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More poacher problems

Paul,
I agree with something has to be done.
I just hate something else being taken away because of dishonest people. If it was a law I could live with it if it helped stop poachers.
As mentioned before the night after that first snow we had a lot of blood trails to the road. Just the other day I spoke with my neighbor and he told me two weeks ago he saw two guys in the ditch after dark. When he came up to the ditch they took off. He saw a dead deer in the ditch. When he called the DNR they said they could not do anything (not enough evidence??). When my cousin caught two people trespassing the DNR said tell them to not come back. In a lot of peoples eyes they do not even call the DNR because they think they will not do anything.
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I think it will only get worse.
I hope I am wrong.
Risto
 
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When my cousin caught two people trespassing the DNR said tell them to not come back.
Risto

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Trespassing really should be reported to the county sheriff instead of the DNR. Tell them you want to pursue charges.
 
Well I guess I will throw my .02 cents in on this subject.

I will suggest that there be a voluntary CO program.

Here in one of the poorest counties in the state we have volunteer Sheriff deputies. They have all the legal rights as a Sheriff Deputy for the most part but beens they arent paid they cant drive a county vehicle and cant make arrest but they can write tickets and so on.
So why cant the C.O. get extra help with volunteer officers. I know for 1 that I would be glad to help especially in the area I live in. Level B road central and we all know how well Poachers love Level B roads.
Dont know if this would be possible but hey it is worth a shot.
 
JNRBRONC

"Trespassing really should be reported to the county sheriff instead of the DNR. Tell them you want to pursue charges."

Thanks for the info.
 
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Whan I called the Sheriffs office in attempt to find someone to help they returned my call back 20 minutes later insructing me to call the state patrol.
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I was not amused!

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If you don't mind me asking, where do you live that the Sheriff's office dosen't answer the phone?
 
I absolutely agree with Dbltree and others on this issue.
First, I can totally understand why recreational spotlighting is fun and informative for the individual doing it. However there is no question that it results in an enormous amount of wasted of time for law enforcement and a temptation for potential poachers. I am a deputy sheriff and I can tell you from first hand experience just how hard it is to stop illegal spotlighting. I can also tell you that if you are stopped for shining w/o a weapon the officer will still be suspicious of you, and most likely irritated as well whether he shows it or not. For example, I have stopped well known poachers shining both with and without weapons. When they were unarmed, I just caught them on the wrong night. Is that what you want your local C.O. to think about you? I'll tell you this much, when headless deer start showing up, everybody I stop with a light becomes a suspect.
Why would he be irritated with you if your unarmed? Because you have wasted time he could have spent elsewhere. If he spends 2 nights watching the area where you were reported before and finally catches you unarmed, those 2 days are lost and somebody else likely got away with poaching elsewhere. When you do get stopped there is a good chance you were spotted from an airplane, though you would probably not know it. Airplanes, and the manpower to cover the ground, are expensive. The half hour you were followed and the stop was coordinated amounts to a huge waste of money and time. Time that could have been spent on actual bad guys.
I admit that I dont think any of the regulars on this site would be tempted to poach by spotlighting legally. But what about that neighbor kid that notices that he didnt get stopped the last 4 times he was shining all those big bucks? He figures nobody is watching anyway so what the heck, just as well bring the .243. I'm fully convinced that 99% of illegal spotlighters started out legal and temptation took over.
Legal shining is also frequently exploited by illegal spotlighters. I wont go into the details on that for obvious reasons, but trust me it can be done and I have seen it first hand.
Illegal spotlighting is a huge problem and costs all of us opportunities. Legal spotlighting simply creates opportunities to get away with it, temptations, and adds difficulty to the work of those trying to stop it. I'm not foolish enough to think that outlawing unarmed shining will eliminate poaching, but it would certainly be a step in the right direction.
 
Timberpig, I’m not offended at all by your comments. You present a valid argument, and I agree 100% that making all shining activity illegal will stop some poaching. I will not be negatively affected by a law against shining, so it gets my vote. If anything it will have a positive impact on the quality of hunting in my area.

