun deer camp is heading up tomorrow for bow in the same zone.

As far as transferring a deer taken in a EAB zone to a non-EAB zone....I will guarantee that's happening up by us. If you go to Osseo, Fairchild, or Humbird, or Strum to register, you're 5 to 10 miles from the EAB Zones and all that's required by law is to have it registered in the same or neighboring zone.

Here's the map:http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/...T/DEER/dmu.htm

There's always going to be cheaters in everything....and shame on them.

I disagree, I think there are many more folks not following the process then you think. Good people for the most part they just don't agree with the drn.

In my unit it will be every other year for earn a buck, which is fine by me. It is not beneath me to take a doe or two or three. I even told guys that were complaining about it that they could take doe of my prop. They declined

The cheaters would just find some other way to cheat. And I would imagine the DNR doesn't care too much about it, when push comes to shove. If their goal is to thin the doe population, it probably doesn't really matter to them if the doe was killed by an arrow or a bumper.