USDA reports more H5N1 detections in mice and cats
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Cows heading to Wisconsin’s fairs must test negative for bird flu, state officials say
Wisconsin State Farmer
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Dairy exhibitors heading to fairs or exhibitions this summer will have one more thing to check off their list: having their cow tested for bird flu.
During a media call Tuesday, state officials from the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) announced all lactating dairy cattle bound for the show ring or other gathering will have to provide proof of a negative test before climbing into the show trailer.
Wisconsin State Veterinarian Darlene Konkle said the order regarding intrastate movement is an effort to prevent the spread of bird flu in dairy cattle. The order is effective June 19, the same day the 127th Elroy Fair kicks off its five-day run in Juneau County.
“We are collaborating with the Wisconsin Association of Fairs, helping them with outreach and getting the word out to exhibitors and fair organizers across the state,” said DATCP Secretary Randy Romanski.
The confirmation of bird flu in dairy herds in the Upper Midwest, including in Michigan — and most recently Minnesota and Iowa — has spurred state officials to take action to minimize the risk of the illness being introduced or spread among cattle in the Badger state. To date, Wisconsin has not confirmed a case of the virus in dairy cattle, Konkle said.
Bird flu has been detected in dairy cattle in more than 90 herds across 12 states. In addition to the USDA Federal Order that requires Influenza A testing for interstate movement of dairy cattle, today’s announcement will limit the risk of commingling infected animals.
“With the busy fair season ahead of us, DATCP is activating its regulatory authority to protect the dairy, poultry and livestock industries in our state,” Konkle said.
According to state guidelines, a fair is defined as a state, local or county event, and an exhibition is an event at which animals from different locations are comingled at a single location. Konkle confirmed that the order does not restrict in-state herd-to-herd movement. Movement of animals to licensed livestock markets is also exempt.
How are cattle tested?
In order to move lactating dairy cattle to fairs or exhibitions within the state, producers must receive a negative test for the bird flu virus at an approved National Animal Health Laboratory Network lab, with samples collected no more than 7 days prior to movement to the fair or exhibition.
Konkle noted that the testing is available to producers at no cost through USDA APHIS at network laboratories. Producers may also apply for reimbursement of shipping and veterinary fees for collection of samples.
“Most fairs already have a veterinarian that they work with, but we are also willing to help connect families with veterinarians around the state,” Konkle said.
Konkle said that samples can be dropped off at a designated laboratory by 1 p.m. Monday, Wednesday or Friday, with results being released at the end of the day. Samples left on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday or Sunday will be tested the next business day.
This intrastate order will remain in effect until 60 days after the last detection of H5N1 in cattle herds in the United States. The virus was first diagnosed in a Texas herd at the end of March.
Biosecurity important in protecting herd and state industry
Konkle said dairy producers and those working with dairy are strongly encouraged to continue practicing strict biosecurity to protect their herds. DATCP is closely monitoring bird flu in dairy cattle and continues to encourage producers that notice unusual clinical signs in their cattle to work with their herd veterinarian.
To report herds with unexplained symptoms, veterinarians should contact DATCP at 608-224-4872 (business hours) or 800-943-0003 (after hours and weekends). Reports can also be emailed to datcpanimalimports@wisconsin.gov.
Romanski stressed the importance of communicating factual information to the public about the safety of the country’s food supply despite worrisome headlines.
“Numerous tests have been done on ground beef and muscle tissue and they’re not finding any sign of the virus. Of course, cooking meat properly is also important,” Romanski said. “Pasteurization also keeps our milk supply safe. The public needs to hear this message.”
Bird Flu Tests Are Hard To Get. So How Will We Know When To Sound the Pandemic Alarm?
Standoff Over Wolf Torture: Locals Block Motorcycle Rally From Daniel Bar
SC man headed to prison after man, child die in hunting accident, SCDNR says
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COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. —
A South Carolina man will spend time in prison after another man and his daughter were killed in a hunting accident, according to the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.
(Video above: Morning headlines from WYFF News 4)
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Sean Peterson, 33, pleaded guilty this week in Colleton County to two counts of negligent use of a firearm while engaged in hunting.
