The morality of poaching

[GSPHUNTER]

If you are in such a bad way as to have to take any wildlife to survive, I say go for it but limit to that need only. That in my book is not unethical. Those out there who shoot any number of deer, Elk or whatever just because they can are the real problem.

 

[87TT]

As long as they're "mostly peaceful" poachers, right?

 

[Rob5589]

If lost in the wilderness and starving I'd kill whatever I could. But saying my family is starving while poaching a deer with an expensive rifle/bow is a stretch.

 

[weekender7]

I absolutely agree on not stealing to provide but game are not owned by any person and I don't view that as stealing.

I totally disagree with that when a poacher comes on my land or my lease a takes game without permission. I see it MORE as STEALING than I would if you broke in my house and stole my TV. I value the game/opportunity to hunt it a LOT MORE than my TV.

 

[Jstumbaugh]

A few years ago I asked a warden if he'd ever caught a poacher that really needed the meat. He said "never, but If I did I'd help load it in their truck". He went on to say the last guy he popped was driving a new dodge diesel.

Buddy of mine shot a button buck a couple years ago and the warden drove by as he was unloading it from his truck, Warden stopped and checked him out and everything was good. My buddy is retired and on a fixed income, doing ok but not setting the world on fire. He was kind of down about shooting the button buck and made a comment that they could use the meat. The warden stopped by two days later and dropped off a doe that they had confiscated from a poacher.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I totally disagree with that when a poacher comes on my land or my lease a takes game without permission. I see it MORE as STEALING than I would if you broke in my house and stole my TV. I value the game/opportunity to hunt it a LOT MORE than my TV.

I agree with poachers on your land but, disagree with the stealing part, the animals are not yours, just because they happen to be on your land. Would it be stealing if they shot the same animal off your property. Maybe stealing from the state.

 

[Wvroach]

I totally disagree with that when a poacher comes on my land or my lease a takes game without permission. I see it MORE as STEALING than I would if you broke in my house and stole my TV. I value the game/opportunity to hunt it a LOT MORE than my TV.

That is trespassing, not what anyone here is talking about.

 

[KurtR]

So whats worse some guy shoots a deer with a tag puts it in freezer does not eat it throws it away next year and shoots another one or the person who shoots on with out a tag and eats it all. I know lots of people who clean their freezer out every year of freezer burned game. Legally it is ok but morally i have a way bigger issue with that vs the person who shoots one to feed the family.

The person with the big truck and high dollar gear is a poacher thats just common sense and not pertaining to the discussion.

 

[WCB]

I have zero issue with it. IMO there is a huge difference between taking an animal or bird for food and lootign stores. In all reality a deer or two for someone that NEEDS it is no where near looting a store or stealing personl possessions of someone.


No one is talking about the guy in the 60K truck with a Night Force scope on his Fierce. Also, guys saying there a kitchens and places to get food...I agree for the most part but there are very remote areas of country where this can be an issue. OR as we have seen with our trusty Government, those morons, what happens when you are not allowed to go places or churches are closed, kitchens are closed?

 

[tdhanses]

I have zero issue with it. IMO there is a huge difference between taking an animal or bird for food and lootign stores. In all reality a deer or two for someone that NEEDS it is no where near looting a store or stealing personl possessions of someone.


No one is talking about the guy in the 60K truck with a Night Force scope on his Fierce. Also, guys saying there a kitchens and places to get food...I agree for the most part but there are very remote areas of country where this can be an issue. OR as we have seen with our trusty Government, those morons, what happens when you are not allowed to go places or churches are closed, kitchens are closed?

Yeah but if you have a Tikka, leupold and drive a tacoma, it’s ok.

On a serious note I’ve surely noticed some hardcore people on here lately, seems a little compassion has gone for many.

 

[Pony Soldier]

The issue is ethics. My hunting partner for many years until he died was better than me in many respects. It took him a long time to process his meat. He fleshed the meat off the hide for hamburger meat. He trimmed the meat off his game all the way to the jaws. Nothing went to waste. He grew up totally dependent on meat gathered in the fall. There may have been an extra doe at times but only if times had been tough.

Raising my kids we reached a point of having 4 elk tags for a number of years and lord knows how many deer tags. However when the freezers were full we were done regardless of unfilled tags.

