This was in yesterday's Gillette newspaper. What's with kids these days?


Juveniles charged with deer poaching have been sentenced

Five of six teenagers charged with poaching several deer early in November have been sentenced in Campbell County.

John Lund, the North Gillette game warden with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, received a tip about the poaching on Nov. 12. The informant told Lund that students at Campbell County High School had been talking about a recent deer hunt and that one of the students brought the head of a large buck mule deer to school.

After the informant became suspicious, he called the state department's Stop Poaching Hotline.

Lund said that what apparently began as a plan to spotlight some rabbits and coyotes on private property ended up with multiple deer killed out of season and left to waste by the six boys, ages 16 to 17.

On Nov. 4, the six Gillette boys were traveling along the SA road and the Lower Powder River Road, where they shot several mule deer with .22-caliber rifles while using spotlights and their vehicle headlights to illuminate the deer.

At least two of the deer were adult bucks, one of which was very large with a 27-inch spread.

“They began field dressing this deer, but decided that it was shot up too badly to be edible, so they cut its head off and dumped the carcass in the Powder River,†Lund said. “One of the boys put his deer tag on the head of this deer and took it home, and then to school.â€

Hunting season had closed two weeks before in the area where the deer were killed, so the students told others that they had been hunting north of Moorcroft where the season was still open.

Of the six boys involved, five pleaded guilty and were sentenced. Three of the boys were sentenced Tuesday and two others were sentenced earlier.

Three of the boys were ticketed for wanton destruction and using artificial light to take wildlife, and two were ticketed for using artificial light to take wildlife. Each was fined $280 for the artificial light violations, and those cited for wanton destruction were fined an additional $530 each.

They were all placed on probation and each of the five had their hunting privileges revoked from three to six years.

Four of the boys received jail sentences, most of which were suspended, but three will serve one weekend in jail.

A sixth boy charged in the case has pleaded not guilty to wanton destruction and using artificial light to take wildlife. A trial date in Circuit Court is pending, Lund said.

By The News-Record staff

About ten years ago in my hometown it might of been longer anyhow. In my hometown they had a poaching problem arise the game wardens were finding deer and elk wiith there head cut off and some attempts to take the meat mainly the backstreaps. Everyone thought it was the mexicans or Indians doing this. Until some one ratted them out it was the High School star quarterback and some other highschoolers, Well they were lucky it was the end of the football season he was shitty quarterback anyhow and he was senior. Boy was the town shocked. His dad was head honcho at the hospital. Last I heard he moved to Montana about a year after graduating from high school? He lost his hunting privalges for 5 years if I remember right and he had to do time in the pokey after he graduated from High School.

John

Sounds like a group of fine, upstanding young men... Glad they got nailed, they deserve everything they got. Hopefully they will learn a valuable lesson from this experience. They'll have a few years of no hunting to think about it. I know there are people out there who would say these guys were just being kids, but they're damn sure old enough to be responsible for their actions and know right from wrong. Unfortunately, I think this kind of thing goes on much more than we are aware of (or want to believe). I applaud the informant for doing the right thing and calling the game warden. Score one for the good guys!

Gillette is growing so fast in 5 years ot could be 50,000 people,5 years ago it was 19,000 there are people coming from all over the country. The whole land and wildlife experience is changing. Gas and oil roads are every where. Kids are dumb and think they can get away with something like this, I hope they make examples out of them, and maybe it will change some other's attitudes,I have heard of other poaching incidents, nothing as flagrant and no specifics, but I do know the loacl warden and he said it is getting bad. I hope he is wrong.

I'm glad whomever it was came forward with the information. It seems that the "rat" always gets a bad rap, but with wildlife crimes I don't think most people realize that wildlife is the property of everyone, and as hunters we all have a vested interest.

As hunters, it is our duty to report these types of activities to the proper authorities. But then again, I don't think most folks care all that much.

MG

Happens all the time around here. Deer laying in the ditches and in cornfields etc. with their heads cutoff. Yes quite a few of them are teenagers.

They need to spend a lot more than any weekend in jail and the fine needs to be a heck of a lot higher. Let them spend a few months in jail and let them pay a fine of what an average teenager would make in at least 6 months or a year's time at a minimum on top of community service etc. etc.

Dont give any crap about oh well their just kids. Bullcrap their old enough to know better period. Heck at that age I had been hunting for several years already.