A 20-year-old
in fines and restitution for recently poaching two bucks and shooting
an over-limit of Canada geese — and then posting his exploits on his
Facebook page.
“It was definitely not smart,” said
Here’s what happened:
The hunter posted a photo on Facebook of a small
buck he killed in September during the archery season, then posted a
photo of an 8-point trophy buck he arrowed in October. In
hunters can kill only one buck per season. He later posted a photo of
him and two buddies posing with 12 Canada geese they shot.
“In the caption, he wrote it was a ‘three-man limit
of geese,'” Muyres said. But the daily bag limit is three geese apiece,
meaning they were three over their limit.
Someone spotted the postings and called the Turn In Poachers (TIP) line. Muyres confronted the men with their own evidence.
“They admitted everything,” he said. “It makes it easy when you have all the photos.”
The bow hunter will lose his bow and both deer. He faces
restitution for the trophy deer, which scored 130 points, and faces
charges for failing to tag the first deer, shooting an over-limit of
deer and shooting an over-limit of geese. Fines could total around
And it could have been much worse: He took the trophy deer to a taxidermist in
meaning he violated the federal Lacey Act by transporting illegally
taken game across state lines, said Muyres. Officials could have seized
the vehicle he used to transport the deer.
Meanwhile, his two friends will be cited for shooting an over-limit of geese.
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(c) 2010, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
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