Dirt bag ruined this morning's hunt.....!

[bswiv]

Dirt bag ruined a perfectly good morning in the woods. And wasted the resource......intentionally!!!

I'll try and keep this short..............

About 10 this morning came upon a hog laying in the swamp. First thought is that he's resting. Get a little closer and realize that he's resting all-right......permanently.

So I start inspecting the situation. Had heard a shot about 2 1/2 hours earlier, thought it might be the one. Blood is still red and moist. Top of hog is cool but when I roll him up the bottom is still a little warm.

He's been shot in the left shoulder. Bullet broke both legs but did not exit. Whoever shot him hit him good. Don't see how he could have run with that kind of damage but looked about for blood trail anyway to see if I could follow it back.

While I'm doing this I realize that the whole area has been trimmed. Palmettos, small trees, limbs, palm fronds, it's cleared out real good. Seeing this I know there must be a stand, or at least a tree he climbed, close by. Takes me a few minutes ( He had it well hidden! ) but about 25 yards away I find his climber.

And leading right up to the climber is a nice clear trail with ribbons.

Now I'm getting aggravated. Fairly obvious this guy shot the hog and left it. It's a perfectly clear shot to the hog and he's laying in the middle of a game trail.

So I call the FWC, both Officer Wilcox who works the area and the Orlando office, just in case Officer Wilcox is off duty. Tell em' what I'm seeing.

After that I call the wife, who's already back to the truck, and fill her in. Tell her I'm coming out of the woods on the trail that went to the stand but don't know for sure where it comes out. She says she'll come down the road and find me.

Follow the trail out. Step out of the woods not a few yards from 2 guys standing at their trucks. Walk over and ask "Who shot the hog?"..............

One guy points to the other and says, "He did". A few more words were exchanged as I dialed the FWC and gave the license plates of both vehicles. The guy who had done the shooting looked ghost white at being caught. The other guy got belligerent.

After giving them a ear full about wasting what belonged to ALL of us (PUBLIC LAND!) I walked off down the road with the belligerent one following.

In a FLA WMA what he did is defined as "willful & wanton" waste of wildlife.

Now I know a lot of folks will say "It's just a hog!" And you'd be right as far as that goes. And truth too that in many places hogs are a problem, grant that.

But, and this is a BIG but, this was on a WMA where a lot of folks who pay good money to hunt would love to have harvested that hog. It was not his "right" to deprive those folks of the opportunity simply because he felt, for whatever reasons, like shooting that hog and leaving it.

Hope the FWC nails him. Also hope the beligerent one doesn't decide to take it out on my truck when he sees it in the woods. But then dirt bags will be dirt bags...................

 

[jimmyraythomason]

So..what is to keep the shooter from going back and claiming the hog? He is still in the area so technically has he "abandoned" the kill? All he has to tell FWC is that he went to get help in carrying his kill out.

 

[Ohio Gun Guy]

I agree with your good intentions, but there are a lot of reasonable explanations, and it doesnt sound like they were given a chance. They may have left not wanting any more trouble from you.........

Without being there....

 

[bswiv]

Good for him if he now goes back and gets it to save his butt. Of course he'll still probably toss it, but at least he'll have to drag it a quarter mile. And as big as it is I'll bet if he does he'll now have to gut it..........which will be more punishment.

He can cover his butt all he wants but fact is he's proven himself to be unethical!

And he's proven he does not give a tinkers damn about the rights of his fellow hunters.

Not a admirable individual..................

 

[schlockinz]

Kill the hog and let it lie, the only good hog is a dead hog, and can you even get that under willful wasting if its not a game species?

 

[bswiv]

If you had been there.............no doubt.

Big difference between a "explination" and covering your bad intentions.

As I said, the problem, besides the fact it's ILLEGAL, is that this was on PUBLIC land where other folks who have paid good money to hunt and would have loved to take that hog home are now deprived simply because this guy felt like killing a hog and letting it lay.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

I'm with you BUT it was still partly warm and the shooter was still in the area. If it was the next day when you found it and the shooter was long gone I would be more inclined to call it abandoned. As you say though I wasn't there.

