hunting – Page 6 – Syndication Server

Man ordered never to hunt in Alaska again after guilty plea

A man who impersonated a hunting guide and led illegal hunts in an Alaskan preserve was ordered to never hunt in the state again.

An Idaho man who impersonated a hunting guide and led several illegal hunts in Alaska’s Noatak National Preserve was ordered by an Alaskan judge to never hunt in the state again.

Paul Silvis, 52, of Nampa was also fined $20,000 and ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason to serve six months of home confinement followed by five years of supervised release, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday, as reported in the Anchorage Daily News.

U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroder said in the announcement that Silvis pleaded guilty in October to two felony violations of the Lacey Act, which bans illegal wildlife trafficking.

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Prosecutors said that Silvis transported illegally taken game across state lines and gave the Alaska Department of Fish and Game false business records to cover up the illegal take.

Between 2009 to 2016, Silvis repeatedly violated state and federal law, illegally selling and providing unlicensed guide services under the name Orion Outfitters. Schroder said financial gain was the motive, as Silvis took in $121,500. Seven brown bears and a moose were harvested in the illegal hunts.

In specific cases cited, Silvis guided illegal hunts for residents of Idaho in September of 2013 and 2014. None of them possessed appropriate big-game tags.

Non-resident hunters pursuing brown bears in the Noatak National Preserve must contract with a licensed big-game guide, possess state permits and buy big-game tags.

The Noatak National Preserve, which covers 10,265-square miles, is located in northwestern Alaska where the nearest city is Kotzebue.

Unlike the two national parks that border it, the preserve allows hunting. Legal hunting, that is.

Images courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

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Utah declares ‘emergency’ cougar harvest increase

In a move met with debate, Utah made an “emergency change” by increasing the cougar harvest objectives in hopes of helping another animal.

In a move met with lively debate, Utah made an “emergency change” by increasing the cougar harvest objectives in 11 areas across the state in hopes of helping struggling deer populations.

The Utah Division Wildlife Resources on Thursday increased by 117 the “harvest objective,” meaning once the quota is reached in these areas the hunt will close, the agency stated.

“We basically wanted to increase some of our cougar harvest in those areas since they’re the primary predator for deer, just as kind of a way to stabilize and help some of those mule deer populations that are struggling to recover more quickly,” Faith Heaton Jolley, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources spokeswoman, told KSL.com.

“It’s just been different pockets of the state that have either been hit really hard by these heavy winters or by drought seasons.”

In August, the agency raised the quota for the fourth straight year, agreeing to 690 cougar permits, an increase of 46 from the previous year, KSL.com reported, adding that there are more than 2,500 estimated adult mountain lions in the state compared to about 1,000 in 2004.

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The hunting harvest-objective units are listed on the DWR website.

Not everybody was happy with the change, and a back-and-forth discussion ensued at the end of the KSL.com post. Among the comments:

“Killing the cougars is not going to do very much to increase deer populations. Human involvement is causing the deer decline. Work on the deer poaching and land grab problem.”

“Most people don’t realize the impact these cats actually do have on deer populations. It might not be the same case in certain areas, but there are plenty of places that do need more cougar tags because they are definitely hurting deer populations in those areas.”

“We have way too many deer out there, let the cougars do their job.”

“I guess this is the difference between a team of scientists making a decision and laymen off the street. They are making a decision based off of years of collected data and are trying to make the best decision from that. Separating our emotions from these kinds of decisions can yield great results and be far less divisive.”

“Mother Nature is very good at maintaining herd populations and health through natural predators. Only since the introduction of human ‘sport’ hunting of both predator and prey animals has herd populations and health become an issue. It’s a man caused problem. So, take man out of the equation and let nature do what it’s done successfully for tens of thousands of years.”

“There’s sometimes controversy with hunting predator species,” Jolley told KSL.com. “The biggest thing is we’re trying to reduce some of these populations where these deer are struggling, and it can help facilitate them to recover more quickly, but it’s also all these quotas we’ve set will help (maintain) sustainable management for both these predator and prey populations.”

Photos and graphic courtesy of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

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Deer hunter arrested after family’s pet horse is shot

An arrest has been made in the case involving a Virginia deer hunter suspected of shooting a family’s pet horse.

Jeffrey Mayo, of Mineral, was charged with reckless handling of a firearm and discharging a firearm within 100 yards of an occupied dwelling, the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.

“It was determined through the investigation that the suspect was hunting and had fired three shots at a deer while it was running,” the agency stated in a news release.

ABC 8 News reports that the 24-year-old quarter horse, named Penny, suffered wounds to her chest and lung during the Nov. 27 incident in Ashland.

Alexander Gaudino, Penny’s caretaker, said that after seeing the horse bleeding from her side he initially thought she had been injured by barbed wire. “We walked over there and she wouldn’t move; we were in complete shock,” Gaudino said.

A GoFundMe page was created two days later, with Kim Boyd Gaudino writing, “Our family pet of 20 years was shot in the yard the night before Thanksgiving. We are asking for help with medical expenses.”

On Nov. 30 the post was updated to reveal that Penny was “fighting to live” but the next day Penny was said to be “doing amazing well.”

Penny, who received care from the family’s veterinarian, has since recovered.

The investigation was conducted in conjunction with the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

–Images showing Penny during her recovery are courtesy of the Gaudino family

Hunter acts fast when charged by mountain lion

A pheasant hunter in North Dakota relied on his law enforcement instincts when a mountain lion emerged from the tall grass and charged him. The frightening incident occurred Thursday afternoon in the Custer Mine hunting area near Garrison while Gary …

A pheasant hunter in North Dakota relied on his law enforcement instincts when a mountain lion emerged from the tall grass and charged him.

The frightening incident occurred Thursday afternoon in the Custer Mine hunting area near Garrison while Gary Gorney of Minot was on his cellphone, according to the Minot Daily News.

When his dog suddenly went on point, Gorney quickly put his cellphone in his pocket, expecting a pheasant to take flight. Instead, a mountain lion appeared and charged him.

“I dropped my dad’s 100-year-old double-barrel [shotgun], I don’t even remember doing that, and went for the sidearm that I carry with me underneath my jacket,” Gorney told the Minot Daily News. “My instincts as a military law enforcement officer took over. There was no thought process. It was self-defense.”

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The attacking mountain lion was 10 feet away when Gorney shot the animal with a 9-millimeter handgun. Gorney’s dogs then went after the mountain lion. He said he wanted to pull the dogs off, “but I wasn’t going anywhere near that lion.”

“I bow-hunt the Badlands and I’ve been hunting the Custer Mine for 31 years and I’ve never seen a cat,” Gorney told the Minot Daily News. “I felt like I was in Africa hunting. The grass perfectly matched it’s coat.”

Gorney reported the incident to the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. Officials determined it was a female mountain lion that weighed more than 100 pounds.

Photo courtesy of the North Dakota Game and Fish Department.

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Hunter confesses in case of mistaken identify

A hunter in Wisconsin made a potential $6,000 mistake when she believed she was shooting at a deer and wound up killing two elk instead. Salina Ann Beltran of Mukwonago was hunting from a tree stand on private property in Rusk County last month as …

A hunter in Wisconsin made a potential $6,000 mistake when she believed she was shooting at a deer and wound up killing two elk instead.

Salina Ann Beltran of Mukwonago was hunting from a tree stand on private property in Rusk County last month as her fiancé hunted elsewhere on the property, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Ladysmith News reported Friday.

Beltran, 41, spotted what she thought was a buck deer walking towards her, telling wardens “I saw it was a fork antlered and its head was down.”

When the animal turned broadside, she fired a shot. The animal didn’t react, so she fired twice more, prompting the animal to turn back and disappear from sight. Moments later, she looked through her rifle scope and an animal came into view.

“All I saw was the body and it looked like the same animal,” Beltran said in the warden reports. She took four more shots.

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After waiting 45 minutes, she began the process of tracking the animal and came upon a fork-horn bull elk and then noticed a spike elk laying about 40 yards away. She immediately recognized her errors and called in her fiancé Jeff Anderson, also of Mukwonago.

They went to the Department of Natural Resources service center in Ladysmith and filed a report about the mistakes.

Court records showed that Beltran was issued a $6,152.50 citation for hunting elk during closed season, a non-traffic ordinance violation, the Journal Sentinel reported. She is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 14.

The report stated that Beltran and Anderson were in tears upon leaving the DNR office.

Fortunately, the animals did not go to waste. One elk was donated to the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission for distribution to tribal members in northern Wisconsin. The other was butchered locally and distributed to food pantries.

While there has been other incidents where hunters have mistakenly shot elk in Wisconsin, this is the first time a hunter has mistakenly shot two elk.

DNR chief conservation warden Todd Schaller told the Journal Sentinel the incident highlights two points about hunting and safety.

“The first is to be sure of your target and what’s beyond,” he said. “The other is, if you make a mistake, be honest and contact the department.”

Photo of an elk courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

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Hunter sprays deer repellent in brother’s hunting spot, is cited

An unusual dispute came to light when an officer got a complaint about hunter harassment only to find it was one brother reporting another.

A family feud between two hunters in Michigan culminated in a man admitting to a conservation officer that he sprayed deer repellent on his brother’s hunting stands.

The unusual dispute came to light when Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Mike Wells received a complaint about hunter harassment in Newaygo County only to discover it was one brother reporting the other, according to MLive.com.

The complainant has two hunting stands that sit on U.S. Forest Service property, which is located next to a private camp that was willed to both brothers by their father. The other brother hunts from a blind on the private property.

The complainant told Wells he was “extremely frustrated” by his brother’s continued harassment while on the private property. He proceeded to give Wells two SD Cards from trail cameras that showed a subject wearing a yellow backpack sprayer spraying the two hunting stands on Forest Service land.

Wells accompanied the complainant to the stands and collected evidence samples of the unknown liquid.

Then, on the morning of the firearm season, Wells approached the suspected brother as he hunted from the blind on private property and discovered he was illegally hunting over bait.

Wells confronted the suspect and showed him a photo from the trail camera, at which point he confessed to spraying both stands because his brother was intentionally cutting off the deer by hunting the public land next to the private camp.

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He also admitted that the spray was “liquid fence,” designed to deter deer from entering the area and that he did it to scare deer away. He apologized and told Wells his emotions got the best of him.

Wells submitted a warrant request for hunter harassment and baiting deer when prohibited.

According to Michigan law, unlawful baiting deer is a misdemeanor offense that carries a penalty of a maximum of 90 days in jail, a fine between $50 and $500, court costs and state fees, and loss of hunting privileges at the court’s discretion.

Hunter harassment is also a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment for up to 93 days and/or a fine of between $500 and $1,000 plus court costs.

“I suppose this means the gift exchange is cancelled for them this Christmas,” one commenter on MLive.com quipped.

Photo of a deer courtesy of USFWS. Photo of a typical deer stand in Michigan courtesy of Wikipedia Commons.

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Hunters celebrate success until lawmen emerge

Hunters thought they had an easy score when coming upon a sage grouse standing alongside the gravel road they were on. They thought wrong.

Hunters in Michigan thought they had an easy score when they came upon a sage grouse standing alongside the gravel road on which they were traveling in the Upper Peninsula.

They thought wrong.

After shooting the sage grouse while inside the truck, the passenger got out of the vehicle hooting and hollering in celebration until he saw three conservation officers from the Department of Natural Resources walking toward him, as reported by MLive.com.

Turns out, the hunter shot a grouse decoy put out by the DNR officers as they patrolled Forsyth Township in Marquette County.

The two hunters were cited for possessing a loaded firearm inside a motor vehicle, not wearing hunter orange clothing and having open intoxicants.

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A loaded firearm in a motor vehicle in Michigan is a misdemeanor offense carrying a fine of $50 to $500, court costs and state fees, and possibly a maximum of 90 days in jail and the loss of hunting privileges, according to Hilf & Hilf law offices. Failing to wear hunter orange is also a misdemeanor and carries the same penalties.

Found with open intoxicants in a motor vehicle in Michigan is a misdemeanor penalized by up to 90 days in jail and a fine up to $100, community service and having to undergo substance abuse screening, according to The Kronzek Firm.

The officers witnessed the unidentified hunters drive past the decoy location, stop and back up. The report stated that the two occupants were seen fumbling around before a shotgun barrel could be seen in the passenger side mirror. Then the gun was fired.

That prompted the hunters to celebrate before officers Josh Boudreaux, John Kamps and Ariel Young emerged from their hiding spot.

The shotgun was confiscated and the hunters were given their citations.

Photo of live sage grouse from Wikipedia Commons. Generic photo of hunter by Jeff J. Mitchell/Getty Images.

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