Taking Aim At ‘Slob’ Hunters

We hunters who obey laws and behave ethically when we’re in the fields and woods resent the characters who make us all look bad.

We cringe a little when a farmer tells us that a couple of hunters cut strands of a barbed wire fence and drove their 4-wheel-drive vehicle over his fields to get to a buck deer they had killed.

We’re embarrassed when we see pheasant hunters, driving back roads to look for birds, stop near a farmer’s barn, shove their gun barrels out the windows and shoot at pheasants near horses.

We resent the poachers who exceed bag limits, deliberately shoot hens as well as roosters and brag about how they killed two or three deer and sneaked them home without tagging them.

And we are dismayed when a car-full of trigger-happy hunters, unable to spot grouse as they road hunt, stop near a farmer’s house and shoot his cat, justifying their behavior by claiming cats kill game birds.

Some of us, fortunately, do the right thing. We get vehicle licenses, car descriptions and even descriptions of the offenders and dial the poaching hotline number as soon as possible.

At one time, nearly all hunters were reluctant to inform on poachers. The law-abiding hunters didn’t want to be branded as squealers.

Fortunately, more and more sportsmen are helping the fish and game departments catch law breakers these days. Wildlife agents need the help. Because agencies are continually strapped for money, they can’t hire enough agents to properly patrol the thousands of square miles they’re supposed to cover.

There are still too many ethical hunters who don’t want to be considered informers or who are reluctant to become involved. They see hunters shoot at grouse and deer from cars or listen to someone brag that he killed two or three bucks and never used his tag. They condemn the offenders to one another, but that’s all they do.

To most of us, poachers and others who violate the game laws and behave unethically are scum. We’re ashamed of them and we rejoice when we read in a paper or hear that an enlightened judge has hit them with big fines and jail sentences. And we’re disgusted when a gullible judge believes a sob story and frees a poacher who has stolen deer, elk or a moose.

Yes, stolen. The sleazy character who poaches a deer or a moose is a thief, as well as a poacher. He steals from law-abiding hunters. Every time he poaches a big game animal, he limits the number of that species that otherwise could be available to legitimate hunters.

Fish and game commissioners, acting on the recommendations of wildlife biologists, set seasons and bag limits based on estimated numbers of animals and birds. If poachers cut deeply into moose populations, for example, the commissioners must reduce the number of permits.

Moose, incidentally, have become the favorite target of many poachers in both Washington and Idaho. As a result, game commissioners have had to take poaching into consideration when they set permit numbers. You and I are the losers.

We know that some non-hunters and property owners don’t differentiate between the law-abiding, conscientious hunters and the men and women who readily violate game laws and brag about it. We know that we’re not going to convince anti-hunters that we’re not bloodthirsty throwbacks to an earlier age. But we’d like to persuade the open-minded non-hunters, as well as some farmers, that our pursuit of game is a legitimate, time-honored sport, steeped in tradition.

The law breakers are the hunters who make ethical hunters look bad in the eyes of many non-hunters and land owners. They hunt without licenses, ignore “No Trespassing” signs, shoot before and after shooting hours, exceed bag limits, carry loaded guns in their cars, spotlight deer, shoot across roads and kill hen pheasants.

Law breakers can be arrested, but the unethical hunters, such as the slobs who shoot sitting ducks and geese, break the unwritten laws of fair chase and take advantage of fellow hunters, are never publicly censored.

Hunting seasons will be opening and closing during the next few months. Many of us will witness the breaking of game laws.

How we respond will tell a lot about each of us. Most of us respect private property, obey the fish and game laws and never fudge on the laws “because everybody else does it.”

Who among us will do what’s right? You know what it is.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact Fenton Roskelley by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 3814.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review