It’s Time To Get Really Tough With Poachers, Readers Say
Hunting season is a time of high-caliber anxiety on Gary Clements’ farm at Gifford, Wash.
“We have some unique ideas for dealing with what we call the bad hunters or the road hunters and the trespassers - the people who cut your gates and shoot your locks off or shoot deer at night,” Clements says.
“We turn in all license numbers. We also videotape all people when we catch them on private property or shooting from the road.
“If more people did this, they would have a lot of advertisement that it was being done and you wouldn’t have people shooting in areas where they don’t know if there’s a house behind those trees.”
“Treat those who trample over private property as the poachers that they are,” says Brian K. O’Kelley of Spokane. “Hold them - at gunpoint if necessary - until appropriate authority can take them off to jail, confiscate their rifles and all other items used to facilitate the illegal hunt - like a truck, camping gear, etc. - and ban them from hunting for a length of time sufficient to get the message across that POACHING IS BAD! Ten years ought to do the trick.
“All hunters know that if you are hunting in an area where no permission has been given, you are poaching. And that makes the rest of us look bad in the eyes of private property owners who might otherwise have opened up their land if only they had been asked.”
Restless pols no cause for tears
Of politicians who run for office, win and then quit in midterm, Phil Mulligan of Spokane says: “I don’t think it’s an admirable trait, certainly, but if they lack the commitment, we’re better off without them.”
When former state Rep. Todd Mielke, R-Spokane, quit late last month, he deserved praise, not vilification, according to Rick Melanson of Spokane.
“The politicians who deserve our rancor are those who pledge during the campaign that they will not seek any higher office during their term and then promptly go back on their word as soon as they are elected.
“A good example of this is Bill Clinton, who ran for president after pledging he wouldn’t run for president in his last campaign for governor of Arkansas.
“Mr. Mielke made a commitment to serve and then discovered his first priority, his family, wouldn’t allow him to continue. He should be praised for giving up an obviously promising political career to save his family.”
, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone; or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.