Poaching

I think that the DWR is just tired of the poaching and trying to shine a light on the problem to get hunters to be more aware and report to them when they find it.

I once overheard an owner of a business that sells hunting and fishing equipment tell a customer that when PETA gets hunting banned, that's when he becomes a poacher. I thought it was an interesting remark.

There are definitely people among the ranks of hunters who just want to shoot. I've taken people out to the desert to call in coyotes. Sometimes you just don't see anything so you don't get to shoot. It about drove these guys nuts. They begged to pull over somewhere so they could shoot at a fence post or a bottle or a can.

I think there are people who just want to kill wildlife.

LostLouisianian said:

I think that the DWR is just tired of the poaching and trying to shine a light on the problem to get hunters to be more aware and report to them when they find it.

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Its going to backfire.

A tremendous percent of the public doesn't care one way or the other on hunting. All of these poaching cases hitting the news is just galvanizing them to be anti-hunters, vs neutral. I get asked about once a week about poaching at my work by non-hunters who think all/most hunters shoot and leave majestic critters in the mountains to rot.

News media loves to pick on these and make it front page news, much like the anti-gun stories etc etc. To sway them to think hunting = bad.

Its going to backfire.

-DallanC

DallanC said:

Its going to backfire.

A tremendous percent of the public doesn't care one way or the other on hunting. All of these poaching cases hitting the news is just galvanizing them to be anti-hunters, vs neutral. I get asked about once a week about poaching at my work by non-hunters who think all/most hunters shoot and leave majestic critters in the mountains to rot.

News media loves to pick on these and make it front page news, much like the anti-gun stories etc etc. To sway them to think hunting = bad.

Its going to backfire.

-DallanC

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Couldn't have said it better myself. When all people hear about is poaching, they'll start to assume that all hunters do it and it'll be difficult to change their minds.

Then again, having lived in another state for a good portion of my life, I guess it is nice that a lot of times our news reporters don't have much more to focus on than things like this. I'd much rather hear about rattlesnakes being painted orange than a drive-by, rape, or gang fights happening near me.

From a CO perspective it's just so easy and effective in helping solving a case.

I must agree with the reputation concern. Just last week a feller here was saying he just moved to Utah and never saw so much poaching and trash and what not.

Poaching on a grand scale is going on in any state that allows hunting and what you are seeing in the news or on the divisions web site is just a very small sample of it.

For the garbage issue, go to any state that there is and you will find it. Utah doesn't have a corner on the garbage issue in the hills. I hunt Arizona every year and it looks worse that what I have ever seen in Utah or Colorado. And with their dry weather it stays there until someone picks it up.