Officers with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) and the Fon du Lac County Sheriff's Office are investigating a group of individuals accused of poaching dozens of trophy whitetails in Wisconsin counties over the last 12 months. The poachers committed their crimes at night, officials told Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR) in a recent interview, killing deer from inside vehicles using rifles and high-powered spotlights.
A mid-July tip from a Fon du Lac County resident sparked the investigation. According to WPR, that information led a sheriff's deputy to multiple velvet-antlered buck heads that were rotting in a trash receptacle near a residential neighborhood.
“They have been cutting the heads of the bucks off and leaving the rest of the body lay,” Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt told WPR. “If they mistakenly shot a doe, they would just leave the entire doe lay.”
According to a media release posted to Facebook on July 31 by the Fon du Lac County Sheriff's Office, the crimes span approximately 200 square miles across Fond du Lac, Dodge, and Washington Counties.
Through interviews, agents discovered that the alleged poachers targeted bucks in particular, WPR reports, taking the heads and antlers and leaving abandoned carcasses near residential and rural areas between the towns of Campbellsport, Waucousta, Lomira, Theresa, West Bend, and Kewaskum.
Waldschmidt called the crimes “senseless, reckless, indiscriminate killing of deer” and said that the acts have been carried out by both teens and adults. Local hunters and farmers are assisting with the investigation by reporting wounded deer spotted in fields and near roadways, but officials are seeking more information from the broader public.
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"This investigation remains open and ongoing. Further details about this case and any potential charges will be shared at the conclusion of the investigation," Waldschmidt wrote on Facebook. "You can provide information by contacting Conservation Warden Zachery Feest (Washington County) at 262-237-0904 or Conservation Warden William Hankee (Fond du Lac County) at 920-904-2653. You can also leave an anonymous tip on the Fond du Lac County Law Enforcement Tip Line by calling 920-906-4777."
