Safety education paying off in Wisconsin
December 18, 2010
Despite this year’s impressive record, November’s 12 shooting injuries fit familiar patterns. Five of the shootings (42 percent) occurred during drives and three (25 percent) were self-inflicted. In all but one, the shooter and victim knew each other.
When the DNR’s chief warden, Randy Stark, released his annual analysis of the gun season early this month, other themes reappeared. Wardens wrote 216 citations for illegal baiting, the runaway leader in violations for the seventh straight year.
The good news? Bait violations were 35 percent lower than the record 334 recorded in 2009. Illegal feeding of wildlife also declined, down 24 percent to 32 citations from the 42 issued last year. However, Stark reported more baiters trying to dodge the 2-gallon bait limit by spreading the food over larger areas.
As usual, the second- and third-place violations were transporting a loaded gun in a vehicle (109); and transporting an uncased gun in a vehicle (79).
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Stark’s recap includes other interesting reports from wardens, including these:
. Warden Mike Neal of Sister Bay cited a hunter on private property for hunting over too much bait. The next morning, Neal checked a stand overlooking an illegal bait site on nearby county land. He found the same hunter in the stand, and cited him again.