Massive deer kill sought

[Tom Morang]

Massive deer kill sought

DNR wants to wipe out herd of 14,000 in infected area

By MEG JONES
of the Journal Sentinel staff

Last Updated: May 2, 2002

Mount Horeb - Every wild white-tailed deer in the area where chronic wasting disease has been discovered must be killed in an effort to stop the deadly disease from spreading throughout the state, more than 2,000 hunters, farmers and landowners were told Wednesday night.

State Department of Natural Resources officials said for the first time that the entire herd - 14,000 to 15,000 animals - will have to be killed in a 287-square-mile area near Mount Horeb.

The idea is "reducing the population of deer as close to zero as we can," DNR veterinarian Julie Langenberg told the group at Mount Horeb High School at the first of five meetings scheduled around the state to get public input to the DNR's proposal to combat the disease.

Two weeks ago, the DNR proposed "radical" steps to help reduce the spread of the disease, including thinning the deer herd in that area - in parts of Dane, Iowa and Sauk counties - by 90%. But Langenberg said Wednesday that the eradication will have to go beyond that.

While totally eliminating the deer population in that region is the DNR's goal, it's unlikely that every deer will be killed, DNR officials said.

Farther away from the eradication zone, the DNR hopes to cut the herd to 10 to 15 deer per square mile.

While DNR officials said they wished they didn't have to depopulate the area, they said it's a necessary step to stop the disease from spreading throughout Wisconsin.

"It's possible if left alone for the next 10 years, we would see the collapse of the regional deer population," said Langenberg, who later added that the area will repopulate with healthy deer eventually.

Just how long it will take to kill off the herd and keep it as close to zero as possible in the eradication area is unknown, but officials told the crowd to expect the project to take a minimum of five years.

The DNR will begin passing out permits next week to landowners in the area where infected deer were found, allowing them and the hunters they allow on their property to shoot thousands of the animals.

In addition, the DNR is considering establishing a special 14-week general hunting season in 10 counties in south-central Wisconsin to help reduce the size of the herd. That hunt would run from Oct. 24 through Jan. 31. All weapons, including handguns, bows, muzzleloaders, rifles and shotguns, would be allowed during the special hunting season.

The DNR expects to take its proposal for an emergency rule to handle the change in hunting regulations to the Natural Resources Board in June.

The drastic steps come about two months after the DNR first announced that three bucks shot in November 2001 near Mount Horeb tested positive for the disease, the first time it was found east of the Mississippi River. Since then, 516 deer have been killed in that area and tested for the deadly brain disease. Eleven of those animals were infected.
Few answers

At Wednesday's meeting, DNR officials answered some questions and floated their recommendations on ways to combat the disease, but they also admitted they don't have many answers.

And that admission prompted several people to criticize the agency.

"You don't have definitive rules here," said Dave Coyne, who lives in Barneveld. "You're just taking shots in the dark."

Bill Vander Zouwen, DNR section chief for wildlife ecology, acknowledged that "some regulations will seem very radical" but said the state plans to err on the side of harvesting too many deer rather than not enough.

Mike Miller, state veterinarian for Colorado, where wild deer and elk have been infected with chronic wasting disease for decades, said his state didn't do enough to stop the spread of the disease when it was first discovered.

If Colorado authorities had done something back then, Miller said, chronic wasting disease might not have spread to Wisconsin and other states.

Among other issues will be carcass disposal. Vander Zouwen said carcasses shot in the chronic wasting disease management zone will likely not be allowed to leave the zone, which would mean the venison would have to be processed in the area. Any unused parts will have to be disposed of in landfills to prevent the spread of the disease.
Farmer concerned

Although chronic wasting disease has been found only in deer and elk, Joe O'Connell, a dairy farmer and deer hunter from Blue Mounds, said he's worried about the possibility it could infect other animals, such as his cows.

"We have deer eating out of our silage bags. They say it can't transfer from one species to another, but we don't know for sure," O'Connell said.

During a question-and-answer session following presentations by Langenberg and Vander Zouwen, one woman held up a small stuffed deer and said she was there to speak for the animals.

"Deer can't vote," said Patricia Randolph, a former member of the Dane County Conservation Congress. "We didn't kill everybody who got AIDS. 98 percent of the herd aren't infected."

[Pinefarm]

Seems impossible to believe that this is happening.

[Huntnut]

Absolutely unreal.....

Hats off to Wisconsin for taking it so seriously. At least that makes me feel a little better.

[MGV]

This is not good at all. I wish they could find a better way. Sure makes TB look like nothing

[Tom Morang]

15,000 deer to be killed
All animals in core disease area targeted

By Samara Kalk
May 2, 2002
The Capital Times


MOUNT HOREB - "Hunters face the challenge of their lives" read the screens behind Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist Bill Vander Zouwen as he explained the drastic steps necessary to combat chronic wasting disease in south central Wisconsin.

"This is going to be hard to take. This is a heavy burden ... and this is personal," Vander Zouwen told a crowd of about 1,200 Wednesday night in the gymnasium of Mount Horeb High School after the agency announced its latest deer eradication plans.

The new measures, revealed at the informational meeting, call for local hunters along with a few sharpshooters to kill every deer in a 287-square-mile area around where 14 deer have tested positive for the disease.

The DNR will begin passing out permits Monday to landowners in the area where infected deer were found, allowing them and the hunters they allow on their property to shoot about 15,000 deer.

Landowners will be able to shoot deer year-round, or issue permits to others. Rifles would be allowed in the entire CWD management zone.

The eradication zone extends nine miles from the center of where the CWD-positive deer were found. It encompasses Arena, Mazomanie, Black Earth, Blue Mounds, Barneveld, Mount Horeb and parts of Cross Plains and Ridgeway.

The idea is to reduce the population of deer as close to zero as possible, said DNR wildlife veterinarian Julie Langenberg, adding that the project likely will take a minimum of five years.

No deer carcasses or parts can be removed from the eradication zone, DNR officials said. All deer parts not used will be disposed of in landfills.

The DNR also intends to thin the deer herd by 25 percent to 50 percent below set population goals in a wider, nine-county area outside the core eradication zone.

If nothing is done now, Langenberg predicted a collapse of the regional deer population.

Dr. Mike Miller, a veterinarian for the Colorado Division of Wildlife who has been studying chronic wasting disease for more than 10 years, said he was amazed by the public interest in the fatal deer and elk disease.

"It's truly commendable," he said about the huge crowd that sat shoulder to shoulder in the gym, with an overflow audience of 400 more in the school's auditorium watching on closed-circuit television.

(Complete audio of the meeting is on the DNR Web site, www.dnr.state.wi.us.)

Miller said Wisconsin residents should be proud of the state's DNR for quickly pulling together information on CWD and putting management plans into place.

Animals with wasting disease - mule deer, white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer and elk - have been found in parts of northeastern Colorado for at least 20 years, as well as in southeastern Wyoming and southwestern Nebraska and small areas of Montana, South Dakota, Kansas and Oklahoma.

"Too bad we haven't gotten a better handle on it," he said.

In Wisconsin, the first discovery of chronic wasting disease in white-tailed deer came earlier this year. Three deer killed by hunters in the Mount Horeb area during the 2001 gun deer season were determined to have CWD on Feb. 28. The DNR then launched a special hunt to collect a 500-deer sample to determine the extent of the disease in the wild deer herd. Of the 516 deer killed and tested, 11 came back positive, bringing the total to 14.

The diseased deer represent a 2 percent prevalence in the 415-square-mile surveillance area surrounding where the first infected deer were found, said Langenberg.

"This is a very serious problem - not something we can let go and see what happens," said Miller. "You have to look only to Colorado to see what the consequences would be."

Earlier this spring, Colorado's governor announced that a diseased wild deer was found on the western side of the Continental Divide for the first time. The news stunned the state and endangered dozens of small towns that rely on money generated by the fall hunting season.

In Wisconsin, 600,000 hunters take part in the state's nine-day gun deer season in late November. It has become a $2.6 billion industry, according to the DNR.

If wildlife managers had better understood the disease 20 or more years ago, CWD might have been nipped in the bud and Wednesday night's meeting would have been unnecessary, said Miller.

