MADISON, Wis. (AP) - The state Department of Natural Resources sold 10 hunting licenses to infants after Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill that eliminated the state's minimum hunting age.
Walker signed a Republican bill on Nov. 13 doing away with the 10-year-old minimum age to participate in a mentored hunt.
The DNR released data Tuesday that shows the agency had sold 1,814 mentored hunt licenses to children age nine or younger through Sunday. The vast majority - 1,011 licenses - went to nine-year-olds. Fifty-two licenses went to children under age 5, with 10 going to a child under a year old.
A four-year-old was the youngest licensee to register a kill. Harvest data doesn't show who actually killed the deer, however.
The state Department of Natural Resources released preliminary figures Tuesday that show hunters killed 195,738 deer this year, down 0.8 percent from 197,262 deer in 2016. The DNR sold a total of 588,387 licenses authorizing hunting with a firearm during the nine-day season, down 1.7 percent from the previous year.
