They might be "just antlers", but so what?
The property owner apparently enjoys that pastime. He planted corn, and left it up rather than harvest and sell it so he could enjoy that activity. How can one assign a price to that sort of activity?
So what if he sounds like an idiot to you? Its his property, and he enjoys it. Lots of folks do things that seem strange. It's a lot easier and cheaper to go buy a case of beer than brew it up at home. But some guys home-brew because they enjoy the activity.
The antlers fell on his property. He had a right to them. This young man, not a kid but a full grown man, did not. He may not like the landowner for denying him the chance to walk his property and collect those antlers. But that's because the landowner enjoys that activity himself. And he spent an investment in both time and money to create conditions to enhance what he took pleasure in. He didn't just rob him of some measly deer horns. He took away a chance to do something he enjoyed.
I know fellows who created fishponds on their property. They stock them with fish, feed them, and create nice conditions for them to thrive so they can go spend a lazy Sunday catching them with their grandsons. If some guy snuck in at night and caught all the guy's fish, he's robbed him of something that is hard to assign a dollar value to.
I listened to the radio broadcast. Levi Ward's father should be ashamed. The property owners around this landowner benefitted from him leaving that field unharvested. The deer had a supply of quality food during the winter. Any deer they hunted during that fall season that fed off his crop, but wandered onto the neighboring land, was fattened by his efforts. Rather than castigate him, they should thank him.
This represents the worst aspects of unethical hunters. They insist they should have a right to use someone else's property in the name of hunting.
