Violators give master hunters a bad name
Unethical sportsmen should be banished, Rich Landers says.
Rich Landers
The Spokesman-Review
November 21, 2002


There are two ways to prove you're an ethical hunter worthy of special status in Washington.
1. Complete the state Advanced Hunter Education program "master hunter" requirements, which include demonstrating shooting proficiency, volunteering for conservation projects, reading study materials, passing an exam and hunting ethically while adhering to the law.

2. Or, if you don't like that last inconvenient part about hunting ethically and adhering to the law, you can simply hire a lawyer.

That's the latest of several newsy items from Washington's hunter education program.

Last year, as you might recall from a lengthy story in The Spokesman-Review, a little curds and whey surfaced in the cream of the crop.

Of more than 200,000 licensed hunters in Washington, fewer than 6,000 have taken the initiative to enroll in the AHE program.

Only about 1,700 have completed the course since it was founded in 1994.

But this elite group, which gets the advantage of several special hunting seasons, was shaken last year. Five of their peers, all from far-eastern Washington, were given tickets for hunting violations.

Ethical and legal conduct is the cornerstone of the program. Master hunters involved in serious wildlife violations are no different than day-care professionals practicing cruelty to children.

They should be banished to another field of interest.

But when Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officials suspended the five violators from the master hunter program, they each threatened legal action.

Mik Mikitik, the department official who helped found the master hunter program, said he convinced three of the five to withdraw their appeals. He suggested that a master hunter, for the good of the program, ought to endure if not demand punishment for a breach of trust.

But two master hunters from Spokane hired attorneys anyway.

Frederick Lance von Marbod and Rodney Hoover apparently found themselves in a tough spot. They have too much to lose by either giving up master hunter status or by living up to the ethical expectations of that status.

They've shared in a private land lease where they've used bait to lure elk out of Turnbull Wildlife Refuge with good results, especially during the special AHE firearms season scheduled each December.

The two hunters were suspended from the program last year after they were cited in an elk shooting spree that was rife with little legal and ethical problems.

Three elk fell dead on land for which they did not have permission to hunt; another mortally wounded one escaped into the refuge. Only one of the elk was tagged when agents caught up to the duo.

They had lots of excuses, all of which begin to stink like a rotting gut-shot animal when you consider that they made at least three cell phone calls to buddies asking for help to haul the three elk into the security of their own lease.

But when asked why they didn't call Fish and Wildlife authorities to report their indiscretion, they said their cell phones didn't work.

Von Marbod and Hoover can still hunt in Washington, but Fish and Wildlife officials recommended they lose the privileges of the master hunter program.

Von Marbod's lawyer forced a challenge to the ruling. The attorney general's office apparently has settled by allowing him to be suspended for only two years, although the state attorney did not return a call to confirm that on Tuesday.

Some people might say the courts are the American way.

But many master hunters might also point out that Pete Rose isn't in the Hall of Fame and O.J. isn't getting any endorsements.

Ethics take us beyond the weaknesses of the law.

Without them, the master hunter program is worthless, and hunting is doomed.