Poachers on my property

[seth30]

If you dont hunt deer, and dont care if you dont see deer pour out some powder tide around your property. 

[HardCorpsHuntr]

Call 911 next time.  It warrants it and they'll answer.

[bigpaw 77]

The hot fence is a great idea, but I don't have my property fenced along the road yet. Maybe I need some booby traps. I have thought about putting my trail cameras out there, but they would not be there long, someone would steal them that close to the road. keep the ideas coming guys and maybe we will come up with a solution. I still find it weird that the game warden has his cell turned off during rifle season.

[seth30]

tell them there is wolves being shot, they will show up

[pat riotic]

Trail cameras

[ser300wsm]

  You know that is sad but probably true: Shoot the wolves & the game dept. will show up: Dang it all to he... People don't have any ethics or morels anymore.. They don't care if somebody Innocent gets hurt. Very sad ...

[shedcrazy]

It all boils down to ethics, some people just don't get it....

[bigtex]

Well from the sounds of your post you had the direct number for the game warden, correct? That can be a good thing or a bad thing. The bad things are the following: you don't know when the warden will be working next and when he will get your message (he might not work till Saturday), he might be working a patrol in another part of the state, might be on vacation, and so on.

The BEST thing to do when reporting poachers is to call the local Washington State Patrol office (the numbers are in the hunting and fishing regs). WSP dispatches WDFW Officers 24/7/365, if nobody is working then they will call them at home and wake them up!

If for some reason you can't find the WSP number, call 911 and immediately state "non emergency wildlife poaching. State Patrol please" and they will forward your call immediately to the WSP dispatch center.

Alot of people have their local WDFW Officers phone numbers and like I said it could be a great thing or a bad thing, a lot of cases can't be made because the witness called the WDFW Officer and they got the message days later. Instead when the witness called WSP and an on-duty WDFW Officers is relayed the info in minutes!

ALSO the poaching hotline is ONLY operable Monday - Friday from 8AM - 5PM!!!!! Outside of those hours call WSP. From the sounds of it you called the wrong WSP number since you got a voicemail. Send me a PM with your location and I will send you the correst WSP number!

[bigtex]

I still find it weird that the game warden has his cell turned off during rifle season.

Well I can answer that statement.

You don't know if his cell is actually turned off, he might patrolling in an area where there is no cell service. No cell service = automatic voicemail.

But lets say the phone is just sitting at home. Everyone knows that WDFW Officers are on call 24/7/365. However that simply means that State Patrol dispatchers can contact them 24/7/365 and they do so by calling their house phones. Some officers do keep their cells on 24/7, but definitely are not required to. They can definitely turn their cell phone off as soon as they end their shift. They just need to make sure their home phone is operable.

[jrebel]

Just something to think about......Trail cameras and / or video cameras are useless if the enforcers don't want to do their jobs.  I have video of a two guys, one with a scoped rifle takeing a doe on private property durring muzzle loader season.  Called 911 and it took hours for them to respond.  Town is only 5 minutes away.  Turned over the video and waited for my 10 points.  Well never heard anything back and when I followed up they said it wasn't worth pursuing.   

[Wanttohuntmore]

Some of you have a mislead belief that 911 or the game wardens will quickly respond.  That is not necessarily so.  I called 911 to report a fire on 7/4/10, and called 2 times, getting an answering machine the second time (first time, nobody picked up).  I left a message, and nobody called back.  Anyways, after the fire was going for about 10 min a firetruck showed up, pretty sure someone else call made it through.  Still though, lost my faith in 911.

Same with game wardens, they need proof of a crime, pictures, evidence, etc.  Plus, they are people too, and are not working 24/7.  Unfortunately, to try and stop these poachers could lead to bad consequences to you as well, if you try and confront them...  I think pictures of them in the act would be a best case evidence for you though.

[Bean Counter]

Take pictures of their tire sign--the tread of their shoes as well. You never know...

[Stomper]

If you don't live in a city you are screwed! I called the other night when the drunk driver hit me,30 minutes and another phone call later,they show up! So that's what you can expect if you live in Smalltown,Washington.

[Bean Counter]

Tell them you have a gun, they'll get there faster   

[calib]

that hot wire sounds like it would be some good entertainment. that would give you enough time to catch them if they got in ause they would have to get back out. trespassing and poaching    could always send the cops to the hospital look for anyone with 2nd to 3rd degree burns to there fun bag