by John Jefferson
An obituary in the Austin newspaper on Sunday, Oct. 23, reported the death of man I used to know. We met through a hunting and fishing club to which we belonged. He was an accomplished hunter. A close relative tells of being at a party at the man’s house and seeing impressive taxidermy on his walls.
The obituary spoke of his education at U.T. Law School, his career in real estate, oil and gas, and mediation. It never mentioned his hunting.
Sad.
One evening, I was going through the week’s mail and found a photograph from a ranch just across the border in Mexico. It pictured the now recently diseased man posing with a very impressive whitetail. The ranch sent the card to advertise their deer hunting and to lure customers.
My wife is from Minnesota, and I had told her about the large, South Texas deer. I showed her the photo. She looked at it and finally replied, “Those antlers are so big, they look like they don’t even belong on that deer!”
A few months later, I realized how prophetic her comment was.
My late friend, Ray Sasser, outdoor editor of the Dallas Moring News, wrote an article published in Outdoor Life magazine about the large antlered buck the man claimed he had shot. Ironically, a taxidermist in Canada saw the Outdoor Life article and recognized the antlers. They had previously been stolen from his shop.
The Edmonton taxidermist called Federal Game Warden, Jim Stinebaugh, in Texas, who investigated the case. Charges were filed. Among them were violations of the Lacey Act — crossing state and international boundaries with illegally taken game. A Texas game warden told me the antlers were unique enough that he recognized the similarity at first glance.
The man pled guilty to one of the lesser charges and received a whopping fine, long community service, and a virtual end to his hunting. He dropped out of sight. He and his embarrassed ego went underground.
I’ve wondered about their shock when a theft some time before, 2,000 miles away, and in another country came home to roost in a Federal Courtroom in Texas.
That was a severe case. Most game warden cases involve lesser offenses. But this case showed — entangled as it was — that a rare coincident and tireless police work proved again that crime doesn’t pay – it costs!
As fall hunting begins, hunters should realize over 550 Texas game wardens, federal enforcement agents, DPS officers, and local lawmen are trained to enforce all laws, including game laws. The agencies cooperate with each other, too.
Many citations are issued for simply stupid offenses like not having a license, improper deer tagging, exceeding bag limits, hunting out of season, or before or after legal shooting times. The free TPW Outdoor Annual (OA) and its cell phone app set it all out. Ignorance is no excuse. Neither is stupidity.
Take time to leaf through the OA. It could save you time.
And money!
JJ
