Rotting Road Kill litter highways, Dept. of Transportation claims program to remove Deer carcasses is "working?"

Despite longtime rotting deer carcasses littering out state roads, the program to pick them up is "working," according to the Transportation Department.

Some vehicle-struck deer aren't getting removed from Wisconsin highways as quickly as they're being run down, as officials adjust to a new carcass pickup system. Transportation spokeswoman Becky Kikkert says contracted vendors are supposed to remove deer carcasses within two business days of a report. She says the system is working.

No Funding?: The WISC story claims there was a little confusion about what department, DNR or DOT, was responsible for removing dead deer within two days.  

A provision in the state budget transferred responsibility for picking up dead deer from the Department of Natural Resources to the Department of Transportation. The change took effect in September. Some officials said they weren't informed of the switch of responsibility for carcass removal from the DNR to the DOT.

And yet, in my recent post, "Walker now leaving rotting Car-Killed Deer on road sides, and it may get worse," Scott Walker vetoed the actual funding of road kill removal because as he put it, it would take funding away from "other priorities," It's also because he was pissed the legislature for not putting in additional dollars...from god knows where, to do the job...so believe it or not, that's where Walker and the Republican legislature have left it....

This has been Walker's dream for years, a haphazard irresponsible nothing burger, as I reported back in April 2015:

Governor Scott Walker doesn't want the state to pay to remove deer carcasses along state highways, which means counties could have to foot the bill. Last year the DNR removed nearly 24,000 deer carcasses from state highways across Wisconsin.

The Governor's proposed budget eliminates$700,000 a year for the DNR to remove the carcasses statewide. Under the proposal, responsibility for clearing the deer would fall to whatever government agency is in charge of the roadway. Or they may be left uncollected. The nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau cautions, "dead and decaying deer on the roadside are unsightly and can dampen Wisconsin's reputation as a tourist destination."

Here's the WISC report. I loved how "driver" Kimberly Engel couldn't care less about how it looks or what it'll do to Wisconsin's reputation as a tourist destination, not to mention the spread of disease:

Engel: "We live in Wisconsin, there's always road kill somewhere."