Poacher’s License Suspended 35 Years After Hunting Buddy Turns Him In

A Wyoming man had his hunting license suspended for 35 years and will pay over $25,000 in fines after his friend turned him in for leaving a mule deer buck to waste.

Officials say Dayton resident Ryan Schmidt poached several mule deer and whitetail in 2020 and 2021, according to a recent report in the Sheridan Press. Some were properly tagged, some were snuck back to Schmidt’s apartment, and some were fraudulently tagged with friends’ licenses.

Schmidt may have continued committing wildlife crimes for years if not for his friend–or I should probably say former friend–Matt Culver.

Culver went mule deer hunting with Schmidt in the fall of 2021 on private property with permission from the landowner. Schmidt fired four rounds at a buck, two of which missed and two of which struck the torso and the rear right leg. But by that time, the buck wasn’t on the right property. Schmidt and Culver dragged the buck into a nearby ditch and left it there.

Culver told game wardens he believed this wasn’t the first time Schmidt had improperly disposed of a deer, and an investigation was launched in October of 2021. Searches of Schmidt’s property and phone revealed enough evidence to convict him of six counts of taking an antlered big game animal without the proper license, one count of waste or abandonment of a big game animal, one count of failure to tag a big game animal, and one count of taking a deer without a license.

He escaped jail time by serving one year of probation, and it doesn’t look like Culver received any punishment. But Schmidt’s neighbor, a woman named Amanda Freeman, got hit with nearly $2,000 in fines for helping Schmidt process the poached deer and illegally transferring tags.

I know what you're going to say. That's deep Schmidt for some and not for others.

Flambe Racoon a la “Havahart”

A New York man has been cited with animal cruelty for setting a raccoon on fire after he’d caught it in a live trap.

To add irony to injury, the trap he used was a “Havahart.” That’s “Have-a-Heart,” as in, “to have compassion,” not “to burn alive.” Maybe this New Yorker misread the packaging.

Anyway, police say 35-year-old Willis Bowles, Jr., caught the raccoon in the Havahart trap and then proceeded to douse the animal in lighter fluid and set it on fire. He captured the incident on his phone and posted the video to social media.

But that wasn’t the end of his trouble. The investigation into the flambéd raccoon revealed that Bowles was in possession of an illegal firearm, what the state of New York calls an “assault weapon.” If convicted, that gun charge will land him in much hotter water than the animal cruelty charge. So that’s a little poetic justice for the raccoon.

Laziest Poacher Ever?

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is asking the public for help identifying the laziest poacher in the Centennial State.

Game wardens say that after shooting a bull elk twice with a high-powered rifle, this individual harvested a single backstrap from the large animal. They then sawed off one of the antlers, but didn’t even bother taking it home. They simply left it there on the ground.

Officials believe the animal was killed between June 24 and the morning of June 26 between the towns of Como and Hartsel. The state is offering a $1,000 reward and a free preference point or hunting license to anyone who offers information that leads to the filing of charges.

If you have any info on an elk poacher in Park County, Colorado, call 877-265-6648 or email game.thief@state.co.us.

Disappearing Blue Trout

Wisconsin residents also have a chance to do their best Columbo impression. St. Croix Falls Police Department is asking for the public’s help finding the person or persons who trespassed on a state-owned fish hatchery, damaged property, and killed and injured several fish.

They also stole a rare blue-colored brown trout that had resided at the hatchery for the last six years. The blue coloring comes from a naturally occurring genetic mutation in rainbow trout and, even more rarely, in brown trout. The blue coloring makes it difficult for them to survive in the wild, but they’re often kept at hatcheries for the public to see.

The St. Croix Falls State Fish Hatchery has operated since 1919 and is one of Wisconsin's primary trout brood stations. The trout that were killed would have been used to stock the state’s lakes and rivers. If you think you can solve the Case of the Disappearing Blue Trout, give the St. Croix Falls police station a call.

Craft Store Soprano

Up in Idaho, the owner of a craft store was just convicted of purchasing poached mountain lions and a golden eagle.

After a three-day trial, a jury found 65-year-old Gordon A. Wilson guilty of nine felony counts of purchasing unlawfully taken wildlife. He purchased eight mountain lions, two of which were spotted kittens, even though he knew they’d been snared, which is illegal in Idaho. What’s more, Wilson advised the sellers on the best way to hide the fact that the animals had been snared.

Evidence presented at trial also showed that Wilson had cut the head and feet off of a golden eagle, and told the seller to dispose of the body in a dumpster. It is generally illegal to kill raptors in all 50 states, but golden eagles are also federally protected.

Wilson is being held in custody without bond because he apparently threatened to kill the poachers if they ratted him out to police. Makes you think twice before going into an antique shop, doesn't it? The mob has its gambling, the drug cartels have their narcotics, and craft store owners have their mountain lion parts. Scrapbooking makes people do crazy things.

Highway Patrol

A Good Samaritan in Florida caught two alligator poachers last month on I-75.

The Good Samaritan saw a truck pulled over on the side of the highway, and he stopped to offer assistance. Instead, he saw two men hauling an alligator back to their truck from some distance away from the road. The pair rolled the six-foot alligator into a tarp and sped off.

Officers used traffic cameras to track their movements until they eventually pulled them over 30 miles from where they’d been stopped. The alligator was found with a long metal shaft through its skull that was still connected to a speargun. Both individuals were charged with the illegal take of an alligator and taken to jail.

Burl Burglar

Most wildlife crimes are animal-related, but tree poaching is also fairly common. In Oregon, someone has been cutting the burls off maple trees in a local park in the town of Corvallis.

Burls are rough, callous-like growths that form on maple trees, and they’re prized by woodworkers for their complex structure. They’re incredibly strong, and they’re also each unique. No two burls are the same, and they also can’t be farmed because no one knows exactly why they grow in the first place or how to replicate the process without killing the tree.

Anyway, someone’s been taking a chainsaw to Willamette Park and hacking away at the maple trees. Six trees have been affected, and one had nine burls taken off. While trees can survive this kind of surgery, the city’s forester told local media that the trees will eventually have to be removed.

I honestly didn't think people in Oregon were interested in those types of bowls these days. But you did take away a nice shade tree, add to urban heating, and destroy some family's nice picnic. What do you think of that?