The charges stem from the shooting deaths of Kim Drawdy and Drawdy’s 9-year-old daughter on Jan. 1, 2020, according to SCDNR.
SCDNR said Peterson fired at a noise from the bushes without identifying his target.
Following the guilty plea, a judge sentenced Peterson to five years in prison and four years of probation.
Do not touch baby deer: Texas wildlife experts issue warning
Bird flu is rampant in animals. Humans ignore it at our own peril
By Brenda Goodman, CNN
11 minute read
Updated 11:05 AM EDT, Tue June 11, 2024
https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/11/health/bird-flu-animals-humans/index.html
A pelican suspected to have died from H5N1 avian influenza is seen on a beach in Lima on December 1, 2022. Ernesto Benavides/AFP/Getty ImagesCNN —
Mark Naniot remembers 2022 as the summer from hell.
As the co-founder of Wild Instincts animal rescue in Wisconsin’s Northwoods, Naniot and his team spent the season sweating in gloves, gowns, smocks and masks and going through what felt like endless rounds of disinfection as they moved between the cages of the sick and injured animals they cared for.
The precautions were necessary for a trio of infectious diseases occurring with some frequency in wild animals that summer: Covid-19 was still making life difficult, and a devastating contagion called chronic wasting disease was showing up in deer in the area.
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Then, there was H5N1 bird flu to contend with. “It’s highly, highly transmissible,” said Naniot, who has been involved in animal rescue for 35 years.
Since it was first discovered in birds in 1996, H5N1 has shown itself to be a Swiss Army Knife of a virus, evolving the necessary tools to break into the cells of a growing list of species. So far, it has infected and killed millions of wild and farmed birds. It’s also been found in at least 26 different kinds of mammals, including, most recently in the United States — cows, cats and house mice.
The voraciousness of the virus prompted Dr. Jeremy Farrar, chief scientist of the World Health Organization in April to call it “a global zoonotic animal pandemic.”
Along the way, people have been a kind of collateral damage. Humans can be infected, but we aren’t really the intended targets.
That could all change quickly, however.
“Influenza actually makes mutations, in the sense of making errors copying its genome, at a higher rate than a coronavirus like SARS-CoV2,” said Dr. Jesse Bloom, a computational biologist who focuses on influenza viruses at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center in Seattle.
These errors don’t always work in favor of the virus. Most of the time, viruses with errors won’t work or be fit enough to continue to copy and survive. But every once in a while, a random error can result in a change to the virus that give it an advantage in its environment, and that version of the virus will continue to spread and grow.
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If humans happen to be that environment, and H5N1 changes at the right place at the right time, suddenly the animal pandemic could become a major problem for people, too.
RELATED ARTICLEAlpacas test positive for H5N1 bird flu for the first time
Naniot had seen wild birds come into Wild Instincts rescue with H5N1 — bald eagles, hawks and owls — but nothing had prepared him for the red fox kits.
The baby foxes were brought in stumbling and uncoordinated, making him think they might have gotten into some kind of poison. Then the seizures started.
“They would have these severe, severe seizures,” Naniot said. “Screaming very loud, whole-body tremors.”
The first seizures lasted for 20 to 30 seconds at a time. “And then it would get longer and longer and longer,” he said.
Naniot hadn’t known his young patients could get bird flu. Further research clued him in to the fact that foxes had recently joined a growing list of species that could succumb, usually after eating the flesh of infected dead birds.
“The severity of the seizures is something I really hadn’t seen before,” Naniot said. “It’s a very sad thing to see, the progression of the disease.”
Risks to humans
Though H5N1 is known to have infected nearly 900 people in the past 30 years, these infections have been sporadic and usually self-limiting. The virus can still be deadly, however: More than 50% of people who are known to have been infected with H5N1 have died.
Still, the virus isn’t particularly good at infecting humans. Even when virus manages to get into a person and cause symptoms, it rarely gets passed to someone else.
“We call these dead-end infections,” said Dr. Scott Weese, a veterinarian and expert in zoonotic infections, at the University of Guelph in Canada.
The way a dead-end infection happens, Weese explains, is that a person is around a large amount of the virus, or their immune system is too weak to resist, and H5N1 gets in. But it is not a virus that’s well-adapted to humans, so it never really builds up in respiratory secretions — the fluid that coats the nose, throat, and lungs — which would give it a way out through coughs, sneezes or even exhaled breath.
