VILAS COUNTY LAND and WATER CONSERVATION / 330 Court Street / Eagle River, WI / 54521 / Telephone: (715)-479-3747 / Fax: (715)-479-1978

LAND RESOURCES > Wildlife Damage Abatement and Claims Program (WDACP) >

Wisconsin deer donation program 2007

Hunters, you can help feed needy people throughout Wisconsin this fall by taking 5 simple steps:

1. Donate any legally harvested deer taken outside the CWD Disease Eradication Zone and CWD Herd Reduction Zone by dropping it off at a participating processor by January 7, 2008. Call First! Contact one of the participating processors before dropping the deer off to verify the processor has space to accept your deer. Field dress the deer and register it at a Wisconsin DNR registration station prior to donating the deer. Please care for your deer as if it were destined for your own table. Placing a couple bags of ice in the body cavity will help keep the carcass cool. Donate the entire deer to receive the processing for free. (Head and/or antlers may be removed for mounting.)
2. When dropping your deer off at a processor, please sign the simple log sheet indicating your desire to donate the deer. We’ll do the rest. The donated deer will be processed and the venison will be distributed to charitable organizations to help feed Wisconsin’s needy.

State and federal budget cuts have reduced funding for CWD work by 60%. These budget cuts have forced the suspension of the CWD testing/donation program in the CWD Zones. Deer taken in the CWD Zones will be registered with a Red Metal Tag and these deer will not be allowed to be donated. Limited funds that are available for CWD work will be used for testing hunter-kept deer from high priority areas within the CWD Zones.

Since the fall hunting season of 2000, hunters have donated over 54,000 deer which have provided over 2.4 million pounds of ground venison to needy families. A large network of volunteers including sports groups, church groups, civic organizations and food pantry staff work together to distribute the meat from the processor to the food pantries. USDA – Wildlife Services staff, Dept. of Natural Resources staff and county wildlife damage staff also help administer the program. Many thanks to all of these folks too! We couldn't run a program on this scale without you!

Thank you for your interest and good luck hunting!

Links

Find out more information on the 2007 dropoff stations (VILAS: Prime Choice Butcher Eagle River / (715)-479-4456)

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