Well I can tell you from personal experiance that if you have to do it to feed the family it's okay.My father had been laid off from the mines and when we needed food he would go out in the woods and shoot a animal didn't matter what it was,we ate.He always told me that the lord put them on earth to sustain us,his children.He felt guilty for doing it but he had to do what was right for the family.And I would also like to say growing up like that,makes you remember where you come from.And i would do the same thing if I had to.My family will not go hungry.

My my my but how things change. If I didn't know any better I would have sworn I was on a different BBS, but since this is the only one I go to it must be true. This same question was asked a while back, maybe a year or so ago. I saidback then what I believed then and still do now and was jummped all over by some who had to get on their soap box and make their total disgust for poaching under any situation known. One went so far as to say I should sell my weapons to feed my family if it came to eat or go hungry because of lack of food. A fine short term answer but when the money and food are gone what am I going to sell next. Now before I get everyone thinking I poach to feed my family let me say that is not the case at this time. I have a very good job for our area and I do not see any reason for me to poach. Michigan has had a very liberal bag limit in effect to crop the deer herd down for the last couple years and I also shoot deer during the summer months for farmers with a ton of crop damage. As you can guess my freezer is always full of venison, as well as the freezers of a lot of other folks. I was raised in an area her in the U.P. were people really thought deer season opened July 4th. It is really sad to see all the poaching going on and I mean "poaching". Poeple shooting deer to sell in bars not to feed their families, but to feed their addictions. Some of these guys have been caught in sting operations at least half a dozen times or more. Nothing ever happens with them as they have nothing and the warden says they are just trying to feed their families. I have been blessd with a gift of knowledge of the outdoors and of game and how to harvest it. Let me just say as I believe in my heart everybody on this board would do the same, as long as I can hunt my family will never starve.

LIVE TO HUNT,HUNT TO LIVE.

We talk about it being sad that people are starving and need to poach to feed their families but in a lot of cases the opposite is happening. It's one thing to shoot a deer when times are bad. I have a couple near me that are in their fifties. They live about a mile off the plowed road. The man is retired because he doesn't need or want to work. He shoots deer, etc. for his food, heats his home with wood, farms a bit, gardens a bit and still enjoys his ATV and 4x4. To me that's poaching to excess. It sounds like a great lifestyle but the guy and his friends have such a great system set up that the warden hasn't been able to catch him.

Dan O.

Edited by - dan o. on 02/10/2003 07:28:31

In the case of this question poaching may be ok. It would not be ok if it got to the point where someone was just doing it because the frezzer is empty and the person does not want to spend any more money than they have to. really a person should not have to poach for food with all the food programs out there. I also feel that if a person if that bad off mabey if the person had a neighbor that would be willing to help them out with the food situation would also be logical.

If one person is to poach that means all people will follow.

That is a tricky question. It all depends on the cicumstances! If you live in the middle of nowwhere and you can't get any help? I think it would be sensible. Still it all depends on the circumstances! peace.

bowhuntingfool

I wasn't really interested in answering this question but as I read all the responses......

I don't agree with any form of poaching in the US. We are not a third world country. We have many other options. And if people are to lazy to find these options than they are poaching. There are reasons for laws and that is to keep everyone on the same level. No laws and I would not like living in the US.

I think I am addicted to this creature...

You would have to live way out in the boonies to make it ethical.

"Pain is weakness leaving the body"