POACHING IS BIG BUSINESS!! AND GETTING WORSE

[SuperRedHawk]

I just read a great article in American Hunter on poaching. These scumbags are making a living off of it, and clearing out some ENTIRE AREAS of trophy animals. These are the same bucks/bulls that we chase every year, perhaps waiting for them to grow! [:@]

These are not poachers of the past, looking for meat. There are many cases of huge deer found with the heads cut off, it's about BIG money.

Big whitetails in Illinois are as likely to be killed by poachers as by a legal hunter!!!!

George Waters of Iowa was arrested for killing at LEAST 42 huge whitetails,11 bull elk, and 6 mule deer, that were estimated to be worth $338,000! One buck was a 202", 19 point double drop monster, and another a 195" 17 point typical!

Kelly Frank, a "serial poacher", was caught with a 30" wide mule deer, the BIGGEST TYPICAL MULE DEER ever taken in Montana!

In Colorado, some are killing huge bull elk, pretending to be turkey hunting. Then hanging the head high in a tree, returning the following spring. Then claiming to have found a winterkill elk, that they can take without reporting it.

In Ohio, a ring busted with 30 trophy racks, the list goes on and on.

Please guys, if you suspect ANY kind of poaching in your area, report it! It's the only ways these guys get caught, the game wardens are spread too thin.

To think that a big buck on the propertys that we hunt on could be killed before the season even starts just makes my blood boil!!!

[Lanse couche couche]

I think that folks doing this should get put under the jail. But, in a big rack oriented world, it is not surprising. I think that some states have compensation sytems where particular sized racks are assigned a commercial value and poachers have to pay up that amount for deer they kill.

[kdsberman]

Ya somehow its gotta be stopped. But those poachers are probably sneakier than we think, which probably makes it much harder to catch them.

[Red Lion]

Maybe we need to hire some poachers to poach the poachers?

[younggun308]

At least poaching isn't as crazy as it was in Africa and in Tibet, that was sad.

Yeah, no doubt, we'll keep an eye out for poachers, but our game warden is very tough, and if he sees a spotlight a mile away, he'll go after you.

[BigTiny]

We have a huge poaching problem here in LA. There aren't nearly enough enforcement officers to make a dent in the massive number of poachers here. Some hunters have even had their deer taken from them at gunpoint in the national forest here, particularly in bow season(it is illegal to possess a firearm while bowhunting). They take poaching to a whole different level.

[Colorado Luckydog]

Who is ****ed up enough to be buying their kills. They should be hung by their nuts as so should the poachers.

[Siman08/OH]

I never thought poaching would happen in my area....till about 6 years ago we found a massive body in our woods that had its head chopped off below the chin. They eventually caught the guy and got him on weapons charges instead of poaching. I never did get to see the rack from the buck.

[uncle matt]

Poaching is big business and getting worse?

Who'd of thunk?

[Arrowmaster]

lets face it every state has poachers. The way I look at it is that if you shoot an animal and have no tag, you are a poacher. The same goes for party hunters. If you dont have a tag your poaching. What gets me is when you see a picture of a guys wife, child, or 100 year old grandma posing with a deer you know they didnt shoot, and you know the guy shot it. Its hard to prove, but that still makes them a poacher. I bet there are a lot of hunters on here who have done that. It sickens me to see what poachers do. I myself think they all need some jail time. Poaching is poaching no matter how you look at it. I myself have always taken every animal Ive shot legally.