Posted: 02.11.2011
The owner of a Mineral Point elk farm has paid more than $6,000 in financial penalties for failing to dispose of animal carcasses, test for chronic wasting disease and keep required records.
Russell Schelkopf, an Illinois resident who owns Wildlife Acres elk farm in Mineral Point, pleaded no contest in Lafayette County Circuit Court for offenses that occurred over the past two years. During the time the offenses occurred, Schelkopf had serious health problems and had hired farm managers. The farm is now under new management.
The Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department was called to the farm in February 2009 on a different matter, and while deputies were there, they found about 60 elk carcasses had piled up and were decomposing. Farm managers said the animals had died from a mineral deficiency. Wisconsin law requires that animal carcasses be disposed of within 48 hours in the winter and 24 hours in the summer. The Sheriff’s Department notified the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, which ordered burial of the carcasses.
A DATCP animal health inspector conducting a routine inspection in August 2010 found that farm managers had not kept required records for 2007, 2008 and part of 2009. Deer and elk farms have stringent record-keeping requirements for animal purchases, sales, births, and deaths, because of the risk of CWD and other diseases. In addition, they had failed to conduct CWD tests on 15 animals that died in 2009. Wisconsin law requires that deer and elk 16 months or older be tested for CWD when they die or are killed.
The civil forfeitures for the three charges totaled $4,500 and court costs totaled $1,723. Schelkopf’s son, acting as his guardian, signed a stipulation – essentially a plea agreement – Jan. 31, and Lafayette County District Attorney Charlotte Doherty filed it Tuesday, Feb. 8.
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