A detailed investigation by Wisconsin conservation wardens resulted in a $10,000 fine for a sharpshooter with Wildlife Management Service. This company has contracted with the local government for the removal of nuisance deer in Southeastern Wisconsin for decades. However a long list of violations from several years ago has put that operation into question.
Christopher Tuhy, a resident of East Troy, shot more than 100 deer while working for WMS in 2022. This December, Tuhy pleaded guilty to 10 civil counts of hunting deer with an improper license — a deer hunting license is required for deer culling work and Tuhy didn’t have one. Tuhy says he’s not a hunter, and he’d simply forgotten to buy a license in 2022 for his culling. But he did have a license in the three years before and after 2022. Tuhy was fined $1,000 for each of the 10 citations. His hunting privileges were revoked for one year, which also means he can’t work as a sharpshooter for that period.
But why was the penalty so steep for a seemingly honest mistake?
Waukesha County’s district attorney, Lesli Boese, told Outdoor Life via email that the agreement took “into account many factors, including citations the State agreed not to issue to resolve this case fully and the forfeitures associated with those citations and the underlying facts of the case.”
There was no further information provided from the DA regarding what these factors were, but an open records request of the investigation files shed more light on the situation.
Those documents revealed that the DNR’s investigation found more than 500 violations, primarily for failure to register deer taken by 5 P.M. the day after being shot, which is required by law. Other violations include the transportation of these unregistered deer. The report also questioned if bucks’ antlers had been properly disposed of, since the DNR’s culling permits demand that antlers must be returned to the agency and not kept by sharpshooters.
Additionally, the report mentioned that car-killed deer had been registered as culled-deer by WMS. (This would be more of an issue for the local government to address since they’re the ones footing the bill for deer removal.)
In Wisconsin, culling permits are issued to government agencies, not to the culling company responsible for shooting deer. The permits are issued by the DNR and come with many specific rules that address, among other things: the number of deer to be taken, the use of optics, carcass tags for culled deer, lymph node removal for CWD testing, and mandatory deer registration.
Additional requirements between local units of government and contractors may put bucks off-limits to sharpshooters. Some communities put bucks off limits to sharpshooting efforts, often because hunters and landowners don’t want deer cullers wiping out mature bucks.
Contracts between local communities and culling services commonly require the culling business to dispose of deer carcasses. Culling businesses usually arrange to have the venison ground and distributed to local food pantries, provided the deer test negative for CWD. Some state agencies keep lists of folks who would like donated venison, but most don’t.
Andrei Landron, owner of Wildlife Management Service that was named in the lawsuit, knows that there’s plenty of red tape in the deer culling business. Landron employs deer cullers, thought that’s not his main business. He also told Outdoor Life via email that the high fine levied against one of his employees was unusually severe for an unintentional mistake.
“I have a sprinkler business that keeps my employees busy during the summer months,” Landron says. “My WMS business helps keep them working during the winter. Historically, Wildlife Management Services has maintained a strong, productive, and collaborative working relationship with the DNR. For more than 30 years, we worked cooperatively to assist communities with effective deer population management. That relationship was solution-oriented and professional rather than adversarial. Unfortunately, over the past three to four years, that dynamic has become increasingly challenging.”
Permit requirements and enforcement expectations appear to change from year to year, according to Landron.
“From our perspective, these changes are often implemented without sufficient explanation or continuity, making compliance more difficult despite our ongoing efforts to adhere to all applicable rules,” Landron says.
The disposal of antlers from the culled bucks were also an issue, according to the investigation files. The permits clearly state antlers from culled bucks, many of which can grow to massive sizes in suburban areas, should be turned in to the DNR. According to the reports, Landron told Wisconsin wardens that antlers from culled deer are cut off at Bunzel’s Old Fashioned Meat Market in Milwaukee.
An employee that processed the culled deer, however, said that usually only small bucks came to the facility with antlers still attached. Other deer arrived with their antlers already removed. The antlers from the small bucks were thrown into a bucket along with those other customers didn’t want from their own bucks. Bunzel’s made it clear their employees treated WMS as they would any other customer, by following the processing instructions they were given. These deer were ground and the venison was distributed to local food pantries.
The report also stated that a WMS employee had taken a large set of antlers home, saying he wanted to show them to a relative, but intended to take them back to the processor. However the employee never brought the rack back. Wardens eventually recovered the antlers from the employee, who was not charged.
Read Next: Game Warden Tales: I Hunted Down a Trip-Wire Crossbow Poacher
Christopher Tuhy’s $10,000 fine, well over the $343.50 maximum per charge as stated in the bond schedule, was the only one levied from this investigation. Tuhy said he pleaded guilty and agreed to pay the high fine so that he could move on.
“I just want this to be over with,” he said. Despite its track record, Landron says Wildlife Management Service would like to pursue its deer culling work in Southeast Wisconsin.
“Wildlife Management Services would like to reestablish a positive and cooperative working relationship with the DNR, its agents and wardens. We do not seek an ‘us versus them environment,’ nor do we want our employees to feel threatened or exclusively scrutinized while performing their duties,” he said. “The communities we serve continue to face significant deer overpopulation challenges and sharpshooting remains the most effective management tool available.”
Editor’s Note: David Zeug is a retired Wisconsin conservation officer.
Read the full article here
