SO Basically she says “They’re like our kids to us,” said Amy Visger! I feel sorry for her kids…. what sort of person could continually place their kids in Life Threatening Situations…????
Wisconsin, the only state with a program that compensates the owners of dogs killed by wolves while hunting other animals, has paid tens of thousands of dollars during the past decade to individuals who have violated state hunting or firearms laws.
Courting disaster?
The DNR’s payments to the owners of hunting dogs killed by wolves has long been controversial.
Patricia McConnell, a University of Wisconsin-Madison zoologist and expert on dog behavior, has criticized the program for rewarding people who deliberately “choose to put their dogs at extreme risk.”
Of the 32 states that allow bear hunting, 14 ban the use of dogs, according to the Humane Society of the United States, a nonprofit animal welfare group.
Hunters frequently place the value of their lost hounds at well above the state’s maximum reimbursement rate of $2,500.
“They’re like our kids to us,” said Amy Visger, a board member of the Wisconsin Bear Hunters’ Association, in a 2010 Wisconsin Public Television news segment. “We really don’t want anything to happen to them.”
Bear hunter Amy Visger releases a hound in this still shot from a 2010 news segment on Wisconsin Public Television. Visger filed a claim in 2013 seeking compensation for a dog killed in a wolf attack.
Visger is among the owners of the 23 hunting dogs killed in 2013 who are seeking compensation. She did not respond to an interview request.
Elizabeth Huntley of Wisconsin Wolf Defenders, a pro-wolf advocacy group, agreed that some hunting dogs are worth “upwards of $5,000,” depending on how much training they receive. But she believes some hunters consider their dogs expendable, and are willing to put them in harm’s way — especially if the state will compensate them for any loss.
Source: State pays scofflaws over hound deaths | WisconsinWatch.org