Duffy

Well I am not one to paint all who break a game law with the same brush and call them a poacher. There are the hard core law breakers who go out with every intention of breaking game laws and doing things against the law. And there are others who make a mistake or decide that in the situation they are in they can justify breaking the law.

The dayly limit on geese here in Alberta was 8 a couple years back when I shot 9 one day. I had six fat birds on the ground and a flock came in to my decoys. I jumped up and shot 3 times hoping to get one and maybe if I got lucky two birds. (I have never been a very good wing shot). Well you could have knocked me over with a feather when 3 birds fell and I instantly became a " dirty rotten poacher" . My mother-in-law (on whose farm I was shooting) said the geese were eating her grain and she had rased the limit on her farm. I never argue with my mother-in-law.

I once saw a fellow shooting a coyote from a road where he should not have been shooting. The coyote had looked " wet" along its side before he shot. I drove up behind him and took down his plate # so I could report and testify against him. He explained to me that he had hit the coyote with his truck as it ran accross the road and its guts were hanging out. He was shooting it to stop it suffering. I believed this " low down snake of a poacher" and did not turn him in.

I have a cosin who shot at a rooster pheasent as it ran into a patch of weeds. Out flew a hen (which can not be shot here) and it sailed accross the field then dropped dead on the ground. He retrived it as a fellow was driving by. The fellow took down his licence number and talked to mu cosin but later reported him for shooting a hen. Driving away before my cosin retrieved the dead cock in the weeds. In court my cosin plead guilty and payed a small fine but lost his hunting privilages for a year. Served the " discussting poacher" right I guess.

All that glitters is not gold and all who break a game law are not poachers I say.

Robin