What is your view, is it okay to poach if your family is starving for the meat? You know your family is just barely scraping by to the next day and you badly need to feed your kids, so you go out at night spotlight and shoot a deer no one will ever find out, IS THAT POACHING, AND IF IT IS, IS IT ETHICAL?

A child starving from lack of food is never acceptable. Shooting an animal to provide for your family if times are really that hard, and there is no other way to get food,is acceptable in my book. Any one who believes other wise think if your kid was starving! I also think you would be hard pressed to find a person of the law who would enforce it in this situation. Read the opening letter on FHFH (Farmers and hunters feeding the hungry) the author tells of a lady loading up a road kill into her car. When he tells her that what she's doing is illegal she responds with that she doesn't care her kids are hungry. He ends up helping her field dress and load the deer into the car.

Bucky there have been times in this country where that was in my book an ethical excuse to poach, but I will be honest and say that in this day and age with the number of programs to help the poor and needy I would be hard pressed to have someone prove to me they "needed" to poach.

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Proud father of a Devil Dog

Taz and Bigamey are right, if the only way to feed my family was to poach, I'd do it. But like he said, there are so many places to get food these days where you shouldn't have to poach.
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Edited by - kshunter on 01/23/2003 13:31:19

There are many places to get food ,but having never been in that situation I don't believe I would be to quick to judge others who have been . Hunger can be here and now not in a couple of days when fat asp social worker gets to your case . Would you let your kids go hungry ,I think not .

thats kind of like wouldf you break the law to save your life. frankly if you are going to let your kids starve ill shoot the deer and bring it over

propmahn
save the world, reload your brass

Fine by me, there is a family that lives just off the property I gun hunt, 12 kids under 18 and probably not a grade 6 education in the whole house. They make maybe $10,000 a year for the whole family!

I know they take a doe or 2 illegally every year. I actually talked to the GW a couple years ago after he went and dropped off a road kill for them. He said yep Moggy was pretty shocked,, he was cleaning an untagged deer when I walked in. I took a look at it and asked if he wanted another one! Local GW's know who is poaching to survive!

I agree with all of ya's I was just curious how you all would react, thanks for your input.

It's called survival! My grandparents had to do it practically their whole lives in northern Wisconsin. Alot of the less fortunate that live up north still do to this day. Jobs are few and far between up there. From what I've seen , the game wardens look the other way when it involves the locals who are feeding their families. From what I was told by my granddad and a few aquaintances from up north , they hunt during the day just like you or I and shoot the first deer they see , buck or doe. The majority of spotlight hunters are after trophy racks. Thats poaching!



Edited by - bowfanatic on 01/23/2003 20:02:53

If you live in an urban setting, as mentioned their are many agencies, food banks..ways to obtain food for your family. If kids are the reason many schools have programs to feed kids while at school...so like mention now a days I don't see the need to poach for survival. However if you live in rural, secluded areas where these programs are not readily available that would be different.