State police bag game violators

Several perpetrators of serious game violations were recently nabbed by the Oregon State Police in the Metolius game unit northwest of Sisters near Black Butte.

For reasons that are sometimes hard to understand, a tiny proportion of the population seems compelled to commit serious game violations, according to authorities.

Whether driven by greed or ineptitude in hunting skills, these people end up breaking the law.

Not only that but, according to OSP Sergeant Greg Cazemier, poachers are often repeat offenders.

Game laws are designed to create a balance between wildlife populations and sport hunting opportunity. Authorities assert that poaching is a crime -- just like any other crime.

"These people are not real hunters," said Cazemier, in describing the poachers. "They're stealing from the people of Oregon."

Sooner or later, poachers end up getting caught.

And that's exactly what Rick Weaver, Jr., of Bend, discovered when he reportedly fired at an OSP buck decoy more than two weeks after the close of the local deer rifle season.

According to arresting officer, Trooper John Katzenstein, Weaver saw the decoy and hurriedly turned his truck around, almost getting stuck in the process.

It was during muzzleloader season, and the trooper's partner radioed that he could see a non-muzzle loading rifle protruding from the vehicle window.

It was alleged that Weaver fired at the decoy, and jacked another cartridge into a .25-06 Ruger M77 rifle.

When the deer didn't react, Weaver apparently realized that something was amiss, because he reportedly threw the weapon out the window and attempted to flee.

With patrol vehicle lights flashing, Katzenstein blocked the road to make the arrest.

Firing from a vehicle is a violation in itself.

Further, mule deer rifle season was closed, and Weaver was also charged with having no hunting license and no deer tag.

If that wasn't enough, the report states that Weaver was a convicted felon and not allowed to be in possession of a firearm.

According to Katzenstein, it was later determined that his wife had purchased the weapon.

The list of charges, however, didn't stop there.

The rifle was recovered and found to have a ground-off serial number, another violation.

The report stated that a quantity of marijuana was discovered, and that both Weaver and a passenger were charged under the open alcohol container law.

Weaver was arrested on the spot and transported to the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office sub-station in Sisters and thence to the Jefferson County Jail.

Katzenstein said that Weaver claimed that his wife had a Western Oregon blacktail deer tag that he intended to use.

Cazemier said that, each year, hunters try to sneak by with a blacktail tag for eastern Oregon's prized mule deer. Two other violators were caught at it this year, and others last year, as well.

"It's a unique breed of people who come over here with blacktail tags and kill these big game animals on the winter range," said Cazemier.

"It's poacher's greed. I guess they want their friends to think they're great hunters. In fact, they aren't hunters, at all."

Cazemier was quick to point out the difference between hunters and poachers: Hunters are sportsmen and sportswomen. Poachers are criminals.

Last month, in another case for the Poachers' Hall of Fame -- or Hall of Infamy -- Cazemier snared an archer with the same decoy, in the same area. On the day before the opening of the winter Metolius bow hunt, a Klamath Falls man sank three arrows into the decoy before realizing that it wasn't a real deer.

Poachers' theft is not just from legitimate hunters. The privilege of seeing a big buck in the wild is one that can be appreciated by anyone and is a part of the heritage of Central Oregon and the surrounding wildlands.

Poaching is a significant factor in the reduced numbers of bucks and -- in particular -- trophy bucks in the region, authorities report.

In this rifle season's sample of legally taken Metolius bucks, not a single one had four or more points; and 71 percent had a forked horn or less.

"Our buck ratio is down for a reason," Trooper Katzenstein stated. "People need to get license numbers and get on the horn to us when they see a violation."

In another recent Metolius unit case, Trooper Kim Campbell cited several persons in a case involving a six-point bull elk illegally taken during deer season.

The shooter was charged with taking the animal, and his friends were charged with aiding and abetting a game violation. Additional charges were brought when the investigation revealed that the animal's antlers were sold to a legitimate antler dealer.

Selling the antlers of an illegally taken animal amounts to "theft by deception" since the seller takes money from an unsuspecting buyer in an illegal transaction.

Before the case was over, more people became involved as the shooter was forced to recover the illegally taken meat from the homes of unsuspecting recipients of the elk meat.

The multiple charges in these cases are not unusual since poaching crimes are often compounded by multiple illegal activities.