During a similar meeting in Mount Horeb six weeks ago, wildlife managers said there were more questions about chronic wasting disease than answers.

Most of the same ambiguities remain, most notably whether the disease can jump the species barrier and whether venison is safe for human consumption.

"One thing no longer in question is that we face a serious - potentially dangerous - problem," said Scott Craven, chairman of the department of wildlife ecology at UW-Madison, who has hunted on a farm in the center of the target area for 30 years.

The problem may be more serious in Wisconsin than in other areas because of the state's extremely high deer densities, he said.

During a question-and-answer session, animal rights activist Patricia Randolph held up a stuffed deer, saying she wanted to bring the image of the real victims.

"We don't kill everybody who has AIDS," she said, as the audience heckled.

After the meeting, Judd Aiken, a prion biologist at the UW-Madison and expert on "mad cow" disease, said his department is "gearing up big time" for CWD (sometimes called "mad deer" disease) and studying the biochemistry of the prion, the protein that transmits the diseases.

Aiken gave credit to the DNR for being appropriate, even pro-active, in its response.

"If nothing is done you're going to have a rather rapidly expanding endemic area of this disease," he said.

Aiken said there is evidence that CWD is not a danger to humans, but no proof.

"We don't know. That's the bottom line," he said.

Eating venison from the CWD core area involves a level of risk, he said.

"The problem is, we don't know what the level of risk is."


Published: 9:41 AM 5/02/02

[Tom Morang]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/showcase/chi-0205030244may03.story?coll=chi%2Dnews%2Dhed
Wisconsin to kill deer by thousands
By Julie Deardorff
Tribune staff reporter

May 3, 2002

MT. HOREB, Wis. -- In an unprecedented wildlife management plan, Wisconsin hunters are being asked to wipe out more than 15,000 of the state's treasured white-tailed deer to stop a deadly brain disease from spreading throughout the region.

Beginning Monday, officials will issue special hunting permits to landowners who live in a 287-square-mile eradication zone around Mt. Horeb in southern Wisconsin, where 14 cases of chronic wasting disease have emerged since February. The landowners can do the hunting or allow others to cull deer on their property.

In addition, the traditional nine-day November hunting season will be expanded to October through January to help eliminate all deer in the area.

The stakes of the project are tremendously high in Wisconsin, where deer hunting is a vital part of the state's culture and sporting heritage and contributes more than $1 billion to its economy. There are more than 1 million deer in the state, and deer licenses generate nearly $25 million a year for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

"The two biggest things in Wisconsin are the Packers and deer hunting," said Janice Abram, a hunter from Arena, which is inside the eradication zone. "This is just devastating."

Officials acknowledge the proposal is radical, aggressive and heartbreaking--about 98 percent of the deer are considered healthy. But Wednesday, in the first of five public meetings throughout the state, they stressed that doing nothing could be disastrous.

In Colorado the disease spread for decades before state wildlife officials tried to control it by killing deer, according to Colorado Division of Wildlife veterinarian Mike Miller.

"Hunters face the challenge of their lives," state wildlife biologist Bill Vander Zouwen told a somber crowd of nearly 2,000 people in the Mt. Horeb High School gymnasium. "As a hunter, it's going to be a very emotional time for me personally, but I'm going to keep pulling the trigger because I want things to get back to normal as soon as they can."

Chronic wasting disease, a nervous-system ailment that affects deer and elk, is a prion disease in the same family as bovine spongiform encephalopathy --mad cow disease in cattle and scrapie in sheep.

Although chronic wasting has not been found among Illinois' 750,000 deer, the state Department of Agriculture banned the import of captive deer and elk on April 19 as a precaution. So far, chronic wasting has turned up in wild deer and elk in Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska and in captive elk in Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Saskatchewan in Canada.

Signs of infection

Its unexpected arrival in Wisconsin marked the first time it was found east of the Mississippi. Now officials in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan are on alert for signs of infected deer, which include abnormal behavior, excessive salivation, thirst and urination, emaciation, teeth grinding, and drooping ears. Symptoms are not usually seen until the animal is at least 18 months old.

