Poaching on TV

This comes right out of the annals of fake news in lots of ways. People who are in television hunting shows get busted for poaching. Can you believe it? The Spokesman – Review reported that two Kentucky men who appeared on a cable television hunting show have been fined nearly $31,000 and have lost their hunting privileges for 15 years after poaching two bull elk in southeastern Wyoming in 2014.

The case emerged when a Wyoming resident watching "Hunting in the Sticks" on the Pursuit Channel reported that the men appeared to have killed elk in the wrong hunting district during an episode titled "Western Redemption."

"I believe the two defendants were driven to get kill-shot footage for the television show and that resulted in their making bad decisions," said Mike Ehlebracht, an investigator with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.

Jimmy G. Duncan was ordered to pay $17,500 in fines and restitution, including $6,000 in restitution for a bull elk and $4,000 for an antelope he killed in 2013. Ricky J. Mills was ordered to pay $13,460. The Game and Fish Department said they also had to forfeit their elk mounts.

And this from the Seattle Times.

The host of the Sportsman Channel hunting show "The Syndicate" was charged with two felonies related to poaching in northwest Alaska.

Karen Loeffler, the U.S. attorney in Alaska, said at a news conference that grizzly bears, moose, caribou and Dall sheep were illegally killed in the Noatak National Preserve with the illegal kills ending up on the cable television show.

"The charges show five years of documented, illegal take of wildlife involving over two dozen big game animals," Loeffler said.

There were at least four hunts conducted for the show in Alaska over that time span, said Steven Skrocki, the lead prosecutor.