Posted on 03/13/2014 10:34:07 AM PDT by rarestia
Three men are facing charges in Pasco County for poaching deer on private property and hunting out of season.
Officials with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission say they caught the men on February 27 on private land near Bellamy Brothers Boulevard in Dade City.
Officers said they noticed spotlights in operation and heard multiple gunshots coming from private property nearby. Around 1 a.m., officers said they found Jason Payne, Eric Ohmdahl and Marc Laird cleaning six deer on Payne's property.
Officers took three rifles with lights attached and six bags of deer meat.
All three men were charged with first-degree misdemeanors, including taking deer during closed season.
Please note that I COMPLETELY understand that spotting is illegal and really "unfair" for hunting, but I'm focused solely on the fact that this was done on private land. I don't get how this is bad outside of the use of lights, which, let's be honest, look like LED flashlights more than the big Halogen spots or KC lights on a truck.
The king’s deer do not belong to you, and may not be hunted without his permission, even if they are on your own property.
In Colorado the government says they own the deer and all other game so they license and “manage” the hunts. Some Native Americans have other rights to special seasons of their own. This comes form centuries of micromanagement.
Deer are not private. They are public.
Shoot, shovel, shutup.
Or...
Lights out, shoot quietly, don’t say anything.
Betcha white males. Just saying.
What has this country, Hell the WORLD, come to? We can’t even hunt our own meat to feed our families?
In New York, it doesn’t matter whose land it is, you can only hunt when the bureaucrats want you to.
I think that even applies to picking up road kill “out of season.” I once hit a deer with my car, and a guy with a pick-up truck behind me saw what happened. He asked if he could take the carcass. So he did a quick look around to see if cops were coming, wrestled the (dead) animal into his truck, and off he went.
Correction, the people’s deer. We have no king and to state that there is some other entity that has “ownership” of game or fish s silly at best (other than the God of Providence and His creation).
We hunters that buy licenses and equipment pay directly for the management of animals and fish, therefore taking them outside of the season/limits and w/o license is theft from all of us.
Now, certainly some folks hunt for survival, and I have no issue with that ( I stock my freezer and pantry with all sorts of wild foods, in season and by permit), however, living n society has costs, and the cost of licenses and seasons is that reasonable cost.
This is the same county that had a retired LEO kill a texter in a theatre, and yet they have time to harass people on their own land.
We used to have two large herds of deer romaing around the wooded neighborhood, which is bordered by BLM in three sides.
In one year, they are all gone, down to about 3.
Why?
A group of poachers killed them all. They would shoot any time, day or not, hunting season or no, and leave injured ones to die painfully. The house they rented they abandoned, and it was filty and full of rotten deer parts.
They moved to another house in the valley and are apparently doing the same thing there.
It depends on the state. In some states, farmers or property owners have the right to kill out of season any animal eating or ruining their crops.
I believe such laws are reasonable and just. I also believe in obeying hunting laws, but a farmer has the right to protect his livelihood. THAT goes beyond “hunting”.
And image being attacked by a bear or mountain lion, and killing it in self defense (that no one argues wasn’t) and then being charged with illegal hunting. Does not compute.
If you are hunting on private land without permission from the landowner, you are stealing his deer..............................
Wild game is considered a natural resource. You own the property but unless you raised the deer you do not own them.
Now if you raised the deer then you have the right to harvest them as you wish.
Then the state should pay for all the damage to cars and gardens,shrubs,and flowers.
I once saw spotlighters in my early driving days(nights),but having had one car totalled,and four damaged has created a blind spot. Haven’t SEEN a spotlighter or poacher in the last ten years.
AND there are MORE deer than ever locally;it is common to see/dodge a dozen on my drive home.
Heh. My grandfather got caught doing the same thing with a deer he hit with his Renault (major damage to the Renault).
Few own property;only those with a land grant actually OWN,the rest of us pay annual taxes to be permitted to HOLD TiTLE.Stop paying property taxes and a man with a gun will come to take possession of the property. If the “authorities” think someone else will pay higher taxes,then they will send the man with a gun to take “your” property even though you have paid the taxes.
Free country my ......
Only when property taxes are abolished will the majority truly own property.
Note in the article that the property belonged to one of the men arrested.
Also, the property was owned by one of the men arrested.
Aside from hunting out of season, I'm scratching my head on this. While not condoning the behavior, it WAS private property owned by one of the hunters.
I remember a poaching club where I was living in Tennessee that the members would simply kill deer year round just for the antlers. They'd leave the meat.
I hate poachers. And yes, even though the deer are killed on private property, they (the deer) still belong to the state.
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