Claims board approves $10,000 in claims for dead deer

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The Wisconsin Claims Board approved $10,000 in payments for two northwestern Wisconsin residents whose deer died after gypsy-moth spraying.

On Friday, the board announced its decision to award $6,000 to Richard Lawrence Jr. and $4,000 to Robert Schultz.

Both Lawrence and Schultz are Shell Lake residents who made claims for deer that were injured or killed because of low-flying planes in May 2019. The planes were spraying for gypsy moths, and they spooked the penned deer. Lawrence said notice about the spraying from the Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection said the planes would be flying above the trees, not low over open areas.

Lawrence asked for $85,000 for the death of one buck, one doe, two pregnant does and two fawns aborted by an injured doe. He said he had a $48,500 offer for the buck and got an appraisal for the value of the other deer. Schultz made a claim for $9,000 for a doe and two fawns that died.

The Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection said Lawrence never contacted the office with questions, and if he had, staff employees would have removed him from the spraying area. The DATCP said it would exclude deer farms from future gypsy moth spraying, but it didn’t admit any liability.

The DATCP said if the board granted the claim, it shouldn’t be more than $6,000 for Lawrence and $4,000 for Schultz, which are in line with the department’s other indemnity programs that grant maximum payments of $1,500 for each animal.

The board concluded the reduced claims were justified. The payments will come from the DATCP.

Board members denied requests from 10 other claimants, citing an insufficient showing of negligence on the part of the state. The claims included $9,369.16 for wrongly paid restitution, $2,882 for missing sails for a sailboat bought at a UW-Madison auction and $157,17 for a TV damaged by Waupun Correctional Institution staff. Follow @WLJReporter