 

[HunterBear71]

The shooter was still in the area and may have went back and retrieved the animal. The story makes you sound like a a vigilante do-gooder. Some ol' boys are in no hurry to begin the actual work of hauling game out and processing it. Maybe mind your own business a little more and be careful confronting armed gentlemen.The behavior that you describe is not illegal at all. The gentlemen could have been calling for reinforcements or retrieving equipment from their vehicle. There is a reason we have trained LEO to enforce game laws.

 

[schlockinz]

So, in Florida, the hog is a trespass animal right, and not managed by the game dept?

So, would this be wanton waste that they could really do anything about since it is not a managed wildlife species? Would anyone care as much if this had been a coyote? I thought that most areas still wanted all hogs removed due to destruction, so if someone shoots it and decides not to eat an old pig, wheres the problem?

Sorry for the rant, but I cannot see getting onto anyone for shooting a pig and letting it lay. The hog is a nuisance species and really should be removed from our ecosystem, it doesn't belong here ('cept the Javelina's)

 

[Arkel23]

You really ruined your own hunt, by tracking the hogs blood in stead of just going to your location and hunting, now I'm not one to turn anyone in for any sort of thing like that, but you brought that on you self by not continuing with your day.

 

[shaggy430]

He may not have been planning on leaving it. Many times I've waited to drag an animal out until I had help.

What did the game warden say when you called him?

 

[bswiv]

Did not "track" the hog. It droped where he shot it.

After I questioned his leaving it he said that he had shot it "last night". Suggested that it was still good. Said I could have it.

No consistancy to his story except for the fact that he shot the hog. He knew where it was and he had made a concious decision to leave it.

It was dead not 25 yards from his stand.

This is not legal on this WMA in Fl.

Game warden confirmed and will investigate.

And do note I allowed that it was "just a hog".
But I did not break the law and I did not disrespect every other hunter who uses that WMA, many of whom would have been happy to shoot the hog. And all of who paid for the privlage.

What he did was illegal and unethical under the circumstances.

 

[countertop]

perhaps I'm missing something, but it strikes me that you come across as a real tool.

Let alone the fact that the guys wet still in the area, and had hardly abandoned the animal, or the fact that hunting a state WMA is hardly paying "good money" to hunt in the same sense as someone with a private lease . . . But as others have pointed out, hogs aren't game animals (has the law in Floridachanged???) and so not only didn't he break any laws, but if I were law enforcemt I'd be more concerned with the raving loon wasting police resources and risking a violent incident by assaulting and insulting two guys minding their own business and then you go about defaming them, by filing false police reports and then bragging about it on line.

Seems the only day ruined was the hogs and those poor hunters you attacked.

But that's just my opinion.

 

[bswiv]

It's a Recreational Use Area, a special class of state WMA. We pay $525 each a year for the privlage.

That is good money by most standards.

Reread what I wrote.

The warden confirmed that in that area it is illegal.

He was not, and confired so, going back to get it.

Same thing as bait in a WMA. It's illegal. Legal on private land though. So when on the WMA you abide by the rules.

Same with wasting game. On YOUR land you do as you please but on a WMA with other folks you behave differently.

"Loon"..........? Say so if you want but you'd be a lot happier with a club full of folks who abided by your rules, as I would, than a club full of guys that didn't!

 

[bswiv]

"7. The wanton and willful waste of wildlife is prohibited."

That's copied and pasted from the rules to the WMA.

It says "wildlife".

The guy who left the hog in the woods did the wrong thing not the guy who called him on it.

 

[schlockinz]

"7. The wanton and willful waste of wildlife is prohibited."

That's copied and pasted from the rules to the WMA.

It says "wildlife".

The guy who left the hog in the woods did the wrong thing not the guy who called him on it.

Hrmm, last I looked, hog in florida was considered a trespass animal. To me, that seems like it might be different.

