Chronic Wasting Disease | Wisconsin Update
This message provided by the Whitetails of Wisconsin Association

On Tuesday, July 24th, the DATCP Ag Board voted to NOT advance the Governor’s Scope Statement. By not advancing the Scope, DATCP has no authority to write an emergency rule. The Ag Board listened and heard our comments and agreed that CWD is not an emergency.

Without an emergency rule, movement of our animals will be business as usual this fall with NO restrictions. The Governor could come back with a revised Scope Statement, but that would have to go through the same process as the original Scope Statement which took almost three months to complete.

We are extremely happy to have successfully made it over the first hurdle, but we have several more hurdles in front of us. The next meeting will be the DNR Board meeting on August 8th in Green Bay where the emergency rule regarding enhanced fencing and carcass movement will be presented for the DNR Board to review and vote to advance or deny parts of the rule. (Agenda is forthcoming) At the last DNR Board meeting, legal counsel told the board members they would have the ability to remove or change any part of the emergency rule they did not agree with. The Board directed the DNR personnel to supply them with the science and evidence that the enhanced fencing will work to prevent the spread of CWD.

The DNR Board previously gave direction to the DNR to write rules that will not put farmers out of business. If you would like to review the June 27th webcast, click here.

The DATCP proposed permanent rule, which was recently released, is proposing that ALL cervid operations will be required to install enhanced fencing and also proposes restricting movement of all cervids from affected counties to only other affected counties. The proposed permanent rule will advance through the rule making process. We will need our members to attend those hearings and submit comments. As always, we will do our best to keep our members informed of all meetings and comment periods.

The WOW board is extremely proud of how our members, Wisconsin citizens, and several out of state people stepped up and helped throughout this whole process. Our grass roots efforts are working! The facts and the science are on our side.