"The uncertainty of the disease is why the bans were put into place," said Jeff Squibb of Illinois' Agriculture Department.

Chronic wasting is difficult to get a handle on because research is emerging and scientists don't entirely understand how it spreads. Some believe it's transmitted by animal-to-animal contact, including between a mother and her offspring.

The prion that causes the disease is an abnormal, infectious version of a protein that normally occurs in animals' cells.

"We don't know what causes the prion to change," said James Mastrianni, an assistant professor of neurology at the University of Chicago. "That's the million-dollar question."

Prions are also involved in Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy found in humans. But although Creutzfeldt-Jakob, mad cow and chronic wasting are members of the same family, they are not identical.

"Even though it's the same protein, there are differences in the amino acid sequence in each species," Mastrianni said.

Species barriers

Currently, there is no evidence that chronic wasting disease can infect humans, but it is likely that at least once in the past prions jumped the species barrier, when bovine prions presumably resulted in the outbreak of a new variant in humans, Creutzfeldt-Jakob.

"They don't know enough about [chronic wasting disease] to know if it can cross species barrier and affect humans," said Mastrianni. "Until answers are in and studies done, [the deer] may be unsafe for human consumption."

Chronic wasting was discovered in Wisconsin in February when three bucks shot by hunters were diagnosed near Mt. Horeb in Dane County. In March and April, landowners and state sharpshooters killed 516 deer in Dane and Iowa Counties in a special hunt. Eleven of those deer tested positive, creating a new sense of urgency.

Despite the ambitious plan to head off the disease, several daunting hurdles remain. The state will need at least $22.5 million over the next three years to hire additional staff, pay for sampling and buy testing equipment, according to Gov. Scott McCallum. Testing samples now are sent to a federal laboratory in Ames, Iowa.

Carcass removal and disposal will be a major chore. Officials plan to put the deer in landfills because incinerators would not be hot enough to kill the prion.

Hunters also have major concerns with the plan; many do not believe in killing something they don't plan to eat. Tim Gattenby of Ridgeway said he would be willing to help if the food could be given to hungry people.

"We all know food pantries are not going to want venison, and no one will want to process it," Gattenby said.

For others, it's not just healthy deer that are threatened but their sense of safety. With the expanded gun season and rifles newly allowed in shotgun areas, the state is asking hikers, bikers and snowmobilers to be alert and lie low.

Last November, seven hunters and a woman who was walking her dogs were killed in hunting-related accidents, making it one of the deadlier seasons in years. At Wednesday's public meeting, Rosemary Wenger, 43, of Vermont Township asked officials whether she will have to wear blaze orange from October through January to avoid getting shot when she goes walking. She lives in the heart of the eradication zone.

"I do walk during hunting season, but I know where my husband is [when he hunts]," said Wenger. "With this, where is everyone going to be? Does this mean I have to quit walking for six months?"

Hunting ethic

Her husband, Don, is not going to help with the massive kill.

"It's not a solution," he said. "I'm done. I bought my license two weeks ago and I'm going to get my money back."

For many hunters and non-hunters, the systematic killing of thousands of deer is simply sickening.

"In hunting there is a certain ethic," Abram said.

"You're always pursuing them in a situation that gives them a chance. You're not just trying to kill deer, you're trying to experience how it lives. Hunting is much more than killing an animal."

Still, if she sees a deer on her property, she will shoot it.

"This is about trying to manage a very, very difficult situation," she said.

[Tom Morang]

Increased hunting could reduce chronic wasting disease outbreak

By Brian Bridgeford

Sauk County hunters say they are willing to help with, but also skeptical about, a DNR effort to eradicate all deer carrying the fatal chronic wasting disease.

The effort would create a sharp, temporary reduction of deer populations in an area that includes Sauk and Columbia counties.

Efforts by hunters and possibly Department of Natural Resources sharpshooters to kill all deer in the area of known CWD infection will be a first step in the effort to control the disease, DNR officials said Wednesday night.

"Hunters are going to have to step up here," Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist Bill Vander Zouwen told nearly 2,000 people gathered for an information hearing at the Mount Horeb High School gymnasium Wednesday. "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."

