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March 29, 2024 2:10 am
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Tall Tales From The Great Outdoors: The Crime Of Poaching

By GERRY SWANSON

Poaching is a crime committed by thieves, not hunters. These very strong words come from a joint research task force formed by a partnership between the world-class conservation organization, the Boone and Crockett club, and world renowned optics manufacturer Leupold & Stevens. I completely agree with the statement, 100%. And based on the news I have read on the internet, in the newspapers and talking to game wardens, poaching now is as bad or worse than ever.

The partnership, called Poach and Pay, was developed to study the possibility of higher fines in an effort to further deter poaching throughout North America. The findings from this effort will not be fully known until its conclusion sometime this summer.

Based on preliminary research however, nearly 93 percent of respondents support higher fines for poaching, while 88 percent of those support even higher fines for the poaching of a trophy-class animals.
To define a trophy-class animal some states have already adopted the B&C scoring system. Currently, only the western states of Idaho, Montana and South Dakota use such a system to assess higher fines for animals. This needs to change.

Poaching is an egregious crime against all of us. These crimes attack our sport our livelihoods, our credibility and reputations as hunters. They undermine conservation efforts and are a theft on our public property like no other.

To treat them in some cases like a simple speeding ticket or misdemeanor infraction should be an embarrassment to our judicial system. I have talked to many wildlife investigators, game wardens, and biologists, and nearly all agree when it comes to prosecution of these crimes, we just are not doing enough. By the time many of these crimes are brought to court they usually are pled down to fines that won’t even cover the cost to investigate the case.

There was a recent case in Wyoming where a poacher shot a monster 230 buck out of season.The poacher got a pretty soft plea deal: seven year suspension of his hunting and fishing rights, 365 days in jail, suspended if he performed 50 hours of community service. A 10,000 fine which would not have covered the cost of the investigation. But then $5000.00 of it was suspended in exchange for probation.

All in all, for poaching probably one of the biggest mule deer in Wyoming, a pretty light sentence.
Unfortunately, I’m just not sure this is quite enough of a risk for some people to deter this type of poaching violation. More needs to be done.

Our judges and prosecuting attorneys need to be held more accountable to the citizens they represent in these type of cases.These certainly are some things to think about in the off season.

We have seen cases right here in our own backyard. The poaching on Mt Charleston a small herd shot for no reason. Here in the Overton Wildlife Management Area, 2 pelicans and 11 cormarants and several swans shot this season. How do you shoot a pelican and come back and say, “I thought it was a snow goose”?. A pelican has a 30 inch bill and a snow goose has a 3 inch bill. Stupidity is not a defense.
Poaching is poaching. Whoever can mistake a pelican for a snow goose should not be hunting period.
A cormarant is not even waterfowl they look like a prehistoric bird and they have an 11 inch hooked beak. It is in the Frigate bird class. They do dive for fish; however they are not waterfowl. Once again being stupid is not a defense. It is poaching.

The great outdoors is to be enjoyed by everybody. Please take care of it, know what you’re shooting at, and do it the right way, so there are some left for kids to come.

Don’t forget April 17th for big game applications deadline.

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