SE MN CWD sharpshooters (professionals???)

I put my name on a list before the hunting began too receive a deer if any excess deer were taken by the DNR. well today i got a call from a DNR employee that they had a deer for me and could come get it. I was very grateful! when i showed up to get my deer they gave me a dawn and one other person a fawn…… very small fawns, still grateful to get it. I had too ask though if these deer counted towards their goal of 900 deer seeing they were fawns and could not cary the disease as a yearling. he said they would not count towards the nine hundred for the reason they could not carry the disease. so now we are paying a PROFESSIONAL sharp shooter to take deer over a bait pile and the DNR is stressing that adult deer are being harvested, yet these PROFESSIONALS are shooting YEARLING that CANOT even carry the disease. WASTE OF MONEY, RESOURCE (deer), RESEARCH, and TESTING!!!!! this pisses me off its bad enough that we are killing deer this way and now the professionals are killing deer, yearlings for absolutely NO REASON!!!

DO YOUR JOB YOU ARE ASKED TO DO! TAKE ADULT DEER!!

The problem is, they left the DNR to oversee this QDM….Quality Deer Murdering.

Might as well have allowed a daycare full of children to oversee the operation.

BTW…..where is this ‘harvest’ taking place exactly?

basically it is a 10 mile radios of a few miles SW of Pine Island MN just north of Rochester. i personally helped a land owner harvest deer for friends and family and harvested three adult does. i had deer come through many times and passed on many fawns that you could clearly see were fawns. now the DNR has a bait pile 20 yards from the property i was hunting and as far as i know they killed them fawns there…… where we have already harvested adult deer and now their fawns posssibly, they are wiping out herds of deer in small areas where they have permission and shooting none in most areas…. the testing they are doing isnt even an accurate overall test of the area, infact the spot where the infected deer was taken has a herd of deer well over 100 and is on lock down by land owners…… wheres the testing of the so called epicenter of the problem. dont get me wrong they have taken some deer from these locked down areas by hunting the edges of property but the main cull is going on in small areas.

Another thing with this butchery…..how many does carrying unborn fawns are being shot? I certainly hope that they are factoring in that because in the end the total number of deer being killed will greatly excede this 900 deer list. Personally I think this is a friggin hoax and that the dnr should suck up and get out of this mess.

As a land owner in Richland County, WI. I strongly urge you to stay involved and get as many hunters as you know to join you. Do all you can to keep things like this in the public view and attend the hearings. Bring to the table your experience and knowledge of the area.
We bought into the CWD thing for awhile, too early in my opinion. It is so unfortunate that the reaction mode started well before the facts were truly made available. Now, I have a farm along with neighboring farms that have next to no deer. With two daughters that are struggling to keep in our tradition of hunting, I feel for the many generations that will never experience the quality of deer hunting that I enjoyed. Those days are LONG GONE

The DNR is a joke Take your family for a walk in Oxbow park so they can see the corn piles and all the blood I’m with you 100 % they told everyone shoot all and every deer you see , WTF Fawns that can not be tested All they want is deer shot and the heard killed off At first we wanted to help them and just shoot some doe for them but like you said above , If you shoot one doe you are killing 2 to 3 deer now

i dont know but i think its a little late too stop the killing but they have a number they want to get too…… and there is no reason too add to that number by killing yearling deer that dont count or help towards the testing, also these yearling deer may be carying some of the only fawns to make it through this kill too help rebuild the herd whatever will be left of it!

1200 is the number now that all the hunters shot fawns. But the sharp nobs are shooting them also so it will only get worse

I just dont understand its bad enough the way it is why make it worse….. at least spare the yearlings!! i am not a very good writer but somebody should write to the local papers about how our profesional sharp shooters are shooting yearlings for absolutely no reason but what too say they’ve killed more than the other sharp shooter?? in my mind i cannot come up with a good reason or excuse or anything for this!!

How many do they want to take. ALL OF THE DEER THEY CAN

900 adult, im not sure how many they have killed but some one mentioned 1200 and tonight when i picked up my deer they said they had around 500 adult tested.

The herd will return. How would you like the job to decide the fate of Minnesota’s deer herd? The tests are being done to make sure your kids kids can have the chance to deer hunt? The disease it here. It will not just go away. What they are doing is a “band-aide” I’m pretty sure they know it too. Eventually it will be everywhere. It’s almost like a cancer. They just want to know how fast it has spread. It angers me that people blame the DNR, you know what… go to school, apply for the job, do something about it. My opinoin.

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The herd will return. How would you like the job to decide the fate of Minnesota’s deer herd? The tests are being done to make sure your kids kids can have the chance to deer hunt? The disease it here. It will not just go away. What they are doing is a “band-aide” I’m pretty sure they know it too. Eventually it will be everywhere. It’s almost like a cancer. They just want to know how fast it has spread. It angers me that people blame the DNR, you know what… go to school, apply for the job, do something about it. My opinoin.

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1 wild deer taking from an area where many were taken does not , or should not, lead to this kind of carnage. And as far as blame the dnr, they were the only ones involved in the decision making. Except fo maybe the U of M thats getting paid to do this testing.

Now if they want to test animals, make it necessary to have hunters register deer in person [all of them state-wide] comply with the removal of those glands, no if’, ands’ or buts. Only legitimate deer would see the test. Fawns and the unborn would not be killed basically for nothing.

Nobody will argue that testing needs to be done to track the disease. But as long as the hunting season provides the best cross section of deer for sampling simply make the hunters comply at that time.

Do I blame the DNR honchos for mis-handling this 1 deer? You bet. I’m not blaming the two guys I see in the newspaper cutting out the glands….heck, I know one of them….they are doing their jobs. Why, if this HAD to be done now, weren’t some control measures put in place to protect the unborn and yearling deer since they are not even , what, “eligible?” to be included in whats being shot off. And if this is such a dire situation, why aren’t the top dnr dogs down here doing this field work themselves so we can be assured that only the “right” deer get taken.

I smell something in all of this and it has nothing to do with any disease. If they , the dnr, are truely concerned with cwd they can look at this from a far more logical standpoint. And they [the dnr] could approach the whole issue in better ways that don’t have a long-term impact on an area’s deer herd based on finding 1 stinking deer out of hundreds with some anolomy in its gland secretions. Give me a break. Like I said, I smell something in all of this that doesn’t have a thing to do with disease.

The worst part in the whole CWD mess is the lack of used resources. WY and CO has been through this long before WI, and now MN. Look at the admitted mistakes Colorado made, and yet our DNR’s has not fully utilized the information that proved eliminating the herd is NOT successful. Do I want the job – NO, but common sense tells you to use the information available and don’t re-invent the wheel

I’m really really not trying to fight here, having a opinion is a good thing, powerful. It keeps the mind working. Learning. I like to hear what people have to say. I too know many hard working DNR people.
I wish to add another opinion..With the whole fawn issue….When a I kill a “nice doe” in the fall or late season I know there’s a good chance of it already carrying a fawn. Am I evil? I guess for some, out of sight out of mind. It’s a crazy deal that’s for sure. I hope we as hunters can learn from this. What could have been done? or should be? Sparking the fire again, maybe? No finger pointing, if you can hold back. Let’s play nice.

WeaverBottom – Taking a doe in the fall doesn’t make you evil. I/We assume your an ethical and responsible hunter. If you determine taking a doe doesn’t severely impact the deer herd in the vicinity you hunt, no harm/no foul. Someone that shoots every doe on the premise of “its brown..its down..” theory has no regard for our resources. With as poor of a deer herd as we have by us now, I did not deny my daughter the opportunity to shoot her very first whitetail – a doe. I would have much rather watched her fill my buck tag and pass the doe, but we did what we did. She’s proud of her shot, I had the enjoyment of sharing the moment with her and we know that came at a cost.

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I’m really really not trying to fight here, having a opinion is a good thing, powerful. It keeps the mind working. Learning. I like to hear what people have to say.

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No finger pointing, if you can hold back. Let’s play nice.

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I agree 100%

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When a I kill a “nice doe” in the fall or late season I know there’s a good chance of it already carrying a fawn. Am I evil?

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No you are not evil, but this is not the same thing you are comparing apples to oranges. I have no problem with someone shooting a doe during the regular season especially in zone 3, even though it may or may not be carrying a fawn we have no way of knowing. But you can not compare this to someone shooting a live fawn, two different things altogether. If it is true that fawns can not be tested then why kill them?

Since CWD is a very slow growth disease, this seems like a knee jerk reaction from the MNDNR–they certainly could have saved money just by waiting til the regular seasons and made it mandatory for adult deer to be checked at that time–no sharpshooters to pay and could cover a much broader area. The realities of CWD is , if it’s there it will be for a long time-if not forever due to the transmission by soil particles-
After WI’s experience, I’d be very cautious before shooting off my local deer herd–deer don’t bounce back like rabbits.

Just thinking out load here. Would they be shooting these young deer/fawns to prevent the spread? We’ve all seen how curious a young deer is.(Meaning the nose-nose contact) I would guess a young animal can have it(CWD) there may be difficulty getting an acurate sample. I don’t know. Can an infected doe pass the disease to it’s fawn(fetus)? I don’t know. Or is it a case as some may think, just trigger happy guys with high powered rifles? I don’t know. I just would rather not see or hear people bashing the DNR as a whole, in general. There are alot of good guys/gals just following orders-going to work. I thank them for it. It’s the decision makers that need to be held acountable. Not the “soldiers”. Sorry I rambled. I hope some made sense.

this whole situation is a bad deal for the public and the DNR and the sharpshooters hired too kill…….. there are lots of bad and good things going on but its a FACT that YEARLING DEER CANNOT BE TESTED FOR THE DISEASE!!
so somebody give me one good explanation why THE “DNR” didnt for one inform hunters until two weeks into the hunt that fawns couldnt be tested for the disease…. and two are allowing HIRED PROFESSIONALS too harvest yearling deer?!?!

my friend lives and hunts down in the area and he isnt happy about all the deer being shot. i didnt know they where shooting fawns thats rediculus. i do understand trying to stop the cwd because i dont want the problem like wisconsin had i hunt in sogan valley and i dont want the deer around there to get it. does anyone know how fast something like this can spred through an area? and if there has been any more cases found where they are doing the kills?

there have been no positives and i do not know how long it takes too spread but it is a slow killing disease takes several years to kill a deer i believe.

Don’t mis-understand where I am coming from on this issue. I have all the respect in the world for those who are in the field doing the grunt work. Its the people sitting at a desk and making decisions that need far more study before being made. Knee-jerk reaction is one way of looking at this mess, but I see it more as “the sky is falling” because a “wild”, “free-ranging” animal was taken during a legal season in one location. Is that animal even from the area or did it travel from somewhere else? Remember, this is a wild deer and they come and go as they please. Being shot in a certain place most certainly does not positively mean that the deer is from that area….it could easily have been passing thru.

About 5 years ago I saw a nice doe jump from a ditch and smack her head into the car in front of me on the hiway. We were traveling at hiway speed and the deer’s neck was broke. An older woman was driving the car the deer ran into. I called the local sheriff’s department with location and they gave me the nod to gut the deer while a squad was being sent. I got the woman’s info and acted on her behalf for the road report then set to cutting the deer.

As I rolled the deer away from the roadway, I saw the belly moving and knew that she was carrying. This was sickening to me, but I still had to take care of the deer. Two fawns were taken from her as best I could and laid to the side hoping they would die quickly. They don’t. The deputy finally arrived and dispatched the fawns with a tire iron.

Now the DNR does some amazing things at times and the job CO’s do of handling the criminal aspect of the outdoors world seems to be met with appropriate measure. But this slaughter needs to be stopped and re-assessed.

If a poacher is found guilty of taking a wild deer , he will have to pay a fee to re-place that deer. I think it would be afair if the people who made this ugly decision to massacre this herd of deer be held to the same standard and use their wages to pay for it. Then fire them.

I will have to assume that as the deer are shot they are left to lay until the evening quota has been filled. Those deer carrying fawns will be included in this. Those fawns do not have someone to cut them out of their mother’s bellies to breathe. They’ll lay in that sloppy wet grave choking on thier own mucus until they die. And why? Because one deer that could run free happened along and had a bug so every animal in that whole area has to die.

I hunt deer, but killing one is not the reason I am in the woods, only an end to the reason. These are beautiful animals not only for the hunters but for the watchers who embrace seeing them do what deer do. I do not endorse in any fashion the way this matter has been handled and truely feel that those who made this decision are no better than that guy in Cannon Falls who illegally shot that record 8 point buck. They should be treated the same as him. These are the people with the most blood on their hands and they haven’t even bent down to put a knife to one.

Good talk going on here. I would like to say this if I may. Hunters -NOT ALL- expect select members of the DNR to manage the herd for big bucks, but cry when these members manage the state herd for survival. I say state because that is probably (just my opinion) how they see it. Would hunters rather see 900 or more deer shot now, or see many many more die from the disease and lose the state herd? I would guess there is some reason 900 was chosen. Must be a percentage thing. It sucks it is so close to home. I’m glad the deer aren’t going to waste though. Anymore thoughts?

I live by Douglas and even though I thought I was quite a ways from where the doe was shot as the crow flies I am not. I am in the area that is being controlled. My 90 acres is all crp, wetlands and foodplots designed for deer and peasants and holds a lot of deer and big bucks. The bad thing is my herd winters 3/4 of a mile north. The owner of the land so far has shot over 50 deer with 21 mature bucks. He had corn cribs out and a generator running flood lights, my neighbor watched him many nights just smoking the deer. Hopefully if there are any does left they should start showing up pretty soon to stake out their birthing areas. It’s a good thing I have great habitat so maybe they will come. I thinking my big deer days are over for awhile. At least I shouldn’t have a problem with fence sitters this hunting season.

CWD is a very bad disease.

I would hate to be the one who has to make the final decision to harvest those deer numbers to try and stop the spread of the disease.

The fawns could contrat the CWD from other deer infected while eating at a bait pile. I do not like to see deer shot as watse but, I would hate to see s herd totally desimated because we could not deal with trying to stop the spread of CWD.

This is a deadly disease and if the DNR does not try to stop it, we will all be without deer to hunt and enjoy.

I do not agree with some of the things some DNR people do but we do have them in place to do what is best for our resourse.

I do not know who else we could put in charge even as they do make a few mistakes now and then.

I am sure they are doing what they feel is the best for our resourse and theirs.

It’s a very sad thing when we have to wipe out so many animals due to a disease.

It will take a few years but the deer will rebopund and all will hopefully be good in 3-5 years.

This CWD thing they are pulling is a joke. Its nothing but a huge waste of resources. Absolute stupidity. Shame on all the pigs joining in on it, they’ll be the first ones complaining about their area in the coming years.

Certainly not looking for an arguement but, what is so crazy about trying to elimanate the CWD?

Do you believe there is no such disease?

I am personally only looking for the best results in the long haul so all can enjoy the outdoors deer hunting and to have a great hunt.

You will not see or hear me complaining about trying to control the disease.

To be very honest, I would not be all that thrilled about having CWD in my area that I hunt as yes, it would hurt the next few years of hunting success for our group.

I guess in the long run, we will win and I would simply need to enjoy the hunt for a few years until the herd comes back by enjoying the time spent with friends.

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He had corn cribs out and a generator running flood lights, my neighbor watched him many nights just smoking the deer.

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Hi Paul,
Good to see you here again! Is that legal durring this special season baiting and shooting at night with flood lights???

Does the DNR know he is doing this?