illegal poaching

[H088]

Some guy is running around illegally killing elk in my area, I was wondering how you guys feel about respecting laws in regards to species protection.

Do you obey them? Or do you feel you should just be able to kill what ever you want?

I personally would like to have him thrown in jail because they were just starting to come back around my area.

 

[PotatoJudge]

I have issues with some game laws, but for the most part they're needed to coordinate management and promote fair hunting. It's the other junk the government throws in that makes following the law while hunting increasingly difficult, and it's keeping people from taking up the sport. I have heard some hardcore trophy hunters say that if someone can't/won't keep up with current law and follow it to the letter they have no business hunting, but they're wrong for a number of obvious reasons.

Sounds to me like your elk poacher needs to be put away.

 

[MutinousDoug]

Without game laws and restrictions on take there would be no big game to hunt. How many years did it take to virtually eliminate bison from the western US? 40 years 1850 to 1890? When the population of the USA was 31 million or so.
Poachers are thieves.

 

[shadowalker]

Sounds like if you know for sure the person is poaching and know who it is you should report him to the authorities.

There are certain areas where they aren't aggressively managing certain game but the way to deal with it is to get the regulations and laws changed, not go outside them.

 

[steveno]

I didn't know there was such a thing as legal poaching?

 

[paintballdude902]

i kinda have a hipacratic view one it

i cant stand guys that shoot deer/bear with out a permit/out of season/going over limit

but i really dont care if they shoot squirrels and foxes heck i shoot foxes all year at the barn jsut because weve had problems with rabbies and one tried to attack a boarded and did attack a horse which had to be put down

so i think it depends i also have sympathy if you need food to feed your family i have no problem if you take what you need to put food the bellys of your kids


but if you just like killing the animals or just want racks/backstraps(an incident around here) you deserve to be arrested

 

[41magsnub]

PBD, you mean you do no harm?

I think you mean hypocritical

 

[DWFan]

I guess I'm going to sound like a hypocrite here. I don't condone poaching but I did it in my youth when my father was in the hospital and we needed food on the table.

 

[JohnnyOrygun]

Poaching for fun is wrong. But, if my family were hungry and I had no choice, then it wouldn't bother me to take an animal. Someone in our area is killing elk and leaving the carcasses on the ground to rot and they very recently shot and left a trophy 6x6 :banghead: I hope the authorities catch them... then they should be neutered! That is just wrong and I hunt that area for elk, how I would have LOVED to get a trophy 6x6 in my sights

 

[yesit'sloaded]

I think that as long as the game laws are left to the conservation officers and wildlife guys they are for the good of the hunting community and should be followed for the common good of all the hunters in the area. Fuzzy feel good laws about killing bambi are junk. Reasonable game laws are what brought many game species back to a sustainable population in many areas. I obey all game laws and feel that others should too. If you have to kill something out of season that is what depredation permits are for, they are not hard to get around here if you have a legitimate reason.

 

[MutinousDoug]

I agree that game management often goes overboard in enforcement and does little to preserve small game numbers from year to year save cataloging take and projecting future yields (not a useless service), but protection of big game habitat and management of harvest is a valuable job paid for by hunting license fees that poachers are getting a free ride on. Fark them .

 

[Harve Curry]

A hunter and I witnessed 3 guys shoot a bull we had called in. They were down a bluff below us. Thing was they drove cross country through BLM Wildeness and shot the bull with a high power repeater rifle during a muzzleloader hunt in a primitive weapons only, unit 13. We called the 1-800 number, plus BLM and couldn't get a officer to respond until three days later. I found out later that investigators found the guys/truck in Washington state. They'd crossed 3 state lines with illegal game violating the Lacey Act.
The hunter and I were willing to travel and testify and were not bashful about letting the authorities know it. This was a 7x8 big heavy beamed bull. Turns out a BLM officer was letting these non residents use his PO box to get resident tags. The case was dropped, not prosecuted . They told me there wasn't enough evidence. I lost alot of faith in the system on that experience. But if any outfitter/guide messes up they will bury you.

 

[22-rimfire]

Poaching is stealing from us all. All poaching needs to be neutralized. Game Wardens are few and it is easy to poach and get away with it. It is also very dangerous for a warden to move on a poacher. They know they are doing something illegal. However, the book needs to be thrown at them.

Report a poacher!

A while back a man was prosecuted for shooting a really large whitetail buck in Cades Cove (Smokey Mt National Park). His whole life was ruined... lost his job, went to jail, lost his hunting priviledges, and lost his firearms and vehicle.

