# 150 dead deer



## RiverRunner88 (Jun 15, 2006)

150 dead deer, 11 convicted in poaching cases 






By Mike Moore Editor

"Xenia, Ohio  On the eve of another deer hunting season, wildlife officers and investigators in southwest Ohio made one of the states biggest poaching arrests in history.

In all, 11 people were charged from a year-long investigation in two separate cases that involved the illegal shooting of 150 deer and other animals, according to the DNR Division of Wildlife.

Investigators dubbed the two cases, which began through tips from citizens, Operation Tenderloin and Operation Velvet.




As far as the numbers of deer, its the largest in District 5 (southwest Ohio) and quite possibly the largest in the history of the state, said Tim Schlater, a DNR wildlife field supervisor in Xenia, Ohio. Both of them were initiated by citizen complaints, but obviously they snowballed into something even bigger than we could have imagined.

The one thing that ties the cases together, wildlife investigators say, is blood sport. There is no evidence that the perpetrators prospered financially from their crimes, said Schlater. The illegal deer killings took place for venison tenderloins in one case and velvet antlers in the other.

In both cases, we did not find any evidence where meat or antlers were being sold for profit, the wildlife investigator said. They were strictly killing for bragging rights or personal trophies. In Operation Tenderloin, they were killing for the meat.

Many of the deer, wildlife officials say, were shot at night with the perpetrators using spotlights and rifles. In Operation Velvet, the deer where shot during the summer while the bucks were still wearing velvet on their antlers. Ducks were killed with rifles in the spring so they would still be adorned in their breeding plumage. Wild turkeys were killed over bait during the closed season.

The poaching crimes took place in Hamilton, Butler, Clermont, and Brown counties in southwest Ohio as well as in Indiana, and were investigated by 20 agents from the Division of Wildlife.

Poaching Ohios wildlife takes wildlife away from honest people, creates a dangerous situation, and is against the ethics of hunting, said David Brown, DNR wildlife law enforcement supervisor in