Wisconsin: Number of Enforcement Cases Do Not Support Wisconsin’s New Amphibian and Reptile Regulations! Here is the Data!

Throughout the drafting and promulgation of Wisconsin’s recently updated native amphibian and reptile regulations, which began as a Statement of Scope (SS-041-25), and became NH-04-25/CR 25-092 in the Wisconsin Legislative Rules Clearinghouse, was: “native amphibians and reptiles are being increasingly poached, smuggled, or collected from the wild”! Preventing responsible reptile keepers from being able to responsibly continue to keep and breed native herptiles (amphibians and reptiles) long term in captivity will somehow prevent more poaching and smuggling of these animals from the wild. At least according to Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ (WDNR) “logic”, if one could call it that.

But has that really actually been the case? Especially over the last 25 to 30 years since the regulations were first promulgated in 2001 (not the 1990’s, which was yet another one of the many factual errors WDNR made throughout the recent rulemaking process). We found out through a recent public records request, from approximately January 1st, 2000, to present (September/October, 2026). Sure, there can always be cases which go under the radar, undetected.

But for this, we examined the hard, actual evidence in the form of actual enforcement citations and other enforcement actions taken by WDNR conservation wardens, according to WDNR’s own records itself.

Here is the breakdown!

Number of Citations/Violations (by Year)
2000: 1 citation.
2001: 0 citations.
2002: 0 citations.
2003. 0 citations.
2004: 1 citation.
2005: 1 citation.
2006: 0 citations.
2007: 0 citations.
2008: 0 citations.
2009: 0 citations.
2010: 0 citations.
2011: 1 citation.
2012: 0 citations.
2013: 0 citations.
2014: 1 citation.
2015: 0 citations.
2016: 0 citations.
2017: 1 citation.
2018: 1 citation.
2019: 0 citations.
2020: 1 citation.
2021: 0 citations.
2022: 1 citation.
2023: 1 citation.
2024: 0 citations.
2025: 1 citation.
2026: 0 citations.

That’s an average of only 1 citation about every 2 years, or 24 months. So which animals, or which species were implicated with these citations and other enforcement actions? What were the actual details of each of these cases? Some of the enforcement reports we received were old, and did not come with any corresponding citations and/or reports, so there was no way of knowing for certain. But the vast majority, were for turtles illegally or unlawfully collected or harvested from the wild, for which Wisconsin already had open and closed seasons for. There was only one citation in over 25 years for a wild-collected bullsnake (a popularly kept and bred native pet snake species), and one other citation for a captive-bred bullsnake obtained from out of state that the individual just did not have the proper paperwork for.

That would seem to be the extent of it! Existing laws already prevent unlawfully taking of native turtles from the wild, which were what the vast majority of citations we found were regarding. So in other-words, what was needed was greater enforcement of the existing regulations we already had, not new regulations that aren’t going fix what was already unlawful in the first place!