I have to say that I was turned in anonymously by a disgruntled (fired) ex-employee for having 3 young pheasants in my barn. The DNR pounded on my door after dark, on a cold winter’s evening, when I was in bed recovering from the flu.
I told him that I’d been given the eggs by a pheasant farm owner who didn’t want to hatch them (too late in the season), that I’d incubated them, and that they had refused to leave my cozy barn, despite the fact that I’d left the door open for them. I asked him what he’d like me to do with them? Throw them out into the snow? Turn them over to the DNR?
He said that I needed a Game Farm license to have pheasants. “What did that take?”, I asked. “$10 and an inspection of my premises” was the answer. “Here’s a form to fill out.”
“When will they come to inspect?” I asked. He grinned and said that it had already been done and that I had the nicest pheasant pen he’d ever seen. Eventually my birds flew the coop, and I never saw them again. I still have the license, but it has lapsed.
No guns. No strong arms. Just a very polite agent.
I assume such men are still serving the public, but we certainly see a lot more of another type of government agent these days: the kind with a license to kill.