Spanish Fork poachers

hawkeye said:

I don't consider it poaching when some idiot shoots farm raised elk. It is like shooting a rancher's cattle. A crime? Yes? Despicable? Yes. Poaching? No.

Hawkeye

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Legally speaking, you're off the mark. (And you are speaking legally, by using terms such as "crime" and "poaching.")

"Poaching" is the "illegal shooting, trapping, or taking of game or fish from private or public property."

Was there game taken in the instance cited above? Yes, elk. Was this instance of taking game legal? No. The game taken were privately owned and situated on posted private property. Then it was illegal. Ergo, this was indeed an instance of poaching.

Is it like shooting a rancher's cattle? Only in so much as it was an example of illegal take, and thus, a crime, as you rightly state. Shooting a rancher's cattle would not be considered poaching as cattle aren't considered game. A game animal is "any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport." Cattle are domesticated, obviously, and are not hunted for sport. (If they were, it's wouldn't be much of a "sport," right!?)

So, poaching? Yes.

I'll grant you that the sticky point here--and one the offenders' lawyers would conceivably exploit should they end up in court--is the question of domestication. The elk taken in this instance were domesticated. However, given that the legal definition of a game animal concerns animals "not normally domesticated," the argument may be moot. Elk, one could reasonably argue, are "not normally domesticated," leading, once again, to the conclusion that this was indeed an instance of poaching.

What is so odd with this article was that it originally stated that it happened in August going to the extent of even pointing out that it was on the opening weekend of archery elk hunt. Then, they post an update to the article that it actually just had happened recently in October. So, maybe it coincided with the rifle hunt??
What really strikes me as odd is that I drive by this place 2-3 times in each direction per month particularly since March. The whole fenced in area is only like 2 acres, so pretty easy to scan it all as you cruise by with the fence only being like 150' off of the road. Having moved back to Price in March I look over at this place everytime I drive by and I havent seen any elk there for several months. The front enclosure has definitely not had anything in it since June at least as there are literally millions of thistle 4' high since nothing has been in there for several months. The back enclosure is a little more difficult to see, but elk are pretty easy to spot and I havent seen anything in there for a long time. there used to be a motor home there all of the time and I havent seen it there all year. Something just smells fishy to me seeing what I have seen, almost like insurance fraud, but maybe I just didnt see them in there. And those are not 10' tall fences I believe.