Deer Massacres and Endangered Species: America’s Teen Poaching Crisis Expands

Reported by Chester Moore

DOLPHINS ARE ONE OF America’s most beloved animals. From Flipper, who thrilled families on television in the 1960s to modern-day dolphin encounters at aquariums and resorts, the love affair families have with dolphins is a strong one.

So, when game wardens in Orange County, Texas found a dead dolphin impaled by a fishing arrow, it sent shockwaves across national media outlets.

A couple of days after the incident, I spoke with the warden on the case. He revealed the type of fishing broadhead used in the incident was only sold at one location in the region, a popular archery shop.

“That has narrowed down our search. We’ll find out who did this,” he said.

Officials did not expect that the perpetrators were two teenage brothers who, while bowfishing, came across a young dolphin that had wandered into freshwater.

So instead of enjoying seeing the beautiful, protected marine mammal and reporting that it was in an unusual area, they killed it.

This happened in 2015 a few miles from my home. It opened my eyes to a problem few in our industry have discussed. However, we have addressed it in TF&G as well as in our e-newsletter.

We suggest some solutions in my column this month, but this piece is dedicated to raising awareness to what’s going on. In my opinion, America has a teen poaching crisis, and we need to take a serious look at it now.

Killing Cranes and Eagles

Federal officials charged a teen from Jefferson County just 30 miles away for killing two whooping cranes less than a year after the dolphin incident. A judge ordered the 19-year-old to pay $26,000 in restitution, barred him from owning or possessing firearms or ammunition, and prohibited him from hunting or fishing in the U.S.

He also got 200 hours of community service.

Shortly after this made headlines, I asked a Galveston County game warden whether she had noticed any trends in-game and fish violations among teenagers. The answer blew me away.

“Yes, they need to stop killing our eagles.”

Take, for example, a 17-year-old Harris County, Texas boy who shot a bald eagle near White Oak Bayou. It was one of a pair that had actively nested in the area for several years.

The most heinous poaching came from the Pacific Northwest.

Washington Fish and Wildlife wardens said a sheriff’s department officer found evidence of teens purposely hunting for and poaching eagles. In a Facebook post, the wardens explained.

“Officer Bolton and the deputy searched the area for downed wildlife and soon discovered a relatively fresh doe deer on the hillside near where the suspects had parked. Four older deer carcasses in various stages of decomposition were found in the same location.

“The officers learned that one of the young men shot the doe the night before by using a high-powered spotlight. The animal was then placed near the other carcasses to bait in and shoot eagles.”

That’s not an incident of an impulsive act of game law violations. It’s a calculated effort that involves multiple poaching incidents to purposely kill eagles, most likely for the black-market trade in their claws and feathers.

Over the last five years, numerous other incidents involving teens killing eagles have occurred around the country.

 

Deer Smuggling and Massacres

Florida officials in 2017 charged an 18-year-old and a 23-year-old with capturing, harassing, and harming three endangered Key deer, the smallest subspecies of whitetail. According to a report at Local10.com, the 18-year-old said he lured three of them in with food, restrained them, and put them in the car “in a plan to take pictures with them.”

Conservation officers euthanized the three deer due to broken bones.

An article at gohunt.com details two high school-aged males found guilty of poaching ten mule deer in McCone County, Montana in 2018.

“According to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MFWP), the deer were killed with “a shotgun, using loads typically used for pheasants.” All of the deer were on a two-mile stretch near road 528 in northern McCone County.”

Not to be outdone, four Pennsylvania teenagers in 2020 went on a whitetail poaching spree that one wildlife officer called one of the most disturbing incidents he has observed. Two 17-year-olds and one boy aged 16 killed at least 30 deer by spotlighting with a headlamp or their car lights, exiting the vehicle in the deer-rich area, and opening fire.

“It was almost like a video game for them. They did it because they were bored,” Clint Deniker, a wildlife conservation officer with the Pennsylvania Game Commission, told the Sharon Herald.

“There is no telling how many deer were killed or wounded,” Deniker said, adding that he accounted for at least 30.

Another 2020 incident, this time in Wisconsin, involved multiple teens over the course of a month, killing 40 whitetails and one horse. All of them were left to rot.

Numerous other incidents involved dozens of deer and other game killed in similar sprees by teens all around the nation.

This is not an indictment of teens and certainly not the behavior of anything near a majority. However, when young people are committing such atrocities against wildlife, someone has to say something.

So far, much of the industry has been silent on this issue. We now publish this to make you and industry leaders aware of what’s going on with some teens and wildlife across America.

—by CHESTER MOORE

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