Let's not let this happen here

[audsley]

Wyoming gives landowner tags that can be used by the landowner's immediate family but cannot be sold or transferred other individuals. This is better than some other states where re-sale is allowed, but even Wyoming's plan can be corrupted when there's big money to be made.

 

If we see another push here for landowner tags, the "immediate family only" could be a way of getting a foot in the door.

 

Wyo. agency's poaching case -- spanning 12 states -- nears end

 

 

Thursday, January 10, 2013

One of the largest poaching cases in Wyoming history is drawing to a close after more than three years of investigations, pleas and trials.

 

The suspects in the case had made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling their landowner tags to out-of-state hunters. It's a move that is illegal in Wyoming, said Mike Ehlebracht, a supervisor with the state Game and Fish Department's Wildlife Investigative Unit. No one but the department can sell the licenses.

 

"Nowhere in the world can you hand someone your license and say, 'Go fill it,'" he said.

 

Ehlebracht was first tipped off to the poaching ring after two Oregon men signed up for a hunt with Big Horn Adventure Outfitters. In the middle of the hunt -- after one of the men had already shot a large bull -- the pair learned the hunt was illegal.

 

The second man decided not to shoot his elk. After the trip, they reported the crime in January 2010.

 

The move launched the Wyoming department's investigation into the matter, led by Ehlebracht. The department spent months conducting interviews, looking through license histories and game tag records, and doing background searches.

 

Landowner Richard Carter Sr. had divided his land into four sections and received eight total elk tags from the state. He then gave them to his son, R.C. Carter, who ran Big Horn Adventure Outfitters and sold the tags. Richard Carter's other son, Mark, was a guide for the company.

The hunts cost between $6,000 and $7,500 per person. Officials said the family made nearly $300,000 from the hunts.

Officials coordinated a sting in which all the suspects would be contacted at the same time, so they wouldn't have time to corroborate their stories. Within 24 hours, 65 people were interviewed, and police served four search warrants.

 

"Working these poaching cases is not for us, it's for you," said Jim Gregory, investigator with the Wildlife Investigative Unit. "You picked up the deer regs and read them and did what you were supposed to do and went home. It's a protection of the resource, and we did this for you" (Christine Peterson, Casper [Wyo.] Star-Tribune, Jan. 9).

[Elkhunter1]

This just shows how GREEDY some people are! How many years did they do this to get 300,000 from the sale of the tags? See even ranchers can do wrong!!!