Of the poachers I have known, they killed for entertainment. Meat was never an issue. A local guy had 6 bucks hanging in his garage - rotting - when the neighbor complained about the smell to the authorities.

I'll never begrudge a piece of meat to someone feeding their family. There were a lot of people survived during the depression on yard meat and many that afterwards never ate another deer.

Most poaching is done for entertainment. Locally, confiscated game goes to the food bank or the needy families to alleviate the need to poach. Anyone poaching game for horns/ etc. needs to forfeit everything involved in the event including pickups plus fines.

For wolves and cats - shoot em if you see them. You will never see enough to make a differance.

 

[SuperDUECE22]

this may come across wrong to some people, but this is how i feel on this topic:
I would much rather a poor family shooting a few deer out of season than have them uptown asking for handouts from the govt. let's just be thankful that 99 % of us will hopefully never be in a situation where we are forced to make a decision like this.

 

[Wrench]

My family is starving and there are no deer around so I guess the only option I have is to rob a bank....I have my pride after all!

You'd end up in less trouble if you robbed a bank than if you smoked a bull....at least in Washington.

 

[roosiebull]

i don't think this discussion will ever have anything useful come from it on the internet, lots of moving parts...

you have one person trying to depict a scenario where killing a deer out of season/without a tag is ok... then you have the drama queens that completely take replies out of context and have a burst of tourettes and gets their dog's attention pounding computer keys aggressively, then you have folks who will never see perspective from either side, because they put their own perspective on someone else's depiction, and everything in between, haha....

some will go back to the kifaru thread because they are in a bad mood now and need to vent in another thread.... i'm not so sure about the general discussion sub forum

damn covid boosters have everyone on edge

we all have our own moral compass and will do or not do whatever we think is moral... they will never be universal, so i don't want to argue about it.

i know in general, those on the highest horses usually get bucked off in real life... thank goodness for the internet!

 

[Travis907]

Here's a good way to tell:
If it was someone who did it to feed their family, they would leave the head & take the meat
a poacher would take the head & leave the meat

Not completely true! I know several people who poach just to poach and they take the whole body and try and leave no evidence!

 

[SuperDUECE22]

Not completely true! I know several people who poach just to poach and they take the whole body and try and leave no evidence!

if you know them, we can assume you have turned them into the authorities?

 

[mlgc20]

I am originally from West Virginia and still have family all over Appalachia. Some of my extended family lives mostly off game that they kill. But, they don't need to poach. The deer bag limits are pretty generous. I know of families that would legally kill a dozen deer. That would set them up for the year. They of course would supplement with fish, squirrel, rabbit, turkey, etc. All in the appropriate season. Not saying there couldn't be circumstances where folks might have to illegally kill game to eat. But in most cases, there are other options.

 

[Travis907]

if you know them, we can assume you have turned them into the authorities?

Didn’t have to turn them in, they got caught all on their own!

 

[Larry Bartlett]

IMO when you ask about the "morality" of poaching that's a deeply subjective conversation. The effects of operating within questionable morality is the expectation that we'll develop an MO of choosing comfortably a normal grayish hue of operations elsewhere in our lives, whether hunting or something else.

That said, my dad was a great example of a poacher. Any given month I ever saw my dad's deep freezer it either had duct tape over the seal or a heavy box of motorcycle parts to keep the lid closed. When he was killed in 2004, the bottom layer of his freezer still had deer and hog meat from 1994. He killed deer in and out of season and weaved lies to boast his hunting prowess and good fortune. He wasn't hungry, just opportunistic and morally loose.

Morality should be a separate conversation than poaching. Poaching is a legal pursuit, morality is more on a spiritual or ethical spectrum. Laws and bag limits are set by some sort of scientific balance of resource availability and sustainability for the whole community. Poached animals aren't counted and can't reproduce, so we have to own our part in that detriment to a resource population. If we can justify poaching for food, then our morality is easier to personally justify, albeit still a consumptively unsustainable action. If we get caught poaching, we have to expect to pay the piper and not try to lie our ways out of litigation. With the latter one seems to become both illegal and immoral for self righteous reasons.

 

[HaydenLane]

For wolves and cats - shoot em if you see them. You will never see enough to make a differance.

You don’t like wolves or cats, so you think poaching them is okay. I know plenty of farmers and ranchers who see deer as nothing but a nuisance. Should they be able to drop every whitetail they see from the combine? Plenty do it.