Shed hunters score big trespassing on Hanford!

[DeerSkin]

Federal land +federal crime = federal prison?

my memory sucks but didn’t a couple employees poach a big bull on Hanford a couple years ago, and I thought they kept their jobs?

They poached 3 bull elk on the Hanford reservation close to the old Hanford townsite, 2 of the men worked at Hanford and both kept their jobs. I believe they spent 90 days in jail and $6,000 fine. You’d have to double check online to get the facts straight for sure. It wasn’t a few years later and some of the same guys went back to the area they poached the bulls and were picking up sheds. Game wardens had been watching them in the act and they were busted again!!! Some guys just never stop breaking the law.

[Mudman]

I think its stupid to have regs and fines n permits on sheds.  Horns, bones, whatever, its just a stick of firewood in the woods.  Not hunting.  I could care less if people pick up sheds or not....  Silly over regulated socialist crap imop.

[Buckhunter24]

The rules are to prevent game harassment and trespassing  lots of stress in late winter early spring has abad effect on the herds especially the pregnant cows

[Pegasus]

I think its stupid to have regs and fines n permits on sheds.  Horns, bones, whatever, its just a stick of firewood in the woods.  Not hunting.  I could care less if people pick up sheds or not....  Silly over regulated socialist crap imop.

Probably started to keep our winter weakened animals from being disturbed by shed hunters for months.

[Bullkllr]

I think its stupid to have regs and fines n permits on sheds.  Horns, bones, whatever, its just a stick of firewood in the woods.  Not hunting.  I could care less if people pick up sheds or not....  Silly over regulated socialist crap imop.

Unless I'm mistaken, it's the trespassing issue that's the real concern. The reason they were trespassing in the first place just happened to be "shed hunting".

[ridgefire]

I don't agree with them trespassing but in no way should it be considered poaching imo.

[h20hunter]

Imo.....sure it is. I see poaching as the unlawful taking of a resource. They are poachers.

[Bango skank]

I don't agree with them trespassing but in no way should it be considered poaching imo.

They changed the law because the possibility of a ticket wasnt enough to deter people.  Were talking about serial trespassers here, guys that have absolutely no respect for private land if they stand to potentially gain something by trespassing and punishments if caught are weak.  Why defend people like that?  Theyre scum.  Want to stop people from doing dirtbag stuff like that?  Make the punishment severe enough to deter them.

I think whether a guy is trespassing to hunt deer, turkey, sheds, whatever, they should have their hunting license privledges yanked for a couple years, first time.  Millions of acres of public land out there, there is no excuse for trespassing.  Its stealing.  Just because somebody has something on their property you want doesnt give you the right to go take it.

[Skillet]

The trespassing issue is not in dispute, they broke the law there. If they're serial offenders, I hope they get their due.

The taking of sheds while doing so - is it poaching? 

An antler connected to an elk is still an elk - even on private ground - and is a publicly owned resource.  If they took the antlered elk on either public or private, that would be poaching.

An antler no longer connected to an elk on open public land is a publicly owned resource, and free for the taking - no poaching tags hung on shed hunters.

But an antler picked up on private land is a bit of a question to me.  Is that antler owned by the landowner, or is it still a publicly owned resource?  Water crossing private land is publicly owned, wildlife crossing private is publicly owned, but are the things the wildlife leave behind opened by the public or the landowner?  Sheds, snake skins, poop. 

I think for me it comes down to two things - if the antlers are publicly owned, they are poachers.  If they are privately owned, they are stealing from the landowner and should be prosecuted as thieves.

I also think that if they are either poaching or stealing the antlers in order to sell them, there should be an additional emphasis to prosecute them to send the message to other dishonest folk.

 

[b0bbyg]

The trespassing issue is not in dispute, they broke the law there. If they're serial offenders, I hope they get their due.

The taking of sheds while doing so - is it poaching? 

An antler connected to an elk is still an elk - even on private ground - and is a publicly owned resource.  If they took the antlered elk on either public or private, that would be poaching.

An antler no longer connected to an elk on open public land is a publicly owned resource, and free for the taking - no poaching tags hung on shed hunters.

But an antler picked up on private land is a bit of a question to me.  Is that antler owned by the landowner, or is it still a publicly owned resource?  Water crossing private land is publicly owned, wildlife crossing private is publicly owned, but are the things the wildlife leave behind opened by the public or the landowner?  Sheds, snake skins, poop. 

I think for me it comes down to two things - if the antlers are publicly owned, they are poachers.  If they are privately owned, they are stealing from the landowner and should be prosecuted as thieves.

I also think that if they are either poaching or stealing the antlers in order to sell them, there should be an additional emphasis to prosecute them to send the message to other dishonest folk.

 

I think this should be broke down into 2 charges 1 for the trespass or illegal entry into a close area.   2nd charge for the value of the antlers, pile up all the antlers and have it be a theft charge based on total resale value. Possibly add fines as the value goes up, over $200 extra $200 fine over $500 extra $500  etc.

[bobcat]

There's no way they're going to call it theft of antlers.

[Buckhunter24]

I've got horns all over my backyard, if someone walked in my backyard and took them what would it be?

[b0bbyg]

I agree they may not, just a thought about private property penalties.   possibly just fines if not on private.

[Maverick]

Federal land +federal crime = federal prison?

my memory sucks but didn’t a couple employees poach a big bull on Hanford a couple years ago, and I thought they kept their jobs?

They poached 3 bull elk on the Hanford reservation close to the old Hanford townsite, 2 of the men worked at Hanford and both kept their jobs. I believe they spent 90 days in jail and $6,000 fine. You’d have to double check online to get the facts straight for sure. It wasn’t a few years later and some of the same guys went back to the area they poached the bulls and were picking up sheds. Game wardens had been watching them in the act and they were busted again!!! Some guys just never stop breaking the law.

I dont remember any jail time. I dont think the biggest bull was ever recovered by fish and game either.

Make an example of these shed hunters! Put their names on blast on here so we all know who these idiots are!

[bigtex]

Some inside info on this shed hunting case.

The initial report was that these individuals had trespassed onto private property and then onto the National Wildlife Refuge. Turns out that these shed hunters actually talked to the family who owns the private land and obtained permission to shed hunt on their land. Problem is, this is a big family and another family member saw the individuals trespassing (didn't know their relative granted permission) and wanted them charged with trespassing.

Regarding the trespassing on the refuge, the shed hunters looked on OnX and saw it as public land and thought they were good to go.

None of the shed hunters have had previous state/federal wildlife violations. They will be cited for trespassing on a national wildlife refuge.