Act violation (federal violation), and the taxidermist and guide/outfitter got hooked in it too because of what is called “complicity.” If you know your buddy did a no-no, you have to turn him in or you are complicit and therefore just as guilty as he was and may have to take the same penalties. To me, shooting a coyote from your elk gut pile is not a serious sin, and the punishment for it is way overkill. Wildlife law enforcement outrage
myths are common everywhere, so it was only fair that I checked this out to see if it really happened. I called the Colorado Division of Wildlife law en- forcement folks. They said they had no knowledge of the incident but it could have been done by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The USF&WS should have informed the Colorado Division of Wildlife folks before the case was prosecuted, but had not done so as far as they could recall. Runaround or true? I don’t know. Could be either. I don’t always get straight answers from wild- life agencies. Sometimes they basically don’t know what is going on in their own outfits. Some things they do not want the general public to know so they
obfuscate, deny, and forget. I asked the Colorado law enforce-
ment person whether or not this myth could be true, with all of the elements in place, if the nonresident did shoot the coyote after the elk license was filled, took it home, etc., etc.? He replied, “Yes,” that it could possibly happen to the ignorant hunter. But, he said it would be highly unlikely that the Colorado Division of Wildlife would prosecute such a violation. Hmmm. I’m not comforted. The feds could prosecute the case without the Colorado Division of Wildlife’s involvement. Most states have similar penal-
ties and hidden “cutesy” traps for the naïve hunter. Colorado revels in this type of wildlife law enforcement. In fact, in Colorado, your federal Fifth Amendment rights are invalid regard- ing wildlife laws. When you buy a hunting license here, you agree to testify against yourself, wife, kids, and friends about any wildlife violation or you are complicit and eligible for huge penalties if you don’t. It is our “squeal on your father-in-law” law. That might be O.K. for serious violations, but in Colorado, every violation is punished with serious
overkill. It’s like killing mice with a .416 Rigby elephant rifle. This has been called the Nature
Nazi, chicken poop, law enforcement model. Colorado Division of Wildlife claims to be a national leader at it and is showing all the other wildlife agencies how to do it. That is certainly good of them. My advice to other wildlife agen- cies – don’t do it! My guess is that The Colorado
DOW’s regulations and enforcement practices are the cause of an estimated $35,000,000 decline in hunting license sales per year over the past five years in Colorado. In the current CDOW 2011 Big Game license application brochure, 53 pages of fine print and sundry essential information if you want to hunt big game here, there is page after page of what is legal and il- legal. It is an amazing litany of “can’t do dis and dat.” But is there anything that says what the penalties are for all of the “dis and dats” in case one makes an emotional misdecision or has an ir- rational gap in his usual solid character and violates wildlife law? Not really. That is a surprise for you in case you get caught screwing up. You will find out in
Page 74 Winter 2012
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212