Free Republic

Bob Ringstad never missed hunting deer in Wisconsin for 80 consecutive deer seasons from 1945 to 2024.This correspondent became friends with Bob Ringstad a few years ago. At 92, he is intellectually very sharp. His knowledge of history and North American archeology is impressive. His knowledge of hunting and firearms, accumulated over eight decades, is marvelous.This correspondent has talked with Bob a number of times and interviewed him about his long hunting experience in the Wisconsin deer habitat of the North Woods.Bob’s father was a veteran of WWI and the first state forester in the North District of Wisconsin. At...

Andrea Arnold is used to having to slow down to let deer cross the road in her Northern B.C. community. But this weekend she saw something that made her pull over and snap a photo. A deer was wearing a high-visibility safety jacket. Not a vest, a "full-on jacket" that has been zipped up, says Arnold, who lives in McBride and is a reporter for the local paper the Rocky Mountain Goat.(opens in a new tab) "They're everywhere around town, but this one was wearing high-vis. I did a double, triple take like, 'Wait, what am I actually seeing here?'"...

Cody residents are outraged over the “despicable” slaughter of nine urban deer in the city. A 20-year-old Michigan man remains in jail, accused of killing the deer with a bow and leaving their carcasses around Cody. The suspect in an alleged archery killing spree that left nine mule deer carcasses scattered around Cody was arrested remains in the Park County jail, and as the news has spread around town, locals are outraged. Joshua Tamirat Wielhouwer, 20, of Jenson, Michigan, is being held on $36,000 bond, according to the Park County Sheriff’s Office. He faces nine counts of taking a big...

On August 14, 2024, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an article about research done exploring the relationship between the opening of deer hunting season and “shootings.” The article found that there was a significant increase in “shootings” in rural counties associated with the opening of deer season. At first glance, the premise appears to be one of establishing by statistics of the obvious. Of course, there are more “shootings” when deer season opens. The entire point of deer season is to harvest deer by shooting them.More shooting is done prior to deer season because many hunters...

If you read any of the headlines about chronic wasting from April this year, you might be convinced that “zombie deer disease” has jumped the species barrier and is now causing deer hunter deaths. But those quick-hit news stories were more of a function of shoddy reporting than any new scientific development. In fact, recent research published in the June issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases found that CWD prions fail to infect human brain tissue. This study backs up years of previous research that has come to similar conclusions.

If surfing sea otters weren't enough at Streamer Lane, now you have bodysurfing deer at Seacliff State Beach. Valencia Elementary School students on a field trip got to see just that on Tuesday. A parent, Mrs. Martinez, then took the video of the deer swimming near the shore. KSBW 8 was told the deer "ran down the mountain, onto the beach, dove into the surf, swam out a ways, then swam parallel with the beach," said Lynnelle Wing, a third-grade teacher for Valencia Elementary School. It then caught a wave, wiped out, came back up and tried catching another wave...

Two hunters may have become the first Americans to die from a 'zombie deer' disease. Experts have been warning for years that the nearly 100 percent fatal chronic wasting disease (CWD) - which leaves deer confused, drooling, and unafraid of humans - could jump from animals to people. But a new study theorizes that it has already happened - in two hunters who died in 2022 after eating contaminated venison. One of the victims, a 72-year-old man, suffered 'rapid-onset confusion and aggression,' as well as seizures. He died within a month.

resident Joe Biden sparked more concerns about his health with a long thousand-yard stare after joking he would 'get in trouble' if he took any questions from media members. The president was wrapping up the launch of a task force to lower the cost of living when he refused to answer any questions from the White House press corps. 'I have a lot of questions. I better not start the questions. I'll get in trouble,' Biden, 81, said, only picking up the microphone halfway through. Biden then put the microphone down and froze like a deer in headlights for about...

Scientists are sounding the alarm over the spread of “zombie deer disease” amid fears it may evolve to infect humans. Late last year, experts confirmed Yellowstone National Park’s first case of the infection — officially known as chronic wasting disease — after a deer carcass found in the Wyoming area of the park tested positive for the highly contagious disease. Now, cases have been reported in deer, elk and moose in 33 states across the US, as well as in Canada, Norway and South Korea. The disease “damages portions of the brain and typically causes progressive loss of body condition,...

Mich. officer fired after killing 'friendly' deer against department instructions"He acted independently [and] committed multiple policy violations in his decision to euthanize [Annie the deer],” Chief Mario RedLegs saidOct 30, 2023 By Joanna Putman Police1 VAN BUREN COUNTY, Mich. — An officer has been fired after he went against instructions from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and euthanized a deer that locals called “Annie,” News Channel 3 reported. While responding to an unrelated domestic incident on Oct. 20, Officer David Loza wrangled the deer with a neck strap and shot it to death. Residents were outraged, according to the...

