Man pleads guilty to 15 charges related to poaching ring

STEVENSON, Wash. – A man implicated in a massive Pacific Northwest poaching ring has pleaded guilty to 15 charges related to illegally hunting big game with dogs and leaving the corpses to rot.

The Daily News reports 25-year-old William Haynes, of Longview, Washington, pleaded guilty to the charges including five felonies Thursday in Skamania County Superior Court.

Prosecutors say Haynes was part of a poaching ring which hunted year-round for black bears with hounds and left their carcasses.

The prosecution and defense agreed to recommend a yearlong jail sentence for Haynes but sentencing was delayed until after he testifies in an Oregon case involving another alleged poacher.

Prosecutors in seven counties in Washington and Oregon filed cases against about a dozen people alleged to have been involved in the ring, which operated out of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest and resulted in more than 50 animals killed.