After almost 20 years working with and in law enforcement I can say that poaching is probably the easiest crime to commit and get away with. Everyday we get calls from people that have found deer that poachers have killed. A lot of the deer that these scum kill are only missing the head and or rack. Our county is roughly the size of the state of rhode island and most of it farm and national forest with only 2 game wardens to cover the entire area. By using scanners and radios, the location of game wardens and other law enforcement is not a secret.

Getting tag numbers off vehicles and describtions of people is a big help, confronting these people usually leads to bigger problems. I know it is best to let the officers handle it, but thats not always a winning option. Maybe stiffer penalties for the people that are caught may be an answer. West Virginia just passed new penalties for bear hunting violations and that seems to have slowed that problem down a lot, the best that I can remember is: 1st offense up to 6 months in jail and loss of hunting AND fishing liscense for 1 year, 2nd up to one year in jail, loss of hunting AND fishing lisc. for 5 years (not real sure on that one) 3rd offense loss of hunting AND fishing lisc. for life and 1-5 years in state pen.

Any thoughts on stiffer penalties for deer violations?