“poachers”

According to USA Today and worldwide social media posts, elephant poachers in Tanzania have killed British helicopter pilot Roger Gower, who was working with the Texas-based Friedkin Conservation Fund and Tanzanian wildlife authorities to stop them in their tracks.

Make no mistake: Poachers are not hunters. Poachers are criminals and should be dealt with as such.

Law-enforcement officers confiscated 41 heads when they busted Wendell Taylor and Gregory W. Crockarell “trophy poaching” on Fort Campbell military base last year.

Funds collected from hunting clients are used to fund anti-poaching efforts in Africa, as professional hunter and concessionaire Graham Cawood explains. In six years, Cawood’s anti-poaching efforts have collected numerous examples of poachers’ favorite tools—muzzleloaders, gin traps and snares—and led directly to an increase in game populations in his concession.

Two men have been arrested and charged with 73 varying counts in connection to eight poaching incidents in Baltimore and Howard counties in Maryland.

The winter 2012-2013 seasons are gradually winding down throughout the country. Quite a few hunters are preparing to close up shop for a few months.

According to The Oregonian, two men were arrested last week after a driver on nearby Interstate 84 in Columbia River Gorge spotted a figure apparently bending over the body of a dead big game animal. The duo was later charged with poaching two trophy bighorn sheep.

Two Tennessee men have lost their hunting privileges, both locally and throughout much of the United States, for the remainder of their lives after being found guilty of killing more than 40 whitetail deer out of season.

I normally only try to do dumb poacher recaps about once a season or so, but this story out of California was both unfortunate and unusual enough to warrant its own post.