We may not have safe drinking water in some parts of Wisconsin, but at least we can begin hunting wolves this fall. While I, personally, don’t agree with the priorities of our legislature and the DNR, others seem quite pleased. In fact, almost 5,000 Wisconsinites have applied for wolf hunting permits since the DNR began accepting applications three (3) days ago, with weeks to go before the deadline ends.
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
As of Friday morning, the Department of Natural Resources has received 4,726 applications for the wolf hunting and trapping season scheduled to begin in Wisconsin in October.
Sales began Wednesday and will run through Aug. 31.
The DNR has received so many applications that there will be a drawing in September to determine which lucky applicants get to hunt and trap wolves.
The agency received nearly 3,000 applications on the first day of sales. The Friday total included 4,643 applications from Wisconsin residents and 83 from non-residents.
If only the issue of safe drinking water were as sexy as wolf hunting appears to be.
I don’t get it. Then again, there are a lot of things about Walker’s Wisconsin that I find unfathomable.
As an Illinoisian who knows quite a bit about our state’s long history of political corruption, I used to admire Wisconsin for having a long-standing reputation for open, honest government.
Nowadays, Wisconsinites can’t trust their government to ensure that their drinking water supply is safe.
I’m reasonably certain that enough people work at DNR to manage (or mis-manage if you prefer) more than one thing at a time. I don’t understand the need to conflate here.
Hi Rich,
I was making a point about priorities here in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin State Legislature was willing and able to pass a law to allow wolf hunting and the DNR has already begun issuing permits for it.
Yet the same legislature and DNR could not or would not properly investigate and rectify the human waste dumping situation that’s been going on in Jefferson County and surrounding areas, resulting in contaminated drinking water (see links in post for that story).
And Wisconsinites can get excited about wolf hunting but not contaminated water?
Conflation is justified, in my opinion.
Thanks for reading my posts. 🙂
Lisa, nobody is supposed to get excited about contaminated water, everybody is supposed to get outraged about it!
Excitement, outrage, whatever you want to call it, I just want action to be taken and the problem to be solved already.
I hope the hunters bring plenty of dogs so the wolves will have something to eat.
All I can say is good luck. I live in an area of the state where we do have wolves. To me it is simply not worth the money to try to shoot one. They are near impossible to see in the wild so the luck of people being able to shoot one in season is slim to none. If everyone could shoot one with a deer license then I could see a few more wolves dying off. We have a healthy population of wolves no doubt and I can see why people do not want more of them, especially when their little kids are waiting for the bus on the end of the driveway for the school bus to come. As far as fear of wolves is concerned I would say the Republicans fear the wolves more than the Democrats.
I’m going to apply for a permit. If I get it, I won’t use it for anything other than starting a fire in my fireplace.
I was chagrined to see that now they think we should hunt down sandhill cranes (one of my favorite wild species, for their eerie, weird ways, call, and appearance). But it should not have been any surprise. This is the same state that added mourning doves to the huntables a few years back. Doves – the symbol of peace – BLAMMO!
Next up: Cougar season?