Kill em all

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Not saying you were wrong but I would like to point out that even an admission of intent to abandon isn't abandonment and as long as the shooter is still on the premises the wildlife hasn't been abandoned. He has not commited an illegal act of abandonment until he leaves the area. You know you could have just taken the pig so it wouldn't go to waste.

 

[PT1911]

I completely agree with you bswiv... It is completely unacceptable for a hunter to act in such a way.... this is not a farmer or land owner killing the animals responsible for destroying their crop and causing advanced errosion of their land. It is an irriesponsible man hunting for the thrill of the kill and nothing else. this is no better than killing a deer, cutting off its head, and leaving the carcass in the woods.. Some would say that is just providing food for the ecosystem around the carcass, but it is unacceptable no matter the radical attempt at justification.

I think what seems to be missed in this (yes a hog is a trespass animal) is the location of this. MANAGEMENT AREA hunts are different than national forest or private property hunts to the point that sometimes even the animals in season are in question.

IMO, there is just no justification for it. I wil never kill an animal, in sport, that I do not intend to eat myself or provide as food for someone else.... especially something as tasty as a hog.

all that said however, it is going to be difficult to prove much as the hunter was still on the land. He and his counterpart may well claim they had previously agreed to meet back at the truck to assist one another with harvesting the kill.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

I think the willful waste of food is nothing less than a sin. My point is and has been that at the point where we come into the story nothing illegal has happened yet. After the shooter is in his vehicle leaving the scene is when to apprehend and charge(by an FWC officer not another hunter). And no I am not justifying what the shooter intended to do by any means.,

 

[schlockinz]

a hog on a management area is not a managed animal, and is just a hog that hasn't gotten to farm land.

Besides, they don't just destroy farmland, they will generally destroy and take over the ecosystems that they get into (ie the great smokies etc)

 

[caribou]

That is the difference between "Shooters" and "Hunters"

A Hunter takes responsibility for every shot made at an animal. We are reposnsible to ourselfs, and what we shoot, especially if its edible. Call 'em a what you want , but if you shoot it, you take care of it.

We had 8 guys in Point Hope Ak shoot and leave 40+ Caribou, from our local herd of 500,000......... may not seem much, but three have pled guilty to wonton waste, and 5 are on trial. They are looking at a max sentancing, even though its misdomener, nearly a year in Jail will give them time to think it over.
They were turned in by real Hunters in Point Hope(their own relatives) who were disgusted with a resource like that being wasted, no matter how many more Caribou there are.

Its never right to waste meat in such a way, even bacon, they could have given it away.

I hope those guys are not allowed to "Hunt" again for a few years.

 

[bswiv]

SCHLOCKINZ:

You may be confusing a well justified concern for hogs propensity to become a real problem with the fact that the guy did something illegal and unethical.

Sure hogs need to be controled, but so too do deer in many places.

In the instance at hand it is well understood that hogs are not in that class on the WMA. When and if they get to that point the laws will be changed. Untill then the rules need to be followed.

And do trust me, I'm well on in years, lots of gray hair, over 40 years hunting behind me, and not prone to going off at nothing. This was unaceptable behavior..... and illegal.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

Well,to each his own I guess but there is no way a dead pig(that I had nothing to do with)is going to ruin my hunt. In this situation I make a wide detour around it and find another area to hunt. At most call FWC and report an abandoned pig carcass.

 

[R.W.Dale]

This thread is so riddled with FAIL I actually laughed out loud.

Hogs are an invasive nuance species. So much so our game regulations go so far as to state that hogs may be shot and left where they lie. Had you came up to me with attitude after I killed a hog I'd have lent you my phone and laughed at your expression when the game and fish commission popped your holier than thou bubble.

 

[bswiv]

FAIL.....?

And you did not read....... It's illegal on the WMA. Not private land and not land with a certified problem.

ILLEGAL...... Does that matter?

I'd venture it'd matter if we were talking immigration or any number of other activities........