TJD

<font size=3>Deer disease ad blitz planned
Billboards, radio spots will urge hunters to help stop spread of ailment</font id=size3>
By LEE BERGQUIST
Last Updated: Oct. 4, 2002
Billboards and radio advertising spots will start Oct. 14 to encourage hunters in Madison and the surrounding area to hunt deer this fall.

The ad blitz is part of a larger marketing campaign to overcome hunters' wariness about chronic wasting disease.

Here is what's happening:

The Madison campaign will encourage hunters to hunt in the 389-square-mile zone near Mount Horeb where the state Department of Natural Resources wants to kill 25,000 deer to stop the spread of the disease.
The theme - &quot;Fight CWD, Hunt Deer&quot; - is being used by a coalition of hunting groups that has been pushing a get-out-the-hunt message since July.
Safari Club International, a national hunting group based in Tucson, Ariz., is distributing 1 million brochures on chronic wasting disease nationally, with many going to Wisconsin.
Gander Mountain, a Minnesota-based retailer specializing in outdoor gear, is also encouraging hunters to hunt deer this fall to ensure that the deer population stays in balance. A spokesman for the company said Gander Mountain ads will include the theme, &quot;Fight CWD, Hunt Deer.&quot;
The initiatives come as deer license sales are off an average of 22%, and state wildlife managers have expressed concern that fewer hunters could mean fewer deer killed and exacerbate an already booming deer population.

&quot;We hope this will ease the paranoia, and hopefully these guys will decide that they are not going to give this up,&quot; said Peter J. Gerl, executive director of Whitetails Unlimited, a national deer organization based in Sturgeon Bay that is spearheading the ad blitz.

Whitetails Unlimited has organized a coalition that plans to spend $300,000 on research and advertising related to the disease.

Safari Club International's brochure points out that there is no proven link that can spread the deer disease to humans, according to Jim Frey, president of the Wisconsin chapter.

Safari Club's southeastern Wisconsin chapter has also paid for commercials on chronic wasting disease that have been run on broadcasts of Green Bay Packers games.

The Madison ad campaign is expected to cost about $33,000. Some of the funding will come from the DNR, according to Keith Warnke, outdoor heritage specialist at the agency.

So far, the Whitetails Unlimited-led effort has paid for billboards in parts of the north and in Eau Claire and La Crosse, Gerl said.

Also, the DNR said it could save $1 million on disposal of deer from the eradication zone by incinerating only diseased deer.

The DNR said it would store deer carcasses in freezers - minus the heads - until test results are available. If the deer are found not to be infected by the disease, they could be buried in landfills, which is cheaper.

(Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Oct. 5, 2002.)

Based on all of the shooting that the DNR says needs to be done, I can see why Gander Mountain is behind this one. Bullet sales should triple!


Edited by - TJD on 10/05/2002 23:41:07

nub

Now if the Dnr is planning on storeing carcasses til the tests results are in, why can't something useful be done with those that test negative? One of the biggest downfalls of this eradication is finding a use for the meat. Most people I talk to just weren't brought up to waste an animals life. My father always taught me &quot;Don't kill it if your not gonna clean it and eat it&quot;. I've lived my 45 years following his rule and I'm not about to change for no one. If the DNR wants me to kill more than I can consume, they best find a use for the meat or its not gonna happen.

TJD

Nub, I agree. What I'm curious about is where the DNR is coming up with all of this freezer space. Where is it, what does it cost, etc.

My whole thing is that this is a little late, especially for this year. I mean, the DNR has already alienated many of the land owners in the area, not to mention that they've manage to scare away a good number of hunters with their &quot;earn-a-buck&quot;, etc. Now suddenly they realize they've helped to create a lot of hysteria around CWD and they are trying to counteract it.

Well, better late than never, I guess....


Edited by - TJD on 10/06/2002 13:28:41

nub

They have leased out and remodeled a couple buildings about a mile from my house. In fact its next door to my shop. Supposedly 1 is for chopping heads and the other is for sample extraction. I haven't been by to take a close look, but thought I heard they had a refridgerated trailer for keeping the carcasses fresh.

Tim-WI hunter

The warehouse nub is talking about is one of 5 'processing centers&quot; being set up around the state for sampling all the deer they intend to sample throughout the state this year.
Another one is in Eagle and I don't recall the locations of the other three.
The deer, after sampling are being quick frozen and shipped to a huge warehouse in the LaCrosse area and those that test negative will be landfilled. They already have a contract for that. Those that test positve will be incinerated. The cost is pretty high for the rental of this place. No numbers given.
They have a system designed with bar-coding in which a tag will be atrtached to the head and an identical one will be attached to the hock on the carcass.
Everyone who shoots a deer that is tested will be told of the results via postcard when the results come back.
Also, if a person shoots a deer in the hot zone and takes it home to process it him/herself, he or she can take the skeleton back to the place in Black Earth and the DNR will incinerate it.
That's only in the eradication zone they're doing that.

Tim

Edited by - Tim-WI hunter on 10/06/2002 20:58:30

cayugad

I saw one of the new Billboards today in Ashland Wisconsin... It was a very impressive display. I do hope the hunters are going to help with this problem. I too, was raised that you only shoot what you will eat. And I think the DNR now realizes that the early paranoia caused when they anounced the CWD has really had a reverse effect on the attitude of Wisconsin hunters and landowners. As usual it is the hunters that will be asked to solve the problem in this State. It will be the dollars generated by license fees and sporting good sales that will pay for solving this matter. Where are all the anti hunters and animal lovers now? What are they doing to ease the suffering of the whitetail population? Perhaps they are waiting for hunters to solve and fund the CWD problem, they they will return, to demonstrate about what terrible things hunters do to the wildlife in our state.

wdhc

The commercials run on the Packer Radio Network have been funded about 99% through our coalition and 1% SCI, just to set the story straight. $40,000 to date.

TJD

Maybe this is also an attempt by the DNR to smooth things over before the large increases in fees occurs. To be honest, I cannot recall where I saw this, and I may have some of the numbers off, but I heard something like a $7 increase in the cost of a fishing license and a $10 increase in both gun and bow tags.

Anyone else hear about this, or see it written up somewhere?


Edited by - TJD on 10/12/2002 13:25:16

cayugad

I heard the same thing TJD from talking with a hunter safety instructor who hangs with a lot of DNR wardens (yes I know, he said and she said..) but I have not heard what the increase might be, if any....

wdhc

An increase in fees will go over like earn a buck. We want em dead but there's strings attached and it's gonna cost you.