Lone Star Bowhunters Association - It's about time Texas got serious on poachers

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It's about time Texas got serious on poachers

The slap on the wrist poachers have historically received is a joke. As you say, It's About Time! I think game thieves and poachers should get mandatory jail time.

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Sorry, I let my typing get in the way of my brain.

I have to disagree with LostHawg, somewhat, on this one. I don't think that most of our poachers are poor folks who have to shoot rabbits or go hungry. And I don't think that honesty and character are necessarily a function of income.

I think most poachers are either people who just don't care or have no values. They shoot out of their cars, they sneak on to property that doesn't belong to them, and they shoot out of season. Mostly to make themselves feel like they have accomplished something. They brag about what a hunter or fisherman they are, not mentioning that they shot the deer with a spotlight from the road, and probably in a park where the deer are almost tame. They catch twice the number of fish allowed, they know its wrong, but they do it anyway.

I have often thought that we should push for stiffer penalities for these offenses. I am talking about people that intenionaly and knowingly break the game laws. I am not talking about the starving guy who kills a squirrel or the guy who forgets and leaves his license in plain sight on the dashboard, but rather the guy who shoots twice the limit of doves. The minor violations should be met with the appropriate fine, the major ones should be met with something serious enough to be a deterrent to those people who won't or can't control themselves.

Tracey, I do think you are right in that we should work to provide as many outdoor opportunities to as many people as possible. I just don't think lack of opportunity is a justifiable reason.

Okay, I am off my soapbox and the rant is over.

MJ

Tracy,
I usually agree with you on most issues, but saying that shrinking hunting opportunities justifies or makes poaching more legitimate is like aguing that not having any money makes it OK to rob a bank.

As far as enforcing the laws we have, I believe the Game Wardens are generally to the letter in most cases and giving them some extra clout sounds like a good thing to me.

Steve

Naw, nothing makes poaching more legit, just makes it more likely to happen. I'd rather poaching, any kind of poaching, didn't exist. Just wish, there were more available hunting opporunities without having to pay a stiff lease fee. For one 1200 for a season isn't much, for another, 120 for a season is a lot.

That's the sum of what I'm trying to say in all my hoohaw. :?

Thanks for posting this up Timm. Good news in deed.

A couple of points I'd like to make as well as I pretty much agree with all above.

There should be mandatory minimum fines that are very severe in my opinion. The way it is now, even with the new law, is that it is still up to the descretion of the person catching the offender. Those violations that Chunky pointed out (over limit, no license, trespass, etc..etc..) should be stomped on and severe fines levied from the get go.

Also, I would wager that most poaching takes place on public land where the hunting opportunities are already affordable. I see it year in and year out. And, I have also seen it on high dollar leases where folks have paid good money. A slob is a slob, but I know the public lands get hammered as there is free road access year round in fairly remote areas, unlike having to cut a private gate lock off or jump a fence from the roadside.

Another very big issue (probably the biggest issue) is that there are not enough game wardens to patrol all the land out there. Maybe some of the resident wardens can chime in here, but I would wager ther is only a handful per county at best, and that may be stretching it in some areas. I know for the SHNF where I hunt there is one federal and two state wardens for 162K acres...that's 253 square miles! Dallas is 330 square miles....pretty daunting if ya ask me when you compare the size of Dallas' police department at 2,822. We can help by supporting operation game thief and the game Warden Association.

Another problem....is apathy. How many of us have witnessed a game violation and done nothing about it. If each and every time a call was made to the appropriate authorities, I think the number of poaching incidents would decline dramatically.

Anywhooooo:) I'm glad to see this step taken by the TPWD. Maybe we'll see additional laws with even more bite soon.

Dang, I was serious off track in what I was talking about. Sorry for getting on a tangent. Yeah, if the poaching is a blatant disregard for the law, then as stiff as the law allows. Push it.

I keep thinking of poachers as the poor folk I grew up around. Can't help it. Keep forgetting the knobheads wanting to make a show of it.

Just so folks won't think Cull and Chunky are wierding out, they were right in disagreeing with me. I'm editing my previous posts.

To me the penalties in the article are still not enough!! :x

LostHawg,

I hope you don't think I intended anything against you. I didn't, I probably should have said my experience is different rather than I disagree with you. I hope you didn't feel like you had to pull your post. Even if we do disagree on subjects sometimes, that is what makes for good discussion and and growth.

The example I was thinking of occured when a guy (poacher) killed and elk in Yellowstone Park. Because of the mountains in the back ground of the "trophy" pictures which were sent in to a magazine he got caught.

If I remember correctly he got a 3 thousand dollar fine. While that is not loose change from the couch....it is less than half of the price of a top of the line guided elk hunt. So, if you follow the logic,,, I am a bad guy who doesn't mind breaking the law and I want to kill an elk. I just go to the park. Even if I get caught (and I probably won't) I still get off for half the price of the guided hunt. If I don't kill an elk while I am in the park, it costs me nothing and I have done nothing wrong. My question is where is the deterrent.

I wish everyone had character and good sense of right and wrong, but as we all know that is just not the case.

I have called the game tips line before, and while they took the information, I got the impression that nothing was going to happen. Understaffed and underfunded thanks for trying.....

MJ

I agree poaching should stop,weather it is the public shooting from the roads,or the lease hunters and land owners Poaching from behind fence.
We would be amased be hind the safety of the fence poaching

South Tx Bowfisher,
If you have witnesed the poaching behind the high fences and didn't report it you yourself are also a part of the problem.I don't care who it is doing the poaching if I see it they are getting reported by me!Poaching has become a major problem here in the hill country and we need it stopped. This year I had a poacher climb over the ranch high fence and shoot a deer less than 200 yards from my house. He will make a mistake sooner or later that will put him behind bars. I have started using game cameras all over the ranch and already have a picture of one poacher.The game warden is working a case against him now.

Yea you will catch him sooner or later,That kind of stuff is a problem.I used to have 85 acers,that i bought for hunting,had lots Javalina,my neighbor would slotter them,i confronted him about it,i saw him shoot 5 at his feeder,i told him that he was allowed two per yeay,he was mad because they ate the corn,he should put fence,any ways as time went on he would kill the deer all year,when ever he wanted meat i guess,Some people thank that because the deer are their side of the fence that they have a right to shoot any time.I have been hunting on the river,have seen buzzards flying,got out of my boat to check it out,have found several nice size deer shot in the neck,horns were broke,so the hunter just wasted it.left it lay.to me those things are the same as poching.