The River Falls Sportsman’s Club, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and City of River Falls will provide area deer hunters a safe, convenient and hygienic solution for disposal of butchered remains during this year’s gun deer hunting season.

A lined roll-off container will be sited near the City’s Wastewater Treatment Facility, at the south end of Apollo Road, on Nov. 17 and will remain until about Dec. 1.

The site is open to the public 24 hours a day.

Free disposal sites are also being offered at Ellsworth, Baldwin and Menomonie.

Chronic wasting disease is a fatal, infectious nervous system disease found in the deer family. The DNR began monitoring the state’s wild whitetailed deer population for CWD in 1999. The first positives were found in 2002.

Evidence shows Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) can be spread by improper dumping of carcasses.

Pierce and St. Croix are among just 15 Wisconsin counties in which the alwaysfatal disease has not yet been found.

Scientists believe CWD proteins (prions) likely spread between animals through body fluids like feces, saliva, blood, or urine, either through direct contact or indirectly through environmental contamination of soil, food or water. Once introduced into an area, the CWD protein is contagious within deer and elk populations and can spread quickly. CWD prions can remain in the environment for a long time, so other animals can contract CWD from the environment even after an infected deer or elk has died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For more information, visit https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic /wildlifehabitat/carcass.html Submitted by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources