I've been in a philosophical argument with a friend about poaching... not legal aspects or even moral aspects of it, but practical, real world aspects of it... he contends that with the deer herd being considered extremely over populated due to lack of natural predation that poaching could and maybe should be considered a way to get the balance back and why should hunters even worry/care about whether a person kills a deer for the trophy or meat or even sport... his argument continues to say that maybe we shouldn't have "seasons" at all and that hunting should be allowed year round because of the reasons he states (he's playing devil's advocate a little)... now generally speaking I don't have much of a problem with someone hunting off season if they are sustenance hunters and living on the land (an extreme minority i know, but doesn't bother me) ... somebody off season just grabbin racks or cuttin out the backstraps cuz they are in a hurry and don't wanna get caught, that's a problem to me from a moral/ethical standpoint... in his eyes, this deer wouldn't go to waste in any way because other animals would consume it and that this poached deer is one closer to evening the balance... I can kinda see his point when you have states like AL where the "limit" is one buck and one doe per day during the season... and I've actually had a DNR officer say "off the record, if you take two doe a day we won't tell"... I don't know, he makes a convincing argument that american hunters and low levels of predation have allowed to deer population to grow virtually unhindered for decades... for what its worth, he is not anti hunter at all and quite enjoys a good venison steak... what says the BH membership on this???
It looks like we're in for our second closed thread of the week! Woohoo! Tell your "friend" that poaching is illegal, and game laws exist for a reason. Now stop poaching. It ain't right.
hes not poaching, like I said, philosophical argument is all... came up cuz a mutual friend has been reporting people dumping out of season deer carcass on his property and they only are missing the hind legs, and the DNR isn't doing much about it, other than filing a report...
I agree with him and you. Honestly, I used to draw my line at legal and ethical. Now, I don't give a rat's ass what anyone else does. Sorry. The only problem with his scenario is......if you made it a nationwide thing, there'd be NO deer in the big buck states (they'd get slaughtered - yr round trophy hunting). And, the smaller deer states would still be over-run. If we had open hunting for does, here, year-round....it wouldn't bother me. I wouldn't hunt year-round. And, I don't think many would.
why? can't people discuss something without getting bent out of shape about it?? maybe I overestimate our abilities here.
A good wildlife management plan by the DNR will take into account poached deer.They will set their bag limits with that in mind as well as people not filling tags. Turning people loose would open up a total fiasco.We need to be governed even though we think we don't.This is the way it used to be that caused much of the problem to begin with. There is a problem in many areas and I agree with that (our farm has had 41 deer taken LEGALLY this year off 600 acres) Problem is as I see it.There are very few GOOD DNR systems out there.They either over protect the deer (probably due to revenue) or they are over protecting bucks which IS all about revenue trying to become big buck tourist attractions. IMO,Ky should be a model of good deer management practices that other states should look at.NOT PERFECT but way better than what I see some other states doing.
NYS is just awful at it .... I wish they would follow Kentucky..... 7....like Jeff said, hopefully everyone acts their age
Duke...just move along. I never called anyone a name (in the infamous thread). And, I didn't get it locked down. Don't create an issue where there is none. Aren't you a moderator? Have something CONSTRUCTIVE to add to this thread?
Actually it was not too long ago, (40 yrs give or take for the old folk) that you was lucky to see very many deer in VA. It takes a long time to grow your heard, and only a few very short yrs to wipe it out.
I think that if all of the people that talk about management, actually took action, we'd see some results. For example, if shooting does is what the plan calls for, shoot does. I get three doe tags, I sure try and fill all of em.
Originally Posted by GMMAT They can until someone casts the first stone. I hope it doesn't happen. At it's finest....... again(go figure) As far as the thread? Maybe we should decide how fast we are entitled to drive. We can handle more than the speed limit in most cases. What stop signs we can not stop at. There's probably some that don't really matter. etc................ Game laws are there for a reason like everything else.
To the subject I would add that without rules and regs, it's always gonna get twisted somehow. In any faction of society, you will have the people that will use the leniency to their own end.
I'm all for poaching, his argument convinced me ! Now, let's raise the speed limit on interstate highways to 200mph. Let's give sexual predators a 3 strikes and you're out policy, just in case the first 2 times were by accident. Lower the driving age to 5. And we should now allow medical companies to dump their waste in the worlds oceans.