There have been at least three of these have apparently dead-end infections in dairy workers in the US, who worked closely with infected milk cows. Two of the workers developed conjunctivitis, or eye infections. In one case, the worker reported getting splashed with raw milk in their eyes. A third developed respiratory symptoms after close contact with cows. All were successfully treated with an antiviral medication. None developed severe symptoms or infected others.
Using a strain of H5N1 from the recent cattle outbreak, scientists recently confirmed that this version of the virus is unlikely to transmit through the air. In experiments with ferrets, which are considered the gold standard for studying how viruses transmit in people, researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grew a sample of the same H5N1 virus taken from a farmworker with the flu in Texas to experimentally infect six of the animals. Then, three healthy ferrets were placed in the same enclosures with three of the sick animals. These animals could touch, nose and lick the sick animals, and all of them became ill.
Next, the CDC tested airborne transmission by putting three healthy ferrets into an enclosure where they could breathe the same air as sick animals but couldn’t touch them. Only one of those three animals became ill, suggesting that the virus carried by cattle in the current outbreak is not well adapted to respiratory spread, the CDC wrote in a news release on the study.
So far, that seems to be what’s happening in the real world, too. Though more than 80 dairy herds have tested positive across at least 12 states, the number of human infections has apparently been low, though there’s been little testing to confirm that.
RELATED ARTICLEWhat a US farmworker’s case of bird flu tells us about tracking the infection
These early ferret experiments are good news, the CDC noted, because it means the virus would need to change to become an infection spread person-to-person through the airborne droplets. The agency said it plans to repeat the tests.
As Covid has shown, all of this could change in the the rub of an eye or a small cough. The more opportunity the virus has to spread, the more opportunity it has to change in ways that will help it pry its way into human cells.
“It’s really important to understand everything we know today is a snapshot of today, and these viruses can change very quickly,” said Dr. Rick Bright, an immunologist and former director of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority in an interview with CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta for the Chasing Life podcast.
“They can adapt, and they can spread very easily when they do change,” said Bright, who is now CEO of Bright Global Health.
Dr. Erin Sorrell, a virologist and a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, says that while humans have been exposed to seasonal strains of the flu, and flu vaccines help build immunity H1 and H3 flu strains, H5N1 would look pretty different to our bodies.
“Our existing immunity to H3 and H1 is not necessarily going to protect us against exposure to an H5 virus,” she said.
The CDC’s ferret study also had some sobering findings. In contrast to seasonal flu, which makes ferrets sick, but doesn’t kill them, H5N1 killed all the ferrets that were infected.
“While the three cases of A(H5N1) in the United States have been mild, it is possible that there will be serious illnesses among people,” the CDC wrote in its conclusions on the study.
Dead birds are collected in July 2023 along the coast in the Vadso municipality of Finnmark in Norway following a major outbreak of bird flu. Oyvind Zahl Arntzen/NTB/AFP/Getty Images
In the more than two dozen human infections with H5N1 virus worldwide since 2022, with the most recent iteration of the virus, there’s been a wide spectrum of severity. Fourteen illnesses were severe or critical, seven were fatal, six were mild and eight didn’t have any symptoms at all, according to the CDC.
Dr. Seema Lakdawala, a microbiologist and immunologist at Emory University who specializes in the flu, thinks the difference in symptom severity may be due to previous exposure to seasonal viruses. Her experiments in ferrets suggest that our bodies wouldn’t necessarily be totally defenseless. In her lab, ferrets with previous exposures to seasonal flu strains didn’t get as sick when exposed to new flu viruses compared to those with no prior exposure to seasonal strains. She says she hasn’t tested this with any of the strains involved in the cattle outbreak, however.
So while we probably don’t have any antibodies — the immune system’s front-line soldiers — at the ready to fight off an H5 infection, there are memory cells in our tissues that might recognize parts of a new flu virus and respond.
How much help we might get from past exposures to flu viruses is difficult to predict, however, which is why vaccination would still be important to tune up our immunity.
Plans to stop the virus from spreading
The US has vaccines against H5 viruses in its Strategic National Stockpile, and last month, government officials said 4.8 million doses are being “filled and finished” so they would be ready for use, though there’s no plan to give them to anyone yet.
RELATED ARTICLEWastewater monitoring in Texas picked up an early signal of the bird flu outbreak
Finland has already ordered 20,000 doses of a different H5 strain — H5N8 — which, will be used as soon as they’re available to protect workers who might be vulnerable to the virus, such as scientists and those in direct contact with infected animals on mink farms, local officials told health and science news outlet, STAT News.
For now, the CDC maintains its assessment that the risk to the general public from H5N1 is low, though people who work with infected animals have a higher risk and should wear protective clothing and take additional precautions to avoid getting sick. The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, or ASPR, has made that protective equipment available to states for use on farms, and the USDA has made additional funding available to farms to support efforts to safeguard their livestock from disease.
But so far, wearing this equipment is voluntary, and there are concerns that it might be difficult for farm workers to wear the full recommended kit, which includes coveralls, an apron, a mask, eye protection, a head covering, gloves and boots during the summer, which is again expected to break heat records.
The government has also said it is working on the development of a rapid test for H5N1.
Bright thinks severity of symptoms may depend on how much virus a person is exposed to when they are infected. Touching contaminated milk or the body of a dead bird and then rubbing your eyes or nose might deliver a smaller dose of the virus, and ultimately result in milder symptoms. Whereas ingesting large amount of virus — as some animals do when they scavenge for food or as humans in some countries do when consuming dishes made with duck blood — could lead to severe disease.
RELATED ARTICLEWith bird flu infecting dairy cattle, FDA asks some states to curb sales of raw milk
“The virus is able to infect a number of internal organs. So it doesn’t just locate, say, in the lungs, as we would think most influenza viruses would,” Bright said. It’s also been found in “the brains and then the spleens, the intestines, and the heart and throughout the body of those animals.”
Dr. Richard Webby, who directs the WHO’s Collaborating Centre on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals and Birds at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, agrees.
“It’s at the top of the list in terms of bad guy viruses,” he said, noting that the virus is nerve-loving, or neurotropic. “So it goes to the brain and causes very, very severe disease.”
Infected animals often behave strangely or aggressively. Ducks waddle in circles, twisting their necks, writhing on the ground.
“I would hate to see it in humans,” Webby said.
So far, the virus hasn’t made the changes that would enable it to become a fully human pathogen, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. It’s unclear whether it ever will.
“I’ve been a student of this virus. And I surely have been amazed at how it’s changed over the course of the last 20-some years, but at the same time, you know, I’m looking for evidence that it is likely to become a virus infecting humans and then transmitted by humans to other humans. And we just haven’t seen that yet,” he added.
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Naniot at the Wisconsin animal rescue said they tried to save about seven infected fox kits in the summer of 2022, but all of them died.
Other rescue organizations in their network had a few foxes infected with H5N1 that survived, but they ultimately went blind.
While all the precautions they took to safely work with the animals were arduous, Naniot said he’s grateful they were effective. They never spread the virus to any of the other animals in the facility — including themselves.
“Unfortunately, it’s kind of like when Covid went through, you know, it first started someplace,” he said.
Naniot says he hasn’t encountered any infected animals since 2022, but he’s watching the news closely in case any cow herds become infected in Wisconsin, knowing that he could easily see H5N1 again.
“It spread kind of like wildfire, and it’s a highly, highly contagious disease.”
Iceland grants whale hunting permit despite animal welfare concerns
4 hours ago
By Jaroslav Lukiv, BBC NewsShare Iceland grants whale hunting permit despite animal welfare concerns
4 hours ago
By Jaroslav Lukiv, BBC NewsShare https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2ll8d00kzgo
Iceland’s government has issued a licence to hunt whales to the country’s sole whaling company – a move condemned by animal welfare groups.
The licence for the 2024 hunting season allows the Hvalur company to kill 128 fin whales.
The decision “is based on a precautionary approach and reflects the government’s increased emphasis on the sustainable use of resources,” the government said.
The Humane Society International animal protection charity said the licence was granted “despite clear evidence of immense animal suffering”.