He got a lot of bang for his buck — and not in a good way. A tourist’s attempt to photograph a deer ended painfully after the critter rammed him and broke his ribs, as seen in a wince-worthy video blowing up online. “I couldn’t believe it,” Gian Carlo Triacca, 42, told Caters News Service of the attack, which occurred while he and his wife, Erika, 40, were vacationing in Greece. The couple, who hail from Cancun, Mexico, had reportedly been entranced by a menagerie of beasts seen where they were on holiday.

SYLVESTER, Wis. -- A deer unknowingly assisted law enforcement Friday morning after a crash involving the animal led to a woman's arrest, the Green County Sheriff's Office said. Deputies were called to the 4300 block of State Highway 59, northeast of Monroe in the Town of Sylvester, just before 6 a.m. for a report of a car hitting a deer. Officials said a 46-year-old Browntown woman was driving east when a deer ran into the road and struck her car. The vehicle was damaged but the airbags did not deploy. The woman was uninjured. Upon further investigation, deputies found that...

PITTSBURGH — In Frick and Riverview parks, four deer were killed by hunters Aug. 30, the first day of a controversial archery hunt intended to reduce the city's white-tailed deer population. Mayor Ed Gainey's office said last week that archers so far had harvested another 24 in Pittsburgh's first attempt to control its wildlife. A limited number of volunteer archers were approved to harvest the deer from assigned tree stands while the parks are open. Friday afternoon no injuries, hunting violations or archer harassment had been reported.

Mark Skage rescued a baby moose from the side of a busy highway in British Columbia, Canada. He was consequentially fired by his employer, AFD Petroleum Inc., who let him go for breaking wildlife protocols. 'I just couldn't do it, in my heart … Black bears are the number one predator for those calves,' Skage said to CBC. 'So I just thought, 'Well, I can't take care of the predator, but I guess maybe I can try and help out this little calf.' Skage told CBC News that he noticed the calf alone on the side of the road, with...

On the Hunt is a well-written and comprehensive history of deer hunting in Wisconsin. It is that rare treat, a factual, scholarly history combined with numerous anecdotal accounts and local histories integrated to make an easily readable, smooth-flowing, and factually loaded book. It has about a hundred illustrations. The illustrations and stories will appeal to a broad range of ages and interests. The book opens with a recounting of Robert C. Willging’s transformation from a Chicago city kid to a full-fledged Wisconsin deer hunter.On the Hunt: The History of Deer Hunting in Wisconsin by Robert C. Willging, Wisconsin Historical Society...

Discover the perfect Friday-afternoon rabbit hole of the world's largest lizards gulping down deer, monkeys, pigs, snakes, and sharks. You're welcomeKomodo dragons can hinge their jaws and extend their stomachs to swallow beasts whole. Getty Images SHARE A recent Instagram video showing a Komodo dragon inhaling a “deer” (which appears to actually be a goat) is making the rounds today. And why not? It’s been a long day already. You’ve gotten some work done. You deserve to watch animals gobbling up one another, and this is as good a gobbling as any. It’s better than most, really, because with snakes...

ADAMS COUNTY, Pa. (WHP) — A strange situation spanning Adams, York, and Cumberland Counties in Pennsylvania happened early Tuesday morning. According to Carroll Township Police Department, police received a call on Tuesday about seeing a stolen bus being driven by Tony Saunders in Dillsburg at around 7:10 a.m. Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) in Gettysburg reported the same stolen bus and to "be on the lookout" especially in York and Adams Counties. Officials say officers on patrol spotted the stolen bus driving through a Giant Foods and Rite Aid parking lot. The school bus then turned west onto W. Siddonsburg Rd....

During Missouri’s rifle-hunting season, state conservation officials in more than two dozen locations spend 12 hours a day removing and testing lymph nodes from the heads of deer carcasses brought in by hunters. They are looking for chronic wasting disease, a deadly and incurable condition on the rise across the country. “It’s a growing problem,” said Erin Shank, a biologist at the Missouri Department of Conservation. “It’s going one direction and it’s not the direction we want it to go.” The disease was first found in a captive deer in Colorado in the 1960s and in wild deer in the...

It’s tough to tell which fact is more surprising: That a red stag deer, not native to North America, was roaming around Randolph County, Alabama. Or that, after countless veteran hunters sought this elusive animal for months, a teenager who never harvested a deer in nearly 50 previous hunts, is the guy who killed it. Or that this specimen — estimated at more than 300 pounds — was so big, part of it dangled from his GMC Z71 pickup truck on the way to the processor, where it was too heavy for one scale and maxed out another. Or that...

Drivers, beware. Your chances of hitting a deer are at their highest now through next week. For a week after clocks change this Sunday, motorists are 16% more likely to run into a deer, according to a recent report that examined a dataset of more than one million instances of vehicles colliding with deer across 23 states in the United States. A team of researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle, led by Calum X. Cunningham, published their findings Wednesday with Current Biology, detailing how deer-vehicle collisions spike in late October through early November. According to the researchers, deer...