25 rotting elk carcasses, charges filed

[DOUBLELUNG]

I read their press report and it solidified my opinion that the guy needs the book thrown at him.  No excuses or mitigating circumstances based on my read of the ODFW, OSP and landowner releases.

[Rainier10]

BTW I don't think that the landowner press release helped their case in any way.  I would be shocked if the defense thinks that was a good idea.  Rookie move IMHO.

[JDHasty]

BTW I don't think that the landowner press release helped their case in any way.  I would be shocked if the defense thinks that was a good idea.  Rookie move IMHO.

I don't see this ending well for them. 

[Skillet]

BTW I don't think that the landowner press release helped their case in any way.  I would be shocked if the defense thinks that was a good idea.  Rookie move IMHO.

I thought the same thing, but their attorney released it for them.   They must be feeling pretty ostracized by the press, forums like this and/or their community to do something like that.

[hunter399]

Hang em ,I have asked a lot of land owners for permission to hunt.And these are the types that tell you no.I have no remorse for anything they have coming,and do agree allowing hunting may have help there case,and to lazy to gut, skin, and take it to local butcher , so local low income family's can benefit,what a $@#@ these people are.

[WSU]

I do feel sympathy for them.  But, if they didn't allow access to push the critters off their land they are less sympathetic.  It's tough to tell the extent to which they allowed hunting.

[hunter399]

Nope still no remorse from me.

[idahohuntr]

From the landowner press release:

In answer to the accusations that we don’t allow hunters, that is not correct.  We have allowed people we know, who can utilize the meat, to purchase depredation tags.   Often times they are working during the week and can only hunt on weekends or evenings.  This limits the time that the tags allow.  Another reason we have limited hunters coming on our property, if the hunters come from outside Wallowa County, they are not familiar with our fence lines.  We do not have permission from adjoining landowners to kill elk on their ground.  Yes, we are particular who hunts on our property as we feel responsible if shots are fired towards neighbor’s homes and an elk is killed off of our property.

I have no sympathy for them.  Don't charge fees and limit hunting and the elk problem would not be as severe.  If they allowed enough hunting they may even reduce the overall population.

If folks can't deal with wildlife on their property I suggest they sell and move to town where they won't be "burdened". 

[sumpnz]

Hang em ,I have asked a lot of land owners for permission to hunt.And these are the types that tell you no.I have no remorse for anything they have coming,and do agree allowing hunting may have help there case,and to lazy to gut, skin, and take it to local butcher , so local low income family's can benefit,what a $@#@ these people are.

On some level I can appreciate that they may have felt too busy with other critical farm duties to take the time to gut and skin the animals and drive them to a local butcher.  Even for a pro, not counting driving time that could be half an hour per elk by the time they get the rifle, shoot the elk, get the tractor out there to string it up, and gut/skin it.  If it really took removal of 20 elk to solve their problem, that's a huge effort.

That said, their excuses are still overall lame.  If the elk are that bad they could have gotten damage permits and allowed hunters to do it all for them.  I can understand a reluctance to let strangers onto your land for that, but now the dude is likely to go to jail and/or pay massive fines.  Best case they're going to be out $10-30k for their lawyer, even if the lawyer gets them off Scot free.  I'm guessing that even if the hunters did some damage in the process of dealing with the elk that would have been FAR less of a burden to them in the end.

And if they were that worried they could require the hunters be placed in a specific location with clearly defined fields of fire rather than being allowed to wander all over.  Or some other means of minimizing potential for damage.  It's not that hard.

[hunter399]

 

Ya then they say they paid for 7,000 in fencing , but we can't afford to haul the elk to butcher shop with kill permits,give me a break.

[getreal711]

They could have asked for help from the hunting community and taken care of this the legal and moral way and provided food for others in need instead of wasting it.

[Allen23]

hey to you above me, thanks for your 29years of service!

Yeah I do not think its going to be pretty for these folks. I hope all the people that here of this will learn from it, most of all I hope the ODFW takes something away from this.

[idaho guy]

I read it as well, really understand their frustration.

But I read a sense of entitlement to government protection from the same natural world that provides for thier livelihood.

If you're going to demand the government help, you need to be a little flexible.  In this case, it would mean allowing a few more depredation hunts to people other than your immediate friends & family.  Her argument for not allowing others to kill elk in-season on their land is weak, imho, and it appears some depredation tags went unfilled.  And by her own admission, the elk were there for all hunting seasons - bow and muzzy included.

Poor choices by landowner in response to depending on a typical non-responsive, bureaucratic government agecy to fulfill a sense of entitlement they adopted on their own.  Had they allowed more people to hunt, they likely wouldn't have this problem.  It was their decision, and decisions have consequences.

True story

I agree they could have alleviated the problem just allowing more hunters. Sounds like the elk were there during the rut long before the big snow hit. If they would have allowed a lot more hunters problem would have been solved 

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Maybe the guy needs mental help? Maybe he's like the hoarders out there with there cars full of trash?   Just stiring the pot with this coment.

[Biggerhammer]

Speculation, many hunters are slobs. If the allegations are in fact true, letting people hunt the property the years prior would have absolutely no effect on the end result.