subject: Poacher sends photos of Poached Deer to Game Officers [print this page] Poacher sends photos of Poached Deer to Game Officers
Game officers in Idaho have been receiving letters and pictures from a poacher known as Poacher X. Poacher X has been sending letters to the game officers as a way of taunting them about deer that he has poached in the state. To combat the recent letters game officers started an investigation and have found that the letters are not coming from Idaho. The letters and pictures from Poacher X are coming from Everett, Washington. This is the first time that game officers in Idaho can remember someone turning themselves in, in this manner.
One Idaho resident feels that the letters are coming from a hunter in Washington that might be outraged with the out of state licenses fees in Idaho. Current fees for out of state hunter in Idaho are $300-$500. The cost of the tags does seem to be a little high to me as well but I'm not about to go and break the law. If you want to do something you need to be prepared to pay the price.
I feel that this poacher is very brave but also stupid. If he wants to hunt in a particular state he should follow all of the laws that the state has enacted. When you poach you are just hurting all of the hunters who follow the rules and poacher give hunting a bad name. I can understand if you were not aware of the laws of the state and accidently broke one but that is not the case with this hunter. Poacher X knew that he broke the law and everything should be done to catch this poacher and punish him for the crime he has committed.
With only 1% of poachers in Idaho being caught I think that maybe Poacher X is trying to send a message to Idaho game officers that more needs to be done to catch poachers. Poacher X has stated in his letters that he plans on sending Idaho more photos of pronghorn and turkey that he plans to poach next. Letting officials know what he plans on poaching next is a brave move because now the officials can be on the look out for cars from Washington that are in hunting country.
Since only 1% of poachers get caught unfortunately it seems as Poacher X will most likely get away with this. If only game officials had more resources at their disposal, but as long as people poach instead of buying tags revenues from tag sales will continue to decline and game officers will only have resources to administer current programs.
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