Mount Horeb is near where hunters last fall shot three bucks. These were the first deer east of the Mississippi River to test positive for chronic wasting disease, a fatal brain injury of elk and deer that until this year had only been found in Western states.

The confirmed total for CWD infected deer reached 14, although none from Sauk County had CWD.

Beginning next week, the DNR will provide hunting permits to landowners in a 285 square-mile area covering parts of Dane, Iowa and Sauk counties. A circular "eradication zone" extends a short distance into Sauk County along the Wisconsin River near Spring Green.

DNR officials are also considering herd reductions in the rest of South Central Wisconsin by as much as 50 percent during a hunting season that could last from late October through the end of January 2003. Almost all of Sauk County and much of Columbia County could be included if the season is finally approved.

Sauk County Conservation Congress Delegate Mike Koch said he wants the DNR to do whatever needs to be done to control the disease. However, he questioned if enough hunters would be willing to participate to reduce the area's resilient deer herd.

"The emphasis you need to put on eradication is eradication of the disease," he said. "The herd will rebound in a relatively short time.

"Everybody knows it's a bit of a long shot that all the animals will be killed," he added. "I think what they're hoping is to get lucky and get all the animals with the disease."

Koch also speculated that many hunters will be unwilling to hunt if they don't think they are going to eat their kill.

Baraboo hunter safety instructor Ted Hegley said the Legislature should make feeding deer illegal because it causes them to congregate in a small area, and close contact is likely how the disease is spread. He also wanted the lawmakers to require landowners in the affected area to allow DNR sharpshooters on their land to further the deer reduction effort.

"They should make it that anyone feeding deer from now on in the state of Wisconsin is subject to criminal penalties," he said.

Like Koch, Hegley said deer are resilient, wily creatures who generally reproduce faster than hunters can take them. And in Sauk County, deer have many places to hide, both lands that are owned by people who don't allow hunting and inaccessible locations such as swamps.

"Deer don't get line up to get shot," he said. "The fact the deer reproduce so quickly makes it awfully hard to eliminate it in an area nine miles square."

Ken Vertein, also a member of the Conservation Congress, said efforts to cut the deer herd in and around the CWD infected area is the best known strategy for controlling the illness. "We may have a chance to catch this early enough," he said. "Our only hope right now is to catch it early enough and kill the animals that are infected and hope it doesn't show back up for another four or five years."

The two-hour meeting was the first of five public sessions scheduled by the DNR to explain how state officials plan to attack the disease, which causes deer to grow thin, act abnormal and die. They are continuing to take comments from the public and hope to present a plan to the Natural Resources Board in June.

Koch called on hunters and landowners to cooperate in the effort to control CWD. "We wish that landowners would maybe feel a little more willing to allow people to come in for the benefit of the herd," he said. "We hope the hunters are open to going out and shooting deer, maybe without the intent of eating them."

The Associate Press and

Wisconsin State Journal

contributed to this story.

[Hamilton Reef]

Safety top concern as DNR launches special hunt
http://www.chippewa.com/display/inn_news/news2.txt

By JENNY PRICE / Associated Press Writer

MADISON -- Sharpshooters in a state park, gunfire from helicopters and nighttime assaults may be needed in the effort to kill every deer in a 285 square-mile area to halt the spread of a deadly brain disease, officials say.

Because of the potential risk to campers and hikers in Blue Mound State Park, Department of Natural Resources officials likely will limit hunting by DNR sharpshooters in the park to one day a week.

"We don't want any accidents to happen," state parks director Sue Black said.

The DNR is finalizing details for a radical plan to kill an estimated 14,000 to 15,000 while-tailed deer in the area to eradicate chronic wasting disease, a project that DNR officials said may take years to complete.

Tom Hauge, director of wildlife management for the DNR, said Friday the use of helicopters or other aircraft was possible, but only if all other efforts fail to kill enough deer. Landowners would have to approve flights carrying sharpshooters, outfitted with night-vision goggles and using floodlights to attract deer, and safety would be a top priority, Hauge said.

Wildlife officials may decide to send sharpshooters into Blue Mound State Park on Tuesdays, the slowest day of the week, Black said Thursday.

