» Hunting law test: An animal protection group is planning to document bear-hunting activity, setting the stage for a test of the state’s new hunter harassment law.
Start of season could test new harassment law
As Wisconsin nears the start of the season for bear hunting with dogs, an animal protection group is planning to document hunting activity in the Northwoods, setting the stage for a test of the state’s new hunter harassment law.
Members of Wolf Patrol will be monitoring bear hunting in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, said the group’s founder, Rod Coronado of Grand Rapids, Mich.
“Our goal is to help law enforcement and record illegal activity,” Coronado said. “Our goal isn’t to harass hunters, but we won’t hesitate to exercise our constitutional rights.”
Hunters are allowed to use dogs to pursue bears beginning Wednesday.
The 2016 Wisconsin bear-hunting season is the first under Act 346, legislation passed last winter that spells out increased protections for hunters, anglers and trappers.
Coronado said the legislation, sometimes called the “Right to Hunt Act,” impinges on the rights of non-hunting citizens to engage in activities on public land. He feels the law would be found unconstitutional if challenged in court.
“A bear hunter’s right isn’t greater than any other person’s right,” Coronado said. “We have as much right to be in the public forest as they do.”
The law was signed April 2 by Gov. Scott Walker at the annual convention of the Wisconsin Bear Hunters’ Association.
In a statement, Walker said Act 346 “provides our hunters with additional protections from interference.”
The legislation expands protections to hunters during training, scouting and baiting activities. It includes such prohibited acts as remaining in a hunter’s sight to obstruct and photographing/recording or confronting a hunter more than twice with the intention to interfere.
First offenses of the law are a civil citation, said Todd Schaller, chief warden with the Department of Natural Resources, with a fine not to exceed $500. If a person violates the law two or more times within five years, the legislation sets maximum fines at $10,000 and sentences of up to nine months.
The law was strongly supported by the Wisconsin Bear Hunters’ Association.
Over the last two years, WBHA members reported increased run-ins with “animal rights extremists which often involved harassment, interference, videotaping, and stalking-like behavior,” the group said in a statement.
Officials with WBHA believes that the legislation will make it easier to enforce harassment and “hopefully cut
down on these dangerous encounters.”
Bear hunters have been dealing with Wolf Patrol for the past several years, said Carl Schoettel, WBHA president.
“(Wolf Patrol) is a radical animal rights group led by a convicted eco-terrorist, and we are against anything they try to do to prevent constitutionally protected hunting activity,” Schoettel said.
Schoettel said the WBHA’s opinion is shared by state law enforcement and the majority of state residents.
“We worked hand-inhand with law enforcement on this bill,” Schoettel said. “And we’ve had overwhelming support from the public on this legislation.”
The bill received bipartisan support and passed the Senate on a voice vote and was concurred by the Assembly on a voice vote.
Schoettel said the WBHA isn’t against free speech but won’t tolerate its members being stalked or interfered with.
He said the group has prepared educational materials for its members on the new law and how to respond to interactions with others in the field.
Wolf Patrol describes itself as a group “working to document and prevent wolf hunts in the face of the removal of federal protection for these important and vital predators in North America.”
It was formed in 2014 and has a field office in St. Croix Falls.
Most of Wolf Patrols’ members and financial supporters are in Wisconsin, Coronado said.
The group became active in Wisconsin to oppose the state’s wolf hunt, which was held from 2012’14 and allowed the use of dogs to pursue wolves. The species has been protected by the Endangered Species Act since December 2014.
Wolf Patrol got involved in bear-hunting issues because Wisconsin regulations allow practices that are detrimental to wolves and result in encounters between wolves, hounds and other animals, Coronado said.
Wolves often visit bait sites maintained by bear hunters, for example, and sometimes kill hunters’ dogs at the locations. As a result, Coronado said, public perception is slanted against wolves, leading to poaching or other antiwolf behavior.
“We feel bear-hunting tactics in Wisconsin are contributing to a wildlife nightmare,” Coronado said. “We think it’s preventable and the state needs to change the regulations.”
Wisconsin’s bear-hunting season spans about five weeks in September and October, but the state allows bait to be placed beginning April 15 and allows dogs to be trained on bears beginning July 1.
Coronado, who was convicted of arson and sentenced to 57 months in prison for a 1992 attack on a Michigan State University research facility, said his intention is not to break the Wisconsin law but to “witness hunting activity on public land.”
Joe Brown, assistant professor of digital media at Marquette University, is producing a documentary film on Wolf Patrol. A preview is scheduled to be shown at the 2016 Milwaukee Film Festival.
Brown said he plans to accompany Coronado this week in northern Wisconsin.
“We’ll be on public land, filming,” Brown said. “There could be confrontations. With the new law, we don’t know where it will go.”
If citations are issued for harassment, a test of the law in court is likely, Brown said.
The law can be enforced by DNR conservation wardens and local law enforcement.
No violation of Act 346 was reported during the hound training season, which began July 1, according to Schaller.