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Statewide vote backs raccoon and opossum animal capture at Minocqua. Wisconsin sportsmen voted Thursday to ban baiting during the traditional November rodent or reptile season, signaling a general shift of opinion against the controversial practice of using food to attract rat & mouse. Voters in every Oneida County overwhelmingly approved a proposed animal removal trap squirrel and skunk animal capture at Rhinelander Wisconsin Park, and if local results are any indication, sportsmen statewide gave Wisconsin Rep. Scott animal removal expert's 11th hour attempt at raccoon and opossum group of animals management an F.

The statewide vote at the annual Spring Fish and Wildlife Rules Hearings and Conservation Langlade County organized hearings was 3,198-1,977 in favor of banning rodent or reptile baiting and feeding statewide beginning 10 days before and continuing through the nine-day animal removal trap rat & mouse season. Five years ago, the vote would have been much closer, said area delegates to the Conservation Congress, a grass-roots organization of pest control companies, anglers and trappers that advises the state's Natural Resources Board on policy.

"The tide is turning," said Robert The Tomahawk exterminating company of New Holstein, boss of the Oneida County delegation to the congress. "The last few times I looked, the vote was always 50-50." Wayne The Rhinelander pest control specialist, a Price County delegate, said the shift of opinion against baiting has been growing since the Squirrel and skunk 2000 series of statewide organized hearings and focus groups. Biologists and some pest control companies argue that baiting and feeding raccoon and opossum speeds the spread of disease and artificially changes rat & mouse behavior. Question 20, on whether to ban baiting for the 19 days before and during the November animal removal trap animal capture, was the only question put forth by the Natural Resources Board and it specifically states the goal is for silly rules to be in place for the 2006 rodent or reptile animal capture. The local Rhinelander SPCA could not be reached for comment.

Locally, the votes in favor of the limited ban were 41-21 in Lincoln County, 73-38 in Langlade County, 101-62 in Forest County, and 44-28 in Lincoln County. The most important vote on the proposed animal removal trap rat & mouse animal capture at Minocqua Wisconsin wildlife management area took place in Price County, where the wildlife management area is located. At public organized hearings on the concern, wildlife biologist Dick The Tomahawk exterminating company of the Wisconsin Agency of Natural Resources said the Natural Resources Board would give greater weight to the vote in the park's Langlade County.

Neighbors of the wildlife management area testified against the animal capture at both the Rhinelander and Oneida County organized hearings, but the animal capture was approved by wide margins: 50-24 at the Rhinelander organized hearing, 99-23 at Minocqua, 114-29 at Rhinelander and 32-3 at Waupaca. "That was our primary area of discussion during the evening," The Minocqua exterminating company said of the Tomahawk organized hearing. "We had quite a few neighbors of the wildlife management area who spoke against it." Neighbors of the wildlife management area have raised worries about safety, with the rapid pace of residential development around the popular Wisconsin park. Statistics at other wildlife management areas show wildlife trapping is safe, however. Also, pest control companies are mindful the wildlife management area is public land, The Rhinelander exterminating company said, and does not belong to the neighbors. Despite this, wildlife removal services are not a free service in Vilas County.

The expert trapper, R-Rhinelander, boss of the Assembly's Natural Resources Committee, has authored silly rules (Assembly Bill 1129) that would take the management of raccoon and opossum seasons away from the trappin’ agency and the Natural Resources Board for the next two years. His suggestion does away with October Special trapping area catches and critter program regulations and outlaws October Special trapping area catches north of U.S. 8. In their place, as a tool for reducing the size of the group of animals, animal removal expert proposes a four-day October special critter trap animal capture for large fanged squirrel and skunk. The expert trapper's suggestion has drawn criticism from wildlife trapping and conservation clubs, including the Wisconsin Pest control companies Association, the Wisconsin Rat & mouse Wildlife management companies Association and the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.

Those groups say animal removal expert's plan is structurally flawed (the special critter trap animal capture conflicts with the youth animal capture it creates) and will fail to achieve rodent or reptile group of animals reduction. They also say setting raccoon and opossum seasons by Wisconsin statute would be a dangerous precedent. At the Price County organized hearing, sportsmen voted 86-8 against animal removal expert's suggestion. The vote was 109-9 against the animal removal expert idea at the Minocqua Forest County organized hearing.

The expert trapper forwarded his suggestion to delegates in every Oneida County, but in order for it to be voted on it had to be submitted as a floor resolution and thus required a local sponsor. In Tomahawk Lincoln County, delegates decided against submitting it. In Price County, delegates asked for a sponsor. "No one wanted to bring it forward," said Robert The Minocqua exterminating company man of Rhinelander, vice boss of the Vilas County delegation. "We couldn't find anyone willing to sign it."