Unsportsmanlike Conduct by Geoff Carter

Artwork by Michael DiMilo

By Geoff Carter

Towering White Pines—monarchs of the North. Beautiful cold and crystal-clear lakes. Deep, dark, peaceful woods. Silent, gold-tinged, magenta clouds scattered across the skies at sunset. Wisps of fog rising from the water at dawn. Red-eyed loons rising from the cool depths. These are the Northwoods of Wisconsin, better known as simply, “up north”.

And then into this pristine beauty—then comes the raucous sound of baying hounds, the yelping of cornered wolves, the bawling of treed bear cubs, the roaring of souped-up pick-up trucks, the blazing guns, and armed strangers intimidating and taunting simple citizens. It is the season for bear hound-training—an abomination to the senses as well as to the sensibilities.

Hunting in Wisconsin has a long and storied tradition. Our deer-hunting season is a time not only to hunt but to cement friendships, create traditions, and to discover affinities with the surrounding woods. It is also an activity that is closely monitored by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the state agency that tracks the number of deer taken, monitors the state of the herd, and apprehends poachers. But the tradition of the responsible, conscientious Wisconsin sportsman who treats the land and the forest with love and respect is disappearing as quickly as some of our wild lands.

Wisconsin outdoor writer Tim Eisele, who comes from a hunting family, writes that “hunting is much more than killing; it is all about being outdoors and having a quality and ethical experience.” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel). Unfortunately, Wisconsin recently has been experiencing an invasion of destructive and reckless hunters.

Thanks to their Republican allies, out-of-state hunting organizations like Hunter Nation have come into our state and turned it upside down. They have lobbied for deregulation of hunting laws. They successfully advocated for an early wolf hunt in 2021. The unexpected ruling for the early hunt in favor of Hunter Nation by a Jefferson County judge caught the DNR by surprise. Unable to install a mechanism for monitoring the hunt, the DNR was unable to stop hunters from coming in and slaughtering wolves almost without restraint. The “harvest” ended up overrunning DNR quotas by almost one hundred animals Night-vision sights, dogs, and tracking technology allowed these “hunters” to stay in their pick-ups until their prey was cornered.

Later in 2021, Hunter Nation spokesperson Ted Nugent came to the Wisconsin Legislature to advocate for a package of thirteen Republican-sponsored bills to loosen or eradicate hunting and fishing regulations. From attempts to establish a sandhill crane season to stocking more pheasants to reducing DNR regulations for hunting, fishing, and trapping, the bills had the general support of Wisconsin Republicans.

These bills also had the support of DNR Policy Board member Fred Prehn, who was originally appointed in 2015 by then-governor and Republican Scott Walker. In May 2021, Democratic Governor Tony Evers appointed Sandra Naas to replace Prehn when his term expired. Fred Prehn, however, refused to leave office, and when the Republican Senate did not confirm Ms. Nass as his replacement, there was nothing the Democrats could legally do. Prehn argued he didn’t have to give up his seat until a replacement was confirmed and the courts agreed with him.

After his refusal to leave, Prehn cast deciding votes to throw out limits on forever chemicals in the groundwater and increasing the quota for the state wolf hunt, both positions which the Wisconsin Republicans and their lobbying groups supported. Last December, Prehn finally did resign his position—but only after the damage had been done.

The Wisconsin DNR has also been under duress from the Wisconsin Bear Hunting Association, a lobbying group, that according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, has poured over $369.000 in donations to largely Republican representatives between 2000-2017, resulting in a general loosening of hunting regulations.

Wisconsin is one of few states that allows out-of-state hunters to train their hounds during the months of July and August before the actual bear-hunting season begins in September. Conditions are so favorable for hunters that if an out-of-state hunter has a dog that is killed during this training, the state will reimburse him $2500 for the hound. Numerous complaints about trespassing, noise, threatening behavior, groups of hunters blocking off public roads while their dogs run through, and destruction of property have flooded local law enforcement for years, but the police are so spread out in some rural areas, it’s almost impossible to enforce the laws.

This goes back a long time. Governor Scott Walker signed a law in 2016 making it illegal to photograph these bear hunters to “protect them from harassment from conservation groups.” In 2017, he signed another law that dropped the requirement for hunting dogs to have tags. In the name of garnering donations for reelection—to maintain their death grip on the State of Wisconsin, the Republican majority has given a large portion of our Northwoods over to an irresponsible group of out-of-state hunters who don’t give a damn about the rights of landowners or private citizens. They have also showed the same disregard for our state and the wishes of Native American peoples in their treatment of hunting wolves, particularly after the 2021 Great Northwoods massacre.

Local and out-of-state lobbying groups like Hunter Nation and NBHA, closely allied with the NRA, are attempting to turn the state of Wisconsin into their own private killing fields. They donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican representatives in efforts to push these agendas. Other groups have successfully advocated for loosening of forever chemical and high-capacity well regulations—which have resulted in dangerous depletion of the groundwater—to satisfy various corporate interests.

Some bear hunters have shown brazen disregard for both property rights, animal rights, and the protection of Wisconsin natural resources. They block off public roads with their so their hounds to pursue their prey across them. They trespass on private property, threatened homeowners, destroyed property, and have shown a complete scorn for the law.

Wisconsin hunting culture used to be deeply rooted in respect for the environment. Hunters realize that carefully managed harvesting programs can sustain animal and bird populations for generations, but now short-sighted, greedy, and malicious hunters who kill for sport, sometimes sponsoring contests to see how many coyotes or rabbits can be killed in a certain time period, are threatening to ravage Wisconsin’s most precious resource. They seem ignorant of the fact that good conservation practices make for good hunting.

Killing for killing’s sake is simply cruel and malicious; it has no place in the culture of the Wisconsin sportsman.