It said an independent report by the Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority on whaling in 2022 “revealed some whales killed in Icelandic hunts had taken up to two hours to die, with 41% of whales suffering immensely before dying for an average of 11.5 minutes”.
“Such suffering was deemed in contravention of the country’s Animal Welfare Act,” the charity said.
Iceland, Norway and Japan are currently the only three nations that allow commercial whaling.
Whale hunting resumes in Iceland under strict rules
What is whaling and why’s it controversial?
In a statement on Tuesday, the Icelandic government said the licence to Hvalur “is valid for the 2024 hunting season”.
It said the company was now permitted to hunt “99 whales in the Greenland/West Iceland region and 29 whales in the East Iceland/Faroe Islands region, totalling 128 whales”.
“This decision aligns with the Marine and Freshwater Research Institute’s 2017 advice and considers the conservative ecosystem factors of the International Whaling Commission,” the statement added.
Last year, Hvalur – which is believed to have two whaling vessels – was allowed to hunt 161 fin whales.
The whaling season in Iceland usually lasts from June to September, before it becomes too windy and dark.
Most of the whale meat is exported to Japan.
The practice has given rise to protests from conservation groups which consider fin whales – the second-longest marine mammal after the blue whale – to be vulnerable to extinction.
In a recent survey, 51% of Icelanders said they were opposed to commercial whaling.
King Charles III painting vandalized by animal rights activists
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Animal rights activists pasted a cartoon image over a portrait of King Charles III on Tuesday at a London art gallery, the latest in a series of incidents at U.K. museums as campaigners use vandalism to publicize their causes.Photos
3Updated 9:37 AM PDT, June 11, 2024Share https://apnews.com/article/britain-king-charles-iii-portrait-wallace-gromit-7b58e557321e09752f6029e817212fbb
LONDON (AP) — Animal rights activists pasted a cartoon image over a portrait of King Charles III on Tuesday at a London art gallery, the latest in a series of incidents at U.K. museums as campaigners use vandalism to publicize their causes.
A group called Animal Rising shared a video of campaigners pasting a picture of a character called Wallace, from the “Wallace and Gromit” comedy series, over the king’s head.
The so-called ‘’comic redecoration″ was designed to highlight an investigation that Animal Rising said found widespread violation of animal husbandry rules at farms approved by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
A speech bubble next to the head of Wallace read: “No cheese, Gromit. Look at all this cruelty on RSPCA farms!”
The painting is protected by a sheet of plastic and wasn’t damaged, according to the Philip Mould Gallery, where it is on display.
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The larger-than-life painting by Jonathan Yeo was unveiled last month and is the first portrait of Charles to be completed since he ascended the throne in 2022. It captures the king in shades of red with his hands clasped atop the hilt of his sword and a butterfly flitting above his right shoulder.
Colleton County man sentenced in 2020 hunting incident that killed two
By Anna Harris
Published: Jun. 10, 2024 at 1:56 PM PDT|Updated: 36 minutes ago
Colleton County man sentenced in 2020 hunting incident that killed two
By Anna Harris
Published: Jun. 10, 2024 at 1:56 PM PDT|Updated: 36 minutes ago
COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – A Colleton County man charged in the shooting deaths of a father and his daughter during a 2020 hunting trip entered guilty pleas before his case could go to trial.
Sean Peterson, 33, was charged with two counts of negligent use of a firearm while in engaged in hunting that resulted in death in the Jan. 1, 2020, shooting deaths of Kim Drawdy, 30; and Lauren Drawdy, 9.
Judge Maite Murphy sentenced Peterson Monday to a total of five years in jail and four years’ probation.
Peterson decided to enter his pleas after the state conducted a full jury selection and pre-trial motions.
Investigators said Peterson was out hunting with friends on New Year’s Day of 2020 in a wooded area on Barracada Road near Walterboro and he admitted at the time to shooting toward noise coming from the bushes, which he believed to be deer. But he fatally struck the Drawdys in that shooting.
Monday’s sentencing was filled with emotional testimony from both sides, each of which filled multiple benches.
“We don’t get to go teach Lauren how to drive. We don’t get to help her pick out a prom dress,” Kim Drawdy’s former sister-in-law, Brandy Branton, said. “We don’t get to float out on the river with Kim anymore. We don’t get to fish with him anymore. Nothing.”