"We know that we have deer on state land," DNR spokesman Bob Manwell said. "It needs to be part of the overall control effort."

The DNR will begin passing out permits next week to private landowners in the area covering parts of Dane, Iowa and Sauk counties in its effort to eliminate the disease that causes deer to grow thin, act abnormal and die.

Those landowners can only shoot deer on their property, not on public land.

While hunters can venture into three dozen state parks during regular deer hunting seasons in October and November, only DNR sharpshooters would be permitted to shoot deer in Blue Mound State Park during the special hunt, Manwell said.

Manwell said DNR officials would work out a plan with the park superintendent that would help eliminate the herd while keeping the disruption to park users at a minimum. He said some areas of the park might be off limits to visitors for short periods of time.

All hunters except those hunting for waterfowl must wear blaze orange during the special hunt. Black said hikers and campers who come to the park won't need special clothing while they walk the trails or spread out picnic blankets on the weekends.

"We're going to make it as safe as possible," she said.

DNR officials are also warning people who use the Military Ridge Trail through the targeted area that hunters will be on nearby land during the coming months.

Black said the agency is posting information at all of the trail's access points, as it did during the special hunt in March and April.

"When there's a whole lot of shooting going on, I don't think that there's much you can do except stay away from the area," said Johanna Solms, president of Bombay Bicycle Club, who planned to tell the club's 350 members about the hunt.

Nearby Stewart County Park is estimated to have at least 100 deer, and some hunting could eventually occur there under the DNR plan, said Darren Marsh, operations manager for the Dane County Parks Department.

"Until they get those deer out of there, everybody's going to have to be careful," said Mount Horeb Village President John Zimmel.

Manwell said DNR sharpshooters could be doing some hunting at night, as they did when they helped kill more than 500 deer in Dane and Iowa counties last month. Tests showed 11 of those deer had the disease.

The practice called shining for deer at night is considered unethical hunting and is commonly used by poachers. It is illegal except for DNR wardens.

In June, the Natural Resources Board will consider modifications in hunting seasons to areas within 30 to 40 miles of the area where the want to eliminate the deer population

Wildlife and health officials believe it's necessary to reduce the number of deer to 10 to 15 per square mile in that zone. One suggestion is allowing deer hunting from October to Jan. 31.

Experts believe the disease is spread by animal-to-animal contact. They also say there is no evidence of the disease being spread to humans.

In other developments, Hauge said:

-- Plans are being prepared to kill more deer in 10 counties surrounding the area where diseased deer have been found, reducing the deer population in those counties by as much as 25 to 50 percent by the end of the hunting season this fall.

-- Plans call for testing as many deer brains as laboratories can be prepared to handle this year.

On the Net:

DNR's chronic wasting disease information: www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/land/wildlife/whealth/issues/CWD/

[Tom Morang]

http://www.captimes.com/news/local/25154.php

A waste of life

Deer hunters in the kill zone are dismayed and disgusted, but say they'll help out

By Bill Novak
The Capital Times
May 6, 2002

MOUNT HOREB - Spring is the season of rebirth, of growth, of the sun warming the fields. The spring of 2002 is also the season of death, at least for the 15,000 white-tailed deer living in the beautiful hills and valleys of western Dane County.

There is an uneasiness about all this, an uncertainty. Hunters will be taking shotgun or rifle to the killing fields starting this week, in an effort to wipe out the deadly chronic wasting disease, discovered in 14 deer in the Mount Horeb area.

To wipe out CWD, the Department of Natural Resources has decided to annihilate the entire deer herd in a 285-square-mile area, from Cross Plains to Spring Green, from Mazomanie to Primrose.

Landowners in this zone are getting permits this week to kill every deer they come across. The permit holders can assign the killing rights to someone else if they choose. But it was hard to find any hunter this weekend who really wanted to go out to destroy the animal that is the foundation for one of the most honored of Wisconsin's fall outdoor activities: the annual gun deer season.

While hunters might agree with the DNR's assessment of the situation, it doesn't make it any easier to accept.

