Monday, March 4, 2013 at 5:45 p.m.  5201 Fen Oak Drive, Conference room 121A  Madison WI 53718

The Dane County Environment, Agriculture, and Natural Resources Committee will discuss Ordinance Amendment 38, 12-13 – Amending Chapter 53 of the Dane County Code of Ordinances, Limiting the Issuance of Permits for Trapping at its next meeting.

If passed, this Amendment would eliminate trapping on County-owned lands that are subject to full control by the Dane County Board of Supervisors.

This is an important Amendment because its passage would help signal Dane County lawmakers' discomfort with being forced by the State to allow trapping on County-owned lands. It would also limit the acreage available to trappers.

Currently, Dane County allows trapping even where the County is not required to do so. The State/DNR has begun requiring cities and counties to offer opportunities to trap on most lands purchased with Nelson-Knowles Stewardship Fund dollars.

Public comments will be taken at the beginning of the meeting, so be sure to arrive on time and sign in to speak or to register your opinion. You do not have to speak in order to have your opinion registered. Even if you are nervous speaking in front of a group, it is important that your opinion be heard.

If you cannot attend the meeting, please send an email to one or all of the committee members

Wildlife Protection Groups File Suit to Restore Federal Protection for Great Lakes Wolves.  A coalition of wildlife protection groups, including The Humane Society of the United States, Born Free USA, Help Our Wolves Live and Friends of Animals and Their Environment, filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its decision to remove the protections of the Endangered Species Act from gray wolves living in the western Great Lakes region.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s most recent decision to delist wolves became effective last year, after multiple previous attempts to delist wolves were struck down by the courts over the course of the last decade. The decision threatens the fragile remnants of the gray wolf population by confining wolves to a small area in the Great Lakes region – where state wildlife managers have rushed forward with reckless killing programs that threaten wolves with the very same practices that pushed them to the brink of extinction in the first place.

Dane County Humane Society (DCHS) is extremely supportive of wildlife and we believe in wildlife education like what the Mackenzie Center has been providing.  Wildlife rehabilitation (through the Four Lakes Wildlife Center) and welfare is a part of the core values at DCHS.

DCHS supports and encourages people to take action on things relating to animals when they can.   Please be aware that the future of the  Mackenzie Center is solely at the discretion of Wisconsin DNR.   If you are interested in expressing your thoughts about the decision to discontinue this center please contact the DNR officials stated below.

Here is the information released by the Mackenzie Center earlier today.  Please note this statement is that of the Meckenzie Center.

Dear MacKenzie Center wildlife exhibit friends and supporters,

I am writing you with the bad news that the WDNR has announced plans to shut down the MacKenzie Center in 6 months, terminating its contract with the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation/Friends of MacKenzie to run the Center. The DNR has provided no plan for the continued care or appropriate new placement of the 35 individual animals in the MacKenzie Center wildlife exhibit. As many of you know, the wildlife exhibit is home to 23 species of non-releasable native Wisconsin wildlife, including large carnivores, ungulates, and raptors. These animals require specialized diets, veterinary care, and enrichment. The six month timeline with no plan for the future of the animals is deeply troubling.

The DNR issued a press release explaining its reasoning for shutting down the MacKenzie Center (http://dnr.wi.gov/news/breakingnews_lookup.asp?id=2658). What this release does not explain is why the DNR thinks an outdoor skills center should exclude the general environmental education provided to school groups by the MacKenzie Center. The current environmental education programs could be continued in conjunction with the outdoor skills training the DNR is proposing. Without these programs, 16,000 school children every year will be deprived of a valuable environmental education experience. The net yearly cost for the DNR to continue its contract with the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation/Friends of MacKenzie is $185,000, out of the DNR’s annual $500 million budget. The MacKenzie Center is also the DNR’s cheapest environmental education center to fund, based on cost per student served.

The DNR is attempting to make these changes without any public input. This is against the DNR’s own policies, which also require a Master Plan be approved by the Natural Resources Board. The DNR has not developed a Master Plan for these changes, nor sought any input from the local community and participating schools and groups.

We need your help! Please let the DNR administration know that the MacKenzie Center contract should be extended, and a Master Plan/public meeting process should be required for major changes on the MacKenzie Center property. Please let them know the MacKenzie Center should stay open long term, continuing to provide school-based environmental education in concert with the DNR’s increased emphasis on outdoor skills (hunting, trapping, fishing) training.

Please act quickly, as the coming days and weeks will determine the future of the MacKenzie Center. Please call, write, or email the officials whose contact information is listed at the end of this email. Your voice really can make an impact: public comments to the Natural Resources Board played a crucial role in preventing the DNR from shutting the MacKenzie Center in the past and helped pave the way for the current partnership.

You can also come show your support of the MacKenzie Center by attending the Natural Resources Board meeting on February 27th (note: attendees must sign up by 4pm on Tues 2/19 by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).  

The MacKenzie Center is not a dying facility – it is a thriving, growing, vital environmental education facility with a dedicated and motivated staff, a vigorous Friends group, and countless community supporters. Its groups and programs have been growing and expanding to serve an ever increasing diversity of user groups. Its education curriculum has been evolving into exciting and cutting edge areas of environmental education. Its wildlife exhibit has a robust internship program, with multiple year-round interns from Wisconsin universities, eager to gain experience at a facility that focuses on natural diets and environmental enrichment for non-releasable native Wisconsin wildlife in need. Where else can a child go to build a campfire, identify prairie plants, tap a maple, go geocacheing with a GPS unit, practice archery, and look a wolf in the eye? Please help to preserve this wonderful facility for future generations and prevent a Wisconsin treasure from being destroyed.

Please spread the word to other MacKenzie Center supporters you know of, and to any and all supporters of environmental education and our native Wisconsin wildlife.

Update:  There was a very large turnout (overflowing out of the room) for the Public Meeting this past Wednesday.  The public was invited to speak to the committee and 49 people chose to speak.  The overwhelming majority of those that spoke were AGAINST the automatic restrictions against pit bull terriers.  The committee agreed to research the insurance requirements and if higher fines could be implemented on negligent owners.  The committee will meet again once more research has been gathered in the coming months to continue to work on the legislation.

Read more in the Watertown Daily Times

Watertown officials are currently considering a change to the city’s laws that would deem all pit bull terriers vicious and place new restrictions on the dogs and their owners.  The Watertown Public Safety Committee is in the middle of crafting changes to the city’s vicious dog ordinance following complaints from citizens.  Read more in the Watertown Daily Times

A Watertown Public Safety Meeting is scheduled for tonight, Wednesday, February 13, at 5pm in room 2044 in the Municipal Building (106 Jones St, Watertown, WI). 

DCHS encourages people with opinions regarding this issue to get involved in the discussion by contacting the Watertown city council representatives (email addresses below) or by attending the public safety meeting.

Here are articles/websites that offer ideas and talking points for a polite email or public statement addressing why breed-specific legislation doesn’t work.

http://www.wivotersforcompanionanimals.com/breed-specific-legislation.html

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/breed-specific-legislation/fact_sheets/breed-specific-legislation-flaws.html

http://www.examiner.com/article/breed-discrimination-hits-watertown-wisconsin

https://www.facebook.com/wivoters

http://stubbydog.org/resources/

Email addresses for the Watertown city officials.

Mark Kuehl- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Patrick Bleske- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Robert Stocks- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Fred Smith- This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it