12-5-19 dnr chief warden says deer poaching was “a game”

The DNR’s Chief Warden says he hopes the conviction and stiff sentences handed down in a large deer poaching case sends a strong message.  Five men were recently convicted of poaching as many as 40 deer in southwestern Wisconsin.  DNR Chief Warden Todd Schaller says the men were not hunting for food, but says it was a “game” for them.  “This is not a circumstance where they were in need of food or hunting for food,”  Schaller told WFDL news.  “I think in a way it was more of a, its terrible to say, it was more of a game.  It was more of a challenge of could they do it, how many can they do, do they get away with it?”   Twenty nine year old Jacob Menne of Readstown received the stiffest sentence.  He was fined more than $12,000 and had his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges revoked for 15 years.