Bob Sauer has hunted for 35 of his 50 years. The Cross Plains resident leases 100 acres of land on Bell Road in the town of Vermont, close to the epicenter of the kill zone. He talked about the hunt at the Main Street Lanes tavern in Cross Plains.

"I've come to understand that we have to do something," Sauer said. "If the DNR thinks it will eliminate the problem, as much as I don't want to do it, I guess we'll have to."

Sauer takes pride in good deer management practices, and is saddened by the fact that all the work done to maintain a high-quality deer herd with good-sized bucks is going to go down the drain.

"In my hunting lifetime, I'll probably never see any more quality bucks, if we take them all during this kill," Sauer said. "We worked so hard to get some of those big deer out there, and we did all that work for nothing."

Matt Baars, 22, doesn't know if the DNR's plan will get rid of all the deer in the region, but he thinks the actions will be justified if it keeps chronic wasting disease from encroaching into a far greater resource: the state's dairy cows. (Scientists haven't found the disease can jump to another species but it is a close relative of so-called mad cow disease.)

Baars discussed the deer kill at the Walking Iron Depot bar on Hudson Street in Mazomanie. The bar is a deer registration station, with a large sign permanently affixed to the front door.

"At first, I thought the idea was pretty bad, and I was worried about how it will affect the fall deer hunt," Baars said. "But you can't get rid of the disease until you get rid of all the deer."

Getting all the deer seems to be the key to why some hunters think the killing will work in stopping the spread of the disease.

"If we do this kill, it has to be 100 percent," Baars said. "If just a small percentage of the deer are left, you'll have the problem all over again."

The young hunter, a 10-year veteran of the tradition, doesn't look upon this extraordinary hunt as sport.

"If I go out, I'll do it not as a sport, but as a way to try to protect the other animals, such as the dairy herd," Baars said.

But he does have a few lingering questions about killing all 15,000 deer in the disease-tainted zone.

"When it's all said and done, what if 150 deer are left?" he asked. "How do you know when it's over?"

A couple of doors from the Walking Iron Depot, across the street from the old Schmitz Hall, where the Ringling Brothers staged their first circus in 1882, a white-tailed buck stood straight and tall, looking out at passersby on the street. Shot years ago, it now graces a storefront.

Amy Austin, 25, a waitress at the Grumpy Troll Brew Pub on South Second Street in Mount Horeb, has hunted since she was 12. "I usually get my deer," she said.

Austin doesn't know if she wants to take part in the killing. "A few people in town that I know of are taking part in the hunt, but they are doing it with mixed emotions," she said.

Quinn McKillup, 23, also of Mount Horeb, said he might join the hunt if the opportunity presents itself, but he's not pursuing the spring kill as a "thing to do."

"The thing that sucks is a lot of deer will be killed and will end up just laying there, and people won't be using them or anything. I wouldn't go out and slaughter five or six deer and just leave them lay."

McKillup said he's most concerned about what affect the spring kill will have on the fall gun deer season.

"The deer will be afraid this fall," he said. "If you have people going out now and staying out hunting all year, the deer won't be coming out of the woods in the fall. During the deer season, they turn nocturnal, and the same thing will happen here."

McKillup goes hunting with a group of guys every year. He said this spring kill isn't the same as the traditional hunt.

"Friends of mine are hunters, and no one I know of is going out and doing it," he said.

Sauer said the hunting starting this week might be easy at first but will get progressively more difficult as the deer herd retreats into the woods.

"In the first few days we'll get a fair amount," Sauer said. "But after a few days, we won't be able to get to them, because they will have burrowed themselves way into the forests. They know when they are being stalked and hunted.

"The deer will turn nocturnal," he said, echoing McKillup. "And if the DNR wants to do any shooting at night, it will be extremely dangerous."

Sauer said the DNR might be surprised when the permits are issued to landowners this week.

"Look at how many permits will be given out compared to how many permits are actually used," he said.

When the killing starts, it won't be easy for deer hunters such as Sauer, who worked for years to build up and maintain a good, healthy deer herd on the land he leases.

"We don't want all of our deer herd killed off," he said. "This is just going to be a big slaughterhouse."

[Steve]

Someday I hope I wake up and find out this is all a bad dream.