Wisconsin’s so-called Deer Czar is responding to claims that he thinks public game management is a form of communism, and that he may recommend privatizing hunting on the state’s public land. James Kroll was hired by the Walker administration to evaluate the state’s deer management strategies, and recommend improvements. Some Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about Kroll last week. They pointed to an 11-year-old article, where Kroll was quoted as calling public game management “the last bastion of communism.”
AUDIO: Dr. James Kroll (:40)
Kroll says he was misquoted. “I don’t think that public deer hunting is communism. I do not want to privatize deer hunting in Wisconsin, or anywhere else,” he says. “I’m very much committed to the public hunting. That’s one of the things that we desperately need to increase.”
Kroll says he’ll issue his recommendations in three weeks. “When those recommendations come out, there’s going to be a lot people with egg on their face,” he says. “Hunting needs to stay public. The more hunters out there we have the better off we are, both for the sport of hunting and the control of white tail deer.”
Rick Schuh, WHBY
