Poaching Vs. Food Chain

Let us start off with poaching. We as humans control this at 100%. Some of you say we have no control over it but only the law does. If you are human then that makes you the poacher. This is the fact of if you are hunting or fishing on property that you know you dont have permission to be on then this makes you the poacher. Rather you want to believe it or not it is the truth. The law can only do so much. We fuss to others and say the law dosent do enough but they cant be in two places at once.

Poaching is wrong and we all know it. So why do it? Why do some people do the wrong thing and know that they are doing the wrong thing in the beginning. It is usually someone that cant stand the fact that they just cant hunt in an ethical manner. If you are a trophy hunter and you harvest a 175 inch buck that makes the record books and on all top of this there is another buck on your property that will score 190 inches his tail is in some deep trouble. What I mean by this is that if you know of the bigger buck then the odds are someone else knows of him as well. Your odds may be one and a million at harvesting this monster but an unethical hunters odds are better if he knows where the buck is hanging out at night.

Night time is not the only time that a buck gets shot at in an unethical manner. It also takes place on an abandon road side in the day light. Usually these old abandon home sites or road ways are where big bucks hang out, due to the fact no hunter hunts here. Or even the property only gets hunted once or twice a year. It could be a piece of property that a grandfather has put his hard work and money into fixing up for his beloved grand kids. Then he becomes the victim when some crazy idiot decides he is going to hunt this property without permission.

Remember that we as hunters are the ones that are the poachers. We have full 100% control to make the right decision on the ethically way to take a harvested animal that we may be after. We set examples to our children and they watch every move we make. When I was a 4H agent in the Crenshaw County, Alabama schools system under Auburn University I had the chance to teach and talk to kids about wildlife. We talked about how grown adults can be unethical at hunting or fishing and the animals that are at the top of the food chain. You would be very surprised at how many 4th through 6th graders I taught would say my daddy or my older brother shoots deer side the road or even at night. It happens and we as hunters control it.

Now for a bit of change in the way an animal gets harvested. Let us talk a bit about being at the top of the food chain. This in no way that it is unethical for another animal to chase down and kill its food. It is a way of life for these animals and it is their way of survival. Without them doing so they would not survive at any means. A bear heads down to the water to catch fish to have a meal. This puts them in at the top of the food chain and also puts them as an ethical hunter. Even though they cant read a sign that says no trespassing they are still the means of an ethical hunter.

This is their way of life and this is also our way of life. We can harvest animals such as bear, coyote, and bobcats during the right season. But we should still do it in an ethical manner. We can control most animals on our land. Rather it be the means of harvesting or trapping. So remember that the next time you are out on the road at night or even in the day light make the right decision before you pull the trigger. This article come to mind when I read a little passage on Facebook about a hunter watching this doe in the picture above. This doe was killed either by another hunter or a animal just looking for food just three weeks after this past years season ended. This hunter has watched this doe and gotten pictures of her and even a buck that had breed her. I hope he gets a chance at the buck in this next season to come. Maybe we can bring you the story of the buck the did the breeding to this doe.