More poachers

Soap box time!

Here's the thing. I know that we (the members of TFL) have our share of disagreements as to the proper methods, ethics, and so on when it comes to hunting. I have seen many threads on fair chase and I have started a thread about the use of bait. However, I have always maintained that as long as we enjoy our sport within the regulations put forth by the governing bodies in our hunting areas it's okay to agree to disagree. I feel that to stand united as sportsmen against those who would deny our rights makes us pretty darn strong. It's idiots like these guys who are giving the hunting community a black eye. It will be a direct result of actions like these that will condem us for they are giving the anti's all the ammo they need.

Nuff said.
 
For every one they catch, 20 get away. But what are the odds of getting caught because someone else had a picture of the animal in another area, and could match that animal to a pic sent out by the poacher?

Hilarious how these guys have invented a new way to get busted, even though they're members of the old category: 'Dumb Ass Poacher Scum'
 
Waste

From where I stand the permit and what not does not bother me nearly as much as the fact that the whole animal went to waste. I grew up being taught to respect nature and when I did take an animal to thank god for the gift and utilize whatever I could.

Allowing the meat to lay in a creek bottom hardly seems ethical. This however is not nearly as bad as all the jack lighting and poaching that has been happening in my neck of the woods. Guys road hunting and what not. I feel like that is a much worse offense than taking an animal in the wrong WMU or whatever.

Just my .02
Vermonter
 
Vermonter - with you on some, not with you on other:

+1 on wasting the animal on purpose

but

Guys road hunting and what not. I feel like that is a much worse offense than taking an animal in the wrong WMU or whatever.
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-1 Sorry, this was a purposely illegal act only to get a trophy. Depends on how you define road hunting, but that is not even illegal many places. Not the same as jack lighting or poaching.
 
As long as we glorify the trophy and ignore how it was gathered, we encourage this type of behavior. Watching TV shows where the "hunters" assess and rough score animals, then pass on smallish animals in favor of taking larger animals, we tell hunters that the meat of the animal is worthless compared to the antlers. Big antlers = big man. Small antlers = wimp.

I hunt for meat, antlers are just attached to one end of the package of meat.
 
I know. I have never seen anything like that before. I hope it stays in the news. The OP's was a good story too, so that is why I posted this one.
 
Allowing the meat to lay in a creek bottom hardly seems ethical. This however is not nearly as bad as all the jack lighting and poaching that has been happening in my neck of the woods. Guys road hunting and what not. I feel like that is a much worse offense than taking an animal in the wrong WMU or whatever.
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Hardly seems ethical....really,,ya think?
Not near as bad as the poaching in your area...So this is not poaching??????

I have a hard time believing that an informed person could call this just sorta bad. Kinda like sorta raped, sorta beat up.
This animal was stolen and wasted by a bum from the people of that area. Now if it read that he had killed an animal,and fed his hungry kids, I personally might feel differently. Not so, he's just a bum..throw the book at him, just like the poachers in your area there Vermonter.
elkman06
 
For years, people from WV, Md, NY,OH,NJ, etc. flocked to Pennsylvania to do thier poaching as Pa only fined folks for those infractions. Those days are gone. Significant jailtime now in addition to fines and confiscation of firearms and automobile. I hope some poor fellow down on his luck doesn't get caught feeding his family here in Pa. He will end up even more down on his luck. Mixed thoughts about this for me, I guess. If you were starving or needy, you could shoot a doe opposed to a trophy buck. No excuse for te mule deer buck layed to rot in a creek bottom. I would quadruple the fines for these guys until the "lost" anlers were found.
 
My family used to have some pretty nice deer on our property. (for our area)

We were constantly finding signs of poaching and trespassing. After fighting it for a while, I found the solution.

I shoot every button buck, spike, and forkhorn I see. I will pass up every doe just to get a chance at a button buck. After doing this for a few years, no more problems with scum.

All that work we did to help grow the horns equally helped to grow the poachers.

There will always be poaching, but as long as we keep worshiping the horns, things will only get worse. IMO
 
Did they mass email people they don't know? Or at least they didn't know them as well as they though. Dumb people doing dumb things.
 
Hilarious how these guys have invented a new way to get busted, even though they're members of the old category: 'Dumb Ass Poacher Scum'
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Photo/video documentation of poaching activities certainly isn't a new way to get busted. Several busts have been made as a result of YouTube videos and even from TV programs (thank you Ted Nugent).

Sadly, many of the accomplished poachers are smart enough not to do stupid stuff like documenting their bounties and sharing the information with others, and especially not sharing it over electronic media such has cell phones, email, or web sites like Youtube and Photobucket.
 
I also have a friends dad who can't stand some people deer hunting on his land. He is a farmer who has free range cows in WI. Never had an accident with cows being shot but hey, he doesn't want these guys there. He actually started setting sound traps to scare away deer. Went as far as purchasing an air cannon this year. Next year I have access to the land for myself.
 
UWtrig,

Next year with you roaming the land there will be less trespassing than having the land posted and setting off canons to scare the deer (and the cows no doubt).

I am almost 58 years old and I don't remember all these trespassing and poaching problems until landowners stopped allowing anyone permission to hunt, and the rich people got involved leasing up all the land, and finally until hunting shows on tv got the masses to start worshiping the biggest antlers in the woods.

Having more ethical hunters on your property is similar to having more cops on the beat in the city. But, as my wife reminds me......... the old days are gone so we gotta learn to live with what we have.

For me, that means I hunt my own 25 acre parcel and some years I get a deer and some years I don't. But, since I've been doing that (oh and running the trespassers off the neighbor lady's property the trespassing and poaching have been cut way back.
 
Cowboy- Couldn't agree more. Times are changing for sure. I'm only 30 and have seen HUGE changes in land use and peoples ethics and attitudes towards hunting. I want the meat. If a nice rack comes with then great.

The land I hunted on as a kid in WI has since been all leased up by MN people. I'm basically forced onto public land now. Working on other options like my friends land.
 
Cowboy,
I kinda agree with you. Times are changing.

Don't think it's the landowner as much as its some of the new generation of hunters ruining things for everyone.

There's reason's most landowners don't let hunter's on their property anymore. The landowners didn't just wake up one day and decide not to let hunters hunt anymore. Hunters diss-respecting landowners land is usually the cause.

Plain and simple, sad to say but you just can't trust people like you used to.:(
 
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