Banning Baiting and Feeding of Deer in Wisconsin

Matthew Buchholz

            Bating and Feeding refers to putting out piles of food, such as corn or apples for deer to eat. In Wisconsin you are currently allowed to bait and feed in counties that are entirely located 10 miles outside of any known Chronic Wasting Disease or Tuberculosis positive deer. I would like to see it that this law is changed and a statewide ban is enforced to stop people from baiting and feeding deer.

            My first argument against baiting deer will be completely based within the hunting realm. Many people that hunt in the areas that baiting is allowed put out bait to attract deer to where they are hunting. This ends up changing the natural patterns of deer preventing not only other hunters from seeing deer but also the very hunter that puts out the bait to begin with. During winter when food is hard to come by for the deer they would much rather come to the easy to find corn than go and search the woods for food. All the deer that then go to that pile of bait are no longer going through the woods and presenting themselves to other hunters. Also when the deer finds that food source they will often stick close to it meaning that the only person who has a chance to see them is the person who hunts over that bait pile. But that hunter may not ever see that deer, when food is easy to find and deer do not have to look for it they often turn into nocturnal creatures and bed down for the day. Also many hunters do not know the limits of how much bait can be put out and end up getting into trouble for putting too much out.

            There are a number of people who do not hunt that also feed in order to just have deer come to their yard to watch. While I would be the first to tell you that I love to see animals too I also want this to stop. Many of these people think that they are making it that the deer will be able to survive the winter because they have a food source. While this may indeed help the deer survive it is not required for them to make it through the winter, as shown by the fact that deer made it through many thousands of winters without humans here to help them. Feeding also unnaturally congregates deer in a single location that then results in a higher potential of disease being spread. Hence the very reason that the Wisconsin DNR enacts a ban whenever a new CWD positive deer is found.

            I realize that banning baiting and feeding will be difficult as it is now deeply ingrained into how we hunt in Wisconsin and the non-hunting public using it to see deer. But without it deer will go back towards the natural behavior they have always had and we can hunt them in their natural habitat.