But to play the Devil's advocate here, if shining a light on property you have permission to hunt becomes illegal because it’s too difficult to tell who’s breaking the law and who’s simply watching deer, you could also use the same slippery slope logic on just about any crime. Law abiding shiners will just have to hunker down and spend some cash on a night vision setup. Only problem is, so can poachers. At least they will have to work harder to break the law.
 
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But to play the Devil's advocate here, if shining a light on property you have permission to hunt becomes illegal because it’s too difficult to tell who’s breaking the law and who’s simply watching deer, you could also use the same slippery slope logic on just about any crime. Law abiding shiners will just have to hunker down and spend some cash on a night vision setup. Only problem is, so can poachers. At least they will have to work harder to break the law.

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Avid, its not so much that its difficult to tell who is legal and who isnt (once their stopped), the problem is that alot of time and resources are wasted to locate innocent people. I think everyone wants illegal spotlighting to be stopped, so it stands to reason that it would be helpfull if folks were not out creating false alarms that have to be investigated by a very limited number of officers.
The problem extends beyond just the false alarms also. As I mentioned before legal spotlighting can be exploited rather easily to the advantage of poachers, why give them that luxury? Another problem is that because some forms of spotlighting are legal, people who see it happen are less likely to report it. No way for the casual observer to know who's legal and who's not either. That makes things safer for the bad guys as well.

As for night vision equipment, that has been done already. However, NV is a whole lot more expensive, less effective, and more difficult to use than a 2 million candlepower Q-Beam that cost $15 at the local Wally World.

My intent isnt to upset anyone who enjoys this practice, but to make you aware of some of the problems it creates. Its important to remember that the CO's job is to protect the very deer you hope to see and harvest later. Legal spotlighting makes his job harder and the poachers job easier. Bad things happen as a result.

For what it's worth, I would not have a problem if unarmed shining were only legal from say April 1st to Sept 1st. That is not when the problems arise, 90%of the problems are during the rut.
 
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For what it's worth, I would not have a problem if unarmed shining were only legal from say April 1st to Sept 1st. That is not when the problems arise, 90%of the probles are during the rut.

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That seems like a really good idea. I don't think that the poachers would try so hard if they were getting velvet antlers. Granted I know that it is a little harder to spotlight do during that time because crops are still in the field but if it will save a few mature bucks I am all for it.
 
I think we ought to hire DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER to come to Iowa and catch all these poachers
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He can make a reality show off it and make millions and we will all reap the benefits
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Problem solved.
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This one is a tough one to solve, How to stop poaching? You could make shining illegal, which may help but I highly doubt it since poachers will poach and DNR officers are spread out so thin it is virtually a poachers dream. I think alot of help could come from personal awareness of what goes around in your neck of the woods at night. Start patrolling your ground or just start driving around, look for shiners. Anyone abiding by the law will stop and talk to you, if you don't try to run them off the road and wave machetes at them. Offer to let them search your vehicle while you search theirs. It's not going to take long for you to figure out who the poachers are in your area.
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I think we ought to hire DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER to come to Iowa and catch all these poachers
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This is a touchy subject and I want to compliment all who have responded with "civil debate among reasonable men"
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We have to put up with changes in our lives everyday that none of us like but it's just a fact of life.

I don't pretend to have all the answers to the poaching problem but I do know this...with the exception of those in law enforcement, most of you have not the slightest idea how severe this problem is.

We're talking hundreds of unsolved poaching cases in my area alone, with only a few rare situations of people being caught and prosecuted.
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As much as I deplore more rules, regulations and laws...I feel we have to take some steps to stem the tide.

I'm well aware that there is no cure all and that restrictions on shining will not end poaching...still...that's no reason to do nothing and let the thieves win...

All of our talk and debate is of little use if we can't get something done and I'm also well aware that changing something like this, is no easy task.

I hope to start by airing our concerns with the right people and see where it goes. I do expect resistance from the Farm Bureau...who feels the only good deer is a
dead one.........
 
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