Date: January 20, 2003

The Wisconsin Deer Hunters Association (WDHA), a group of conservation minded deer enthusiasts, was formed in February 2002 to promote scientific and ecological based deer management in Wisconsin. The WDHA, as well as all the other existing deer hunting groups in the state, supports the DNR's CWD eradication efforts including the statewide ban on deer baiting and feeding based on overwhelming scientific evidence. Recently a new group calling themselves the Voices of Wisconsin (VOW) formed in direct opposition to the majority of deer hunters and enthusiasts in the state. "This new group was founded by individuals who seek to exploit our deer herd for profit, and nothing else" states WDHA president Mark Toso.

The VOW lists as one of their goals "To insure the health and welfare of our beautiful whitetail resource". They insist that there is no evidence that CWD is spread by baiting and feeding. Yet the WDHA website has many articles and references to the contrary. A paper in the July 2002 Journal of Wildlife Management, authored by the world's leading CWD researchers states that the consensus in the scientific community is that CWD is a contagious disease. "Just as you wouldn't want a person with a cold sneezing all over you, why would you want diseased deer in close contact with healthy deer?" says Toso. "What part of it's a contagious disease don't they understand?"

The VOW group also ignores other devastating deer diseases such as Bovine TB, which is currently a problem in Michigan. Bovine TB has been found on 4 Wisconsin game farms in the last 5 years, indicating the potential for an outbreak in wild deer is high. There is no doubt that Bovine TB is a contagious disease that is spread by baiting and feeding. The VOW group also ignores many other wildlife and ecological health issues with baiting and feeding. "I cannot stress enough that this is not an ethics issue", says Toso. "Calling it so is just as way to deflect the issues away from the facts."

The VOW group seeks to abandon over a century of conservation and ecological thinking that gave us the abundant wildlife we have today and return resource management to those who wish to exploit wildlife for their own profit. "This new group accentuates everything that's wrong with deer management in this state", says Toso. "Clearly money is their prime motivation, they obviously don't care about the resource. If they did they wouldn't have a basis for their extraordinary claims."

The WDHA believes that the public has a right to all the facts involved. We hereby publicly challenge the VOW group to a live debate, their expert vs. ours, and let the public decide who is right and wrong. We hope to arrange for television coverage because this issue is so important to everyone who loves deer in this state. The future of our deer herd is at stake and we intend to fight for what's best for the resource. Ultimately we believe that's what's best for deer hunting.

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