Wis. Stat. § 23.65

This is the official text of Wis. Stat. § 23.65, part of Wisconsin’s Wisconsin Statutes — the complete compiled statutory law of Wisconsin, organized into numbered chapters by subject.

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Issuance of complaint and summons.

Official statutory text

(1) When it appears to the district attorney that a violation of s. 90.21 , 134.60 , 281.36 , 281.48 (2) to (5) , 283.33 , 285.57 (2) , 285.59 (2) , (3) (c) and (4) , 287.07 , 287.08 , 287.81 or 299.64 (2) , this chapter or ch. 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 169 , or 350 , or any administrative rule promulgated pursuant thereto, a violation specified under s. 285.86 , or a violation of ch. 951 , if the animal involved is a captive wild animal, has been committed the district attorney may proceed by complaint and summons.

(2) The complaint shall be prepared in the form specified in s. 23.55 . After a complaint is prepared, it shall be filed with the judge and a summons shall be issued or the complaint shall be dismissed pursuant to s. 968.03 . Such filing commences the action.

(3) If a district attorney refuses or is unavailable to issue a complaint, a circuit judge, after conducting a hearing, may permit the filing of a complaint if he or she finds there is probable cause to believe that the person charged has committed a violation of s. 281.36 , 287.07 , 287.08 or 287.81 , this chapter or ch. 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 or 350 or a violation specified under s. 285.86 . The district attorney shall be informed of the hearing and may attend.

History: 1975 c. 365 ; 1979 c. 175 ; 1981 c. 390 ; 1989 a. 284 , 335 , 359 ; 1991 a. 97 ; 1993 a. 16 , 243 , 344 , 491 ; 1995 a. 227 , 290 ; 1997 a. 35 ; 1999 a. 9 ; 2001 a. 56 ; 2013 a. 69 .

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.