Yes, it's that time of year again, and while Walker's budget would have shoved the responsibilities for removing road-kill deer from the DNR to local governments, legislators on the budget-writing committee are transferring it to WisDOT:
Does WisDOT, with budgetary and mission problems galore, have the right contractors, staffers and equipment statewide a) to make sure deer carcasses are promptly and safely picked up, and b) to guarantee the carcasses will be professionally incinerated - - not landfilled - - in case they carry chronic wasting disease which is known to be spreading while Wisconsin officials slow-walk towards a solution?
The state Department of Transportation — instead of the DNR — would be responsible for paying to remove dead deer from state highways under a proposal adopted by the committee 12-4 on party lines.
The DNR spent more than $550,000 last year to remove nearly 18,000 deer carcasses from state highways. Walker wanted to drop that funding, leaving it to counties to come up with paying for their removal.So that brings some uniformity to managing the program, but here's the question:
Does WisDOT, with budgetary and mission problems galore, have the right contractors, staffers and equipment statewide a) to make sure deer carcasses are promptly and safely picked up, and b) to guarantee the carcasses will be professionally incinerated - - not landfilled - - in case they carry chronic wasting disease which is known to be spreading while Wisconsin officials slow-walk towards a solution?
I wonder if DOT and Guv understand that deer infected with CWD require special handling and disposal? Without testing there is no way to tell which deer are infected so all have to be handled safely. If I were a state patrol officer I would object to this.
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