Wisconsin

Bryan Polcyn

A new bill in Madison aims to get tough on drunk boaters, snowmobilers, and ATV riders. FOX6 Investigator Bryan Polcyn tells you there's a missing key element the investigators have been telling you about for more than a year.

[Full video in link]

Meg Jones

Big Muskego Lake is shallow and spring-fed, meaning the ice is often unstable, particularly early in the cold season.

Add in temperatures that haven't been low enough to produce thick ice - conditions similar to other lakes throughout Wisconsin - and that combination contributed to the weekend death of an all-terrain vehicle rider.

TOWN OF MENA-SHA — With increasing complaints about snowmobiles and all terrain vehicles, police remind residents that operation of the off-road vehicles is restricted.

Officer Jason Weber, the department's community liaison officer, said a town ordinance states vehicles that cannot be licensed through the state Division of Motor Vehicles, such as snowmobiles, ATVs, scooters and mini bikes, cannot be operated on any land or roads in the town.

State Senator Jim Holperin (D-Eagle River) said new legislation (Senate Bill 264) prohibiting motorized recreational vehicles from straying off marked trails and onto public land has been recommended for passage in the State Senate.

“Current law prohibits trespass by ATVs and snowmobiles and off-road vehicles on private land, but our statutes are silent regarding public land,” Holperin said.  “Wisconsin law just kind of assumes that public land is available for any kind of use including motorized vehicles.  That won’t be the case for long.”

Does anyone think that using snowmobiles to run over and kill deer is a legitimate way to hunt? Does anyone think that it's not cruel and inhumane or a form of thrill killing?

Yet last month in Waupaca County, felony charges of cruelty to animals were dismissed against a man who was accused of running over and killing deer with his snowmobile in January. Robby Kuenzi's attorney convinced Waupaca County Circuit Judge John Hoffman that because Kuenzi was hunting at the time, state law prohibits animal cruelty charges. Kuenzi still faces several misdemeanor charges, including hunting out of season, according to the state's online court records system, and similar charges are pending against two other men in the incident in which four deer were found dead along a snowmobile trail south of Waupaca. A fifth deer had to be euthanized.

But a misdemeanor charge of hunting out of season hardly seems sufficient for what happened, which is why the state Legislature should approve a bill - proposed by state Rep. Andy Jorgensen (D-Fort Atkinson) - aimed at stopping this kind of outrage. Jorgensen's bill would make it a crime to intentionally kill, threaten or harass wild animals with motor vehicles and boats.

Charles Brace

We're pleased to see that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has decided to appeal the bizarre decisions to drop felony charges against two Waupaca County brothers charged with running down five deer with their snowmobiles.

The judges ruled that because the district attorney also charged Robby and Rory Kuenzi with hunting out of season, they could not also be charged with felony animal mistreatment.

We're also pleased that Rep. Andy Jorgensen, D-Fort Atkinson, has introduced a bill that would outlaw the intentional or reckless killing of a wild animal with an off-road vehicle or boat.