'Hunt the Hunters': Wisconsin deer stands vandalized with anti-hunting messages
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}For the second time in just weeks, deer stands in Wisconsin’s Dunn County were discovered vandalized with messages targeting the area’s hunters, including one message which read, “Hunt the hunters.”
On Friday, the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the second deer stand — located in the Township of Dunn — had been spray-painted with the message, as well as what appeared to be the logo for the Animal Liberation Front.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Animal Liberation Front, or A.L.F., has since told Fox News the organization was "very pleased" with the development.
"The North American Animal Liberation Press Office was very pleased to hear about the destruction of multiple hunting stands in Dunn County," the A.L.F. said in a statement to Fox News. "It is an absurd idea that there is sport in lying in wait for an unsuspecting animal to stroll by and then blowing it away with a high-powered weapon. People who do this sort of thing are despicable and need to be stopped."
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The activists responsible for the Dunn vandalism had also damaged "several trail cams" that might have caught their actions, police wrote on Facebook.
This marks the second such incident in Dunn County since late September, when vandals took down a deer stand in the Township of Sherman, spray-painting the structure with the words “All hunters are bastards,” as well “A.L.F."
The incidents follow two nearby cases of similar vandalism to deer stands over the past few years, police said. Authorities are now urging anyone with information into the crimes to contact the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office, which is currently working with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and FBI."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Police are also warning hunters to inspect deer stands for damage or tampering for their own safety.
“We are asking that the public again stay vigilant to suspicious activity and look over deer stands prior to utilizing them,” advised the Dunn County Sheriff’s Office.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Groups affiliated with the A.L.F. have claimed responsibility for similar damage to hunting structures in the past. Most recently, suspects in France downed over a dozen hunting stands — or up to 22, as reported by the A.L.F. — in Brittany earlier this month, according to French outlet Ouest-France.