 

[skinewmexico]

The fish and game department wherever you live probably has an 800 number to report people. Call them.

 

[Greg.B]

If you saw someone stealing from a store, would you report it?

As skinewmexico stated, most states have a toll free number for reporting poachers, and in most cases you can remain anonymous.

Poaching is a crime; while we may not agree with all game laws, they are still laws. If you want to try to change them, go about it the correct way.

 

[Sunray]

"...we needed food on the table..." That isn't poaching. You kill only what you need with no concern for the size of the antlers. I've known people who would never have had meat if they didn't hunt. They'd have gladly traded a venison roast for a cheap cut of beef, just for a change.
Poaching is hunting out of season, etc. for alleged sport.
"...and left a trophy 6x6..." Or took the antlers and left the meat and hide, bust 'em.

 

[wheelgunslinger]

poachers suck.
It's some sort of white trash sport where drinking and guns and game usually come together, at least around here.

One of my friends had deer in his yard and some doofi pulled up on the roadside and started blasting away at it. With the house as a backstop.
I've had poachers shoot a gate lock off to get into places, leave deer with only the antlers removed, or just leave them altogether untouched.

They make us all look bad and really deserve what the Game Warden will hand them.

Drop a dime. Poachers suck.

 

[Capitaine Nemo]

I believe that you should have the right to shoot any animal on your property. In fact you should have the right to do whatever you want on your property as long as you don't cause any harm to others. I also believe that management would me more efficient if left to land owners. Government should sell all public land and let the market allocate it to whatever use, like everything else.
I was told that some private ranch in CA or OR had the biggest elk in the US and they don't allow hunting on their land. It's their property and their choice to ban hunting. Would you allow poachers to kill animals on your property for trophy or just for the "fun" of killing? I wouldn't, but if I owned a few hundred or thousand acres of land I would probably use the land for a hunting business.

 

[Selfdfenz]

Government should sell all public land and let the market allocate it to whatever use,

You have to be kidding? Right?

S-

 

[DRYHUMOR]

I live in South Carolina. We have the longest deer season in the US and can harvest 2 per day. Landowners (farmers) can get permits to take deer off season to save their crops.
I have no use whatsoever for poachers and trespassers. In fact I have confiscated stands off of my property and property I have leased. I always figured if they wanted them back, I would tell them to meet me at the sherriffs office so they coud ID them and I could prosecute.
That said, when the zombie ninja bears attack, poaching will become a moot point. Survival will reign. If/when stability returns, then presumably the laws of the land will return as will.
EFFECTIVE management benefits the annimal and the human population.
And don't even get me started on birth control for deer.

 

[Art Eatman]

Staying with the subject (highly recommended) of poaching, it's not just illegal. It's unethical. On private land it's also criminal trespass. And, as in one example above, it can also be reckless endangerment.

Whether or not you know who is doing the poaching, alert a game warden. If you do know who is doing the poaching, report him.

Texas--and other states--don't call it "Operation Game Thief" for no reason. Stealing is stealing.

Leave the "food on the table" out of it; that's not what this thread is about.

Art

 

[Zeke/PA]

While we don't always agree with our Game Management officials and their methods we still must respect the law.
A game law violator steals from all of us.
Wanton waste is un- forgiveable.
Zeke

 

[deerhunter61]

Poaching is stealing.

If someone is killing game out of season for any reason other than to put food on the table they need to be prosecuted to the fullest! I might not agree with all of the game laws but they are the law. For those that do not like them get active and try to get them changed.

As far as the government selling all of the public land to private owners...please. Public hunting land is the only way some people can hunt. Otherwise the only people who could afford to hunt would be the wealthy.

 

[wyocarp]

Okay, here is a different twist. I don't think the animals are the government's to protect. And I don't feel that someone shooting an animal without a tag is "stealing" from me. I haven't bought into the whole poaching thing but I have grown up in a state where I know of a lot of people who shoot animals and eat them out of season and without a tag. I have absolutely no problem with it.

You can all blast me, but that is the way I feel. I wouldn't call the game and fish for nothing. The only thing I'll give them is a hard time.

 

[deerhunter61]

If not theres then who?

wyocarp, if not the governement then who? If the government had not stepped in years ago we would not have anything to hunt.

Years ago when I went to hunt with my Grandfather in AR I watched as "hunters" slaughtered deer just to kill them. Made me sick.

Do you really believe we can without the government stepping in keep from wiping out game animals? I have seen areas where poaching has wiped out the deer population. And based on your stance that is ok with you?

I look forward to your response.....

The only way to control this that I know of is for government intervention.