Poachers kill untold numbers of America's wildlife, costing the country more than a billion dollars a year, and apparently most of them are getting away with it, according to one of the nation’s top hunting and conservation organizations.
Roughly 4% of poaching cases are detected, according to the Boone and Crockett Club (B&C). That means up to 96% of poachers get away with it.
The club on Tuesday released the results of its deep-dive study into poaching, its effects and recommendations to curb it, the “Poach and Pay Project.”
Too Much Land, Too Few Game Wardens
Poaching is grossly under-reported, because the illegal wildlife killing happens in vast areas, where wildlife agents are few and far between, B&C spokesman Jodi Stemler said during a live-streamed press conference.
It’s in ethical, legal hunters’ best interest to promptly report suspicious activity, he said.
The general public might not know enough to distinguish between ethical hunting and illegal poaching, he said, so it’s vital for hunters to demonstrate that they’re willing to step up and help catch poachers, he said.
“If you poach, you pay, is the message we want to send,” Stemler said.
Each year, undetected poaching across the United States costs $302.2 million in lost potential fines, and $1.13 billion in the estimated value of “animal replacement” for the wildlife killed, according to B&C.
That amounts to about $6.1 million in lost fine revenue and $22.7 million in animal replacement costs per state, according to B&C.
It’s not clear what percentage of poaching goes undetected in Wyoming, Amanda Fry, Wyoming Game and Fish spokeswoman, told Cowboy State Daily.
“We don’t have that particular data that I’m aware of,” she stated in an email.
However, as B&C recommends, Game and Fish welcomes the public’s help to track down poachers, she added.
“We always encourage people to contact our Stop Poaching Hotline if they suspect anything,” she said.
Wardens Spread Thin
Two retired game agents agreed that many poaching cases go unreported.
Poaching is a “victimless crime,” insofar as there aren’t human victims directly involved, retired federal game warden Tim Eicher of Cody told Cowboy State Daily.
Poaching cases hinge on somebody even being around to begin with, and then that person being willing to call it in, said Eicher, who started his career as a state game warden in New Mexico.
In the 1970s, New Mexico launched the country’s first poaching tip line allowing callers to remain anonymous and possibly be eligible for a reward, he said.
New Mexico’s “Operation Game Thief” set the template for poaching tip lines across the country, he said.
To initiate the program, New Mexico went so far as to hire a young man to “cover the state and give the appearance of violating New Mexico’s big game laws,” according to the New Mexico Game and Fish Department.
Eicher said that during his career he frequently relied on call-in tips to crack cases.
And not just from legal hunters, but anybody who was outdoors, he said. Ranchers, oil field workers, or even folks just out for a hike shouldn’t hesitate to drop a dime on suspected poachers, he said.
He added that sometimes tips came from poachers’ spurned wives or girlfriends.
“Bubba was not treating his partner right,” so she decided to turn him in for poaching, Eicher said.
Retired Wyoming Game and Fish game warden Benge Brown said he wasn’t surprised by B&C’s estimate of only 4% of poaching cases being detected.
When he worked in the Rawlins area, he had to cover roughly 4,000 square miles, frequently by himself.
When he transferred to Thermopolis, the area was smaller, but the terrain was more rugged, and tough to cover, he said.
Even when poaching is suspected, it can be tough for a warden to make a case that will stand up in court, he said.
“Once there’s a carcass coupon (game tag) on the animal, even if you suspect it was taken illegally, it might be difficult to prove the case,” he said.
Why Do Poachers Do It?
Benge said decades ago, a significant amount of poaching was done by people just trying to get food.
Recently, that’s shifted more toward people willing to break the rules and illegally shoot animals for fun or for trophies, he said.
B&C reported that “trophy” poaching, for personal reasons, is apparently the most common motive.
There is also some poaching for profit, to sell wildlife parts on the black market, and still some poaching purely for food, according to B&C.
Eicher said that many of the poachers he caught were “stone cold killers” who shot animals simply for the thrill of it.
There is also some unintentional illegal killing of wildlife. For example, Wyoming game regulations require hunters to wear florescent orange during big game rifle hunting seasons.
If a hunter forgets to don his orange vest and/or cap, and shoots an animal, that could amount to an illegal taking of game.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
