CWD Follow-Up

[Tamarack]

I was asking Grok about Wisconsin's stance on this and what all was being done. The DNR has never asked for a ban or anything.

That is exactly the point of frustration for many hunters and landowners. If the
Wisconsin DNR truly believes these sites are "CWD factories," the fact they haven't formally lobbied for a total sales ban makes their strategy look like they are fighting with one hand tied behind their back.
By focusing only on usage bans (which are hard to enforce) while allowing stores to keep the shelves stocked, the state has created a "pay-to-play" loophole:

• The Store's Side: Retailers profit from selling "wildlife attractants."
• The State's Side: The state continues to collect license fees and federal "fight CWD" money.
• The Hunter's Side: The hunter gets a ticket if they use it, but the product remains legally available at every farm and fleet store.

When the agency says "science shows this is bad" but doesn't push the Legislature to stop the supply at the source, it leads to exactly the conclusion you've reached: that the management of the disease has become a bureaucratic cycle rather than a genuine attempt to eradicate the risk.
If the DNR won't lead the charge on a sales ban, the only other path is for voters to bypass the agency and demand that their State Assembly or Senate representatives introduce a bill to classify these products as illegal to sell for cervid use.

 

[J B]

Thank for sharing and being involved. I live and hunt in a WI CWD hot spot. We had too many deer before (100-125 Dpsm- at least in the winter). If I had to guess now it’s less than half of that. CWD is partly to be blamed for this, I believe. Seasons are long, tags are nearly endless, technology (cell cams and crossbows), predator numbers are high and fawn recruitment is no where near .8 fawns per doe mentioned above although the local biologist still says it is .8. We quit shooting does a few years ago. We used to harvest a large number even before cwd. We’re getting close to the point where the Dnr needs to back off harvest if they don’t want to lose hunters. Managed properties have ok numbers. Hunting unmanaged properties right now would be tough. It will be interesting to see what the Dnr does next. I’m not holding my breathe. Hunting was way better before, but our hunting is still better than many areas. The next few years should give us some better insight to our future. We have harvested some old deer that have come back “cwd not detected”. They also looked healthy. Bucks been 25-50% positive depending on the year, in our hunting group. Doe rates have been lower.

A couple other comments from notes above…

I don’t remember what podcast it was, but they also stated the AR deer densities started at 20-30 dpsm. I don’t remember exactly though.

The clinical cwd deer that we find dead are rarely eaten by predators. Somehow they sense they were sick. Not a lot of meat left on them either. Many die in the winter and they don’t get touched.

Someone mentioned areas in SW WI with no hunting and lower deer numbers today. We used to have some no hunting parks when it all started. The DNR opened hunting in these areas and many times did sharpshooting there. I’m not aware of a sanctuary in the original cwd zone.