Earlier this week, the Assembly Natural Resources and Sporting Legacy Committee voted to approve Assembly Bill 61 which limits the current DNR regulation which bans the baiting and feeding of deer in any county in which Chronic Wasting Disease or Bovine Tuberculosis are found in either a wild or captive white-tailed deer or any adjacent county within 10 miles from the location of the diseased animal.
According to a press release by the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation, the ban on baiting and feeding was put into place because deer congregate in areas where deer bait is placed and CWD and Bovine Tuberculosis can be transmitted from the saliva or other bodily fluids of a diseased deer. Bovine Tuberculosis is a very serious disease for dairy and cattle farm operations.
On Friday, Rep. Adam Jarchow (R-Balsam Lake) responded to Wisconsin Wildlife Federation Executive Director George Meyer’s claims about Assembly Bill (AB) 61. AB 61 lifts the deer feeding ban in counties where no CWD has been found. The ban would be lifted after three years of no positive CWD tests in the county where the CWD deer was found and after two years in the adjoining counties. The clock would reset if CWD was found again.
Rep. Jarchow said, “The press release today is nothing more than the typical fear mongering by George Meyer. This bill addresses outlier cases like the one in Washburn County which resulted in a feeding ban in Washburn, Polk, Burnett, and Barron Counties. There has not been another deer found with CWD in those counties since the ban was put in place in 2011.”
He continued, “This bill is not about the merits of baiting and feeding – it is about giving counties an off ramp from a never ending ban.”
Representative Adam Jarchow's District Map (based on 2011 Wisconsin Act 43)
Last Update: Apr 01, 2017 1:07 pm CDT