Some, like Kim Drawdy’s cousin, Tina O’Quinn, could hardly speak.
“Kim was a very good person,” O’Quinn said. “Lauren was a beautiful little girl. None of this should have ever happened.”
Peterson himself acknowledged the family, who he says he has not spoken to since the deaths.
“I love y’all and it was not intentional,” Peterson said. “If I could take it back, I would.”
Before Peterson decided to plead during pre-trial motions, Murphy denied defense attorney Scott Harvin’s motion to exclude evidence of any prior hard drug use from the New Year’s party the night before the hunting trip. But she did approve his second motion to exclude the fact that Peterson had an expired hunting license at the time of the incident because it was not the proximate cause of death.
“Everybody was guilty in that situation,” Peterson’s mother, Valorie Jones, said. “Nobody was innocent in that situation. And everything that was done, everybody did that day.”
Murphy addressed some of the claims.
“Quite frankly, there was an innocent person out there, and that was Lauren,” Murphy said. “Mr. Harvin, I don’t buy for a second that the drugs had nothing to do with it. It was a part of the crime.”
State Solicitor Julie Kate Keeney claimed the hard drugs were used all night before the hunting incident, which would have affected his judgment. She said the number one rule of hunting is to know your target.
Harvin disagreed about the drug use, saying they stopped in the early hours of the morning and that was irrelevant to the hunting incident itself.
The maximum sentence Peterson could have received was six years in prison. The state asked for extended time but the defense asked for 90 days in jail, plus probation.
COLLETON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) – A Colleton County man charged in the shooting deaths of a father and his daughter during a 2020 hunting trip entered guilty pleas before his case could go to trial.
Sean Peterson, 33, was charged with two counts of negligent use of a firearm while in engaged in hunting that resulted in death in the Jan. 1, 2020, shooting deaths of Kim Drawdy, 30; and Lauren Drawdy, 9.
Judge Maite Murphy sentenced Peterson Monday to a total of five years in jail and four years’ probation.
Peterson decided to enter his pleas after the state conducted a full jury selection and pre-trial motions.
Investigators said Peterson was out hunting with friends on New Year’s Day of 2020 in a wooded area on Barracada Road near Walterboro and he admitted at the time to shooting toward noise coming from the bushes, which he believed to be deer. But he fatally struck the Drawdys in that shooting.
Monday’s sentencing was filled with emotional testimony from both sides, each of which filled multiple benches.
“We don’t get to go teach Lauren how to drive. We don’t get to help her pick out a prom dress,” Kim Drawdy’s former sister-in-law, Brandy Branton, said. “We don’t get to float out on the river with Kim anymore. We don’t get to fish with him anymore. Nothing.”
Some, like Kim Drawdy’s cousin, Tina O’Quinn, could hardly speak.
“Kim was a very good person,” O’Quinn said. “Lauren was a beautiful little girl. None of this should have ever happened.”
Peterson himself acknowledged the family, who he says he has not spoken to since the deaths.
“I love y’all and it was not intentional,” Peterson said. “If I could take it back, I would.”
Before Peterson decided to plead during pre-trial motions, Murphy denied defense attorney Scott Harvin’s motion to exclude evidence of any prior hard drug use from the New Year’s party the night before the hunting trip. But she did approve his second motion to exclude the fact that Peterson had an expired hunting license at the time of the incident because it was not the proximate cause of death.
“Everybody was guilty in that situation,” Peterson’s mother, Valorie Jones, said. “Nobody was innocent in that situation. And everything that was done, everybody did that day.”
Murphy addressed some of the claims.
“Quite frankly, there was an innocent person out there, and that was Lauren,” Murphy said. “Mr. Harvin, I don’t buy for a second that the drugs had nothing to do with it. It was a part of the crime.”
State Solicitor Julie Kate Keeney claimed the hard drugs were used all night before the hunting incident, which would have affected his judgment. She said the number one rule of hunting is to know your target.
Harvin disagreed about the drug use, saying they stopped in the early hours of the morning and that was irrelevant to the hunting incident itself.
The maximum sentence Peterson could have received was six years in prison. The state asked for extended time but the defense asked for 90 days in jail, plus probation.
Exposing the Big Game 