CalNewbie

From the story, this was a guy who was hardly flush with cash to begin with. A $1,000 fine was probably pretty substantial to him. Add to that the fact that he's kind of an idiot. Decided he was going to butcher a 1,000 pound elk with kitchen knives. He even thought he might drag it somewhere???

Were I the judge I would have treated it differently if he'd been part of a poaching ring or if he'd "hunted" it. In this case he had these elk walking around his neighborhod and one day he decided he'd take one of 'em. Now please don't flame me. I'm saying that its wrong, but its stupid wrong. One of those "dumb crime" stories. Sort of a different kind of poacher from someone who's selling bear gall bladders for oriental cures or someone setting up a stand out of season.

We talk about poachers giving hunters a bad name. This guy kind of gives poachers a bad name!

Regarding the jail time, I wouldn't think of it as free room and board. A friend worked for the local police department. As part of a charity fundraiser she bought a "dinner" in jail for her and three friends. One a slow (ie: non-weekend) night we got a tour of the jail, fake booking photo, and a jail dinner, in the holding area. After an hour I was more than ready to go. You think about spending 60 days in a space smaller than your bathroom. Not so glamorous.

One thing though - kind of puts the question of whether a 270 is enough gun for an elk. The pinhead used a 22!

hillbillyhunter1

1000 sounds like a joke to me, I agree with wolf killer, should have been 10,000 at least. If this was just some dumba$$ who was hungry or something then he should have poached a cow--then $1,000 might seem more reasonable to me. I'm glad he also gets to spend some time as a guest of the state, however, instead he should have to pick-up trash along the road or something for about a year or more. The fine implemented by CA makes it seem like that state is not really serious about punishing poachers

stuckinthereeds

What a jerk. If if were up to me I would have given him the jail time and revoked all his outdoor tags for life. But since he is a poacher and has no respect for the outdoors, what good would that have done?

adams

Although I'm glad the guy didn't walk free I think they could have given him more stick and less carrot. 60 days in jail is fair it it's actually time served IMO but $1000 is a pitiful fine. I think a monetary fine around $5000 is more in order and possibly all cost associated with the prosecution of the case.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Poachers are a lame excuse for a human being and should be clubbed (like baby seals use to) on site.[:@]

lhook7

I'm glad he got jail time, but he is only having to pay $1,000 for killing the elk when it states in the article that, "five sportsmen a year each pay $20,000 to bag a bull with a trophy rack." I think he should have been fined at least $21,000: $1,000 for poaching and $20,000 for the market value (I hate to use that term when describing wild animals) of the elk.

cnhntr

when I hear about this stuff I get so sick to my stomach[:'(][:'(]

Racor

I hate people like that...[:@]