Wisconsin Hunters donate 10,938 deer for food pantries

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Hunters donate 10,938 deer as venison for food pantries
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. - Hunters donated enough deer this fall to provide nearly 500,000 pounds of venison for food pantries to feed needy people, a state wildlife official said Wednesday.

A record 10,938 deer were donated through the program administered by state Department of Natural Resources, meaning many food pantries will be distributing venison throughout the winter and into spring, coordinator Laurie Fike said.

Last year, 6,771 deer were given to the program. The previous record for donations, 7,765 deer, occurred in its inaugural year, 2000.

The DNR pays butcher shops about $50 for each deer processed in the donation program. The money comes from a $1 surcharge on all hunting licenses.

Fike and others pointed to the expansion of the state's earn-a-buck program this fall as a major factor in the increased donations. Under the program, hunters in some parts of Wisconsin were required to shoot an antlerless deer before killing a buck.

Following hunting in 2002, 5,646 deer were donated, compared with 3,921 deer in 2001, the DNR said.

According to Fike, 53 counties and 121 butcher shops participated in the program this year.

Johnson's Sausage Shoppe in Rio processed the most donated deer - 639 - followed by Brandon Meats & Sausage in Brandon with 426.

http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/10627047.htm

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What about the deer? I wonder if it would be possible to find statistics on the decline of deer populations juxtaposed with the growing earn-a-buck program.

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Huh? The deer population is out of control. There aren't enough hunters - we keep losing the young people. I'm sure you're thrilled.

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No, I couldn't care less whether or not people want to kill animals for recreation (although, I slightly frown upon it...). I'm more concerned about the wider ecological effects.

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You cant beat 300 pounds of free meat. Elk is among the healthiest meats on earth, it is often recommended to heart patients in place of beef.

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I confine my killing to the odd black widow spider, but cjhsa is right. In most areas, deer populations are out of control. It is kind of unfortunate that hunters go for the biggest and best, though. It's kind of a reverse natural selection. We are selecting for weak, sickly, scrawny deer.

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Why are deer populations so screwed up? Did something happen to the animals that eat them?

Oh yeah, American and Canadian wolf populations have been on the decline recently. Can't remember where I read that, though.

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Why don't you just stop killing the wildlife around you? Crying or Very sad

Then populations would balance...naturally Smile

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Un huh. Wolf populations down and deer populations up. There may be a connection. Of course, deer are cute and quite willing to live close to people. Most people don't want to live close to a wolf pack, no matter how majestic they look.

There are issues of habitat, as well. The populations may balance naturally, but it isn't going to be the same balance as 400 years ago.

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Never have so many hunted on so full stomachs.

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I chipped in a couple - the locals hereabouts did their part too. For as lightly populated as it is this township donated a pretty respectable poundage.

And I wouldn't worry too much about decimatin' the deer herd; last few winters have been comparatively mild, resultin' in very little winter kill. The autobody repair shops are doin' real well.

Dunno where folks get the idea wolves are on the decline; in most wolf-populated states they've been de-listed from "Endangered" and reclassified as "Threatened", and in several states, includin' Wisconsin, they're classified as neither endangered nor threatened, but as "Protected Non-Game Species". We've got a few small wolfpacks in the area - not real likely to see 'em, but you hear 'em pretty regular (it drives dogs nuts),and you come across spoor once in a while in the deepwoods. Their numbers have been steadily on the increase, due chiefly to the exploding deer population. Untill just a few years ago, hadn't been any wolves hereabouts since the late 19th - early 20th Century.

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declining deer populations

Individual wrote:

What about the deer? I wonder if it would be possible to find statistics on the decline of deer populations juxtaposed with the growing earn-a-buck program.

"declining deer populations" is a phrase that most ecologists in the eastern US would love to hear, because overabundant deer are having a severe impact on forest regeneration and bird communities (and maybe other taxa but I am only familiar with the forest and bird effects). I don't know what the answer is -- I don't like the idea of a couple of hunters downing a six pack then going out to shoot deer (or anything that is brown and moves), but I guess I'm OK with responsible hunters reducing the deer population, especially when the alternative is a population of starving deer. If you think about it, if you are really concerned with suffering, deer might suffer more at the hands (fangs?) of a predator than from a bullet...I don't know for sure, but it is something I think about often...

anyway I am new to this forum so I apologize for this potentially controversial reply and hope it's not too offensive...would like to hear others' opinions.

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welcome milo

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In Pa the overabundant deer have changed the nature of the forest cover. There is practicaaly no small understory because the deer have eaten the shoots and small trees. We kill more than 3 times the deer on hiways than we do in hunting.
However, I find the taste of deer kind of disgusting (and Ive had it made by very good cooks and Ive eaten deer that were farm raised and killed by surprise so that no lactic acid buildup messes with the flavor) I just dont like it, but we must hunt them or we start releasing pumas.

Now rabbit, now your talkin my kind of eatin.

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in colorado far more deer die every year from starvation than from hunting, fortunately quite a few Texans die while hunting deer in colorado (heart attacks/lost in the snow/cold/shoot each other) the only thing colorado needs to do is ban out of staters from hunting and encourage more local hunters. I've not hunted deer in over 40 years but Elk is another story.

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Ive eaten Bison in a restaurant near Lakewood and , I can say with no reservations that Bison meat is perhaps the most indestructable proteinaceous material known to humans. Its like eating the seats of an MG

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I like venison. Maybe I just like the idea of venison and have learned to adapt to the flavor. Even though I don't hunt, I seek out hunters who may have piles of venison sitting in their freezers in the hopes that I can scrounge a few steaks or what-not. Once I was on a state police list of contacts for road-killed venison...hmm, more of a scavenger than a carnivore!

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Wisconsin Hunters donate 10,938 deer for food pantries

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