Feds, state pay deer farmers $330k after wiping out herds

MILWAUKEE (AP) — State and federal officials have paid Wisconsin deer farmers more than $330,000 in compensation so far this year after killing their herds out of concerns they were infected with chronic wasting disease.

CWD was found on three farms this year, resulting in depopulation, according to the Milwaukee Journal.

Dirk and Jane Stolz own a deer preserve in Bayfield County and a deer farm in Washington County. They moved 23 deer from Washington County to the preserve last winter.

One of the remaining deer in Washington County tested positive for CWD in March. State agriculture officials decided to quarantine the Washington County deer and wipe out the herd in Bayfield County, where CWD has not been found yet. They killed 22 deer on the preserve in April; the 23rd deer is missing. The Stolzes received $52,000 in federal money.

Burton Buck Creek Elk in Richland County had its 11-animal herd wiped out in August. The facility got $15,000 in state funds.

Wisconsin is home to 380 deer or elk farms. CWD has been found at 23 of the facilities since 2002. Fourteen have been depopulated, including the three this year.

Meanwhile, the Department of Natural Resources has issued a mandatory testing order for deer killed in nine townships in Dane and Columbia counties after a cow on a Waunakee farm tested positive for bovine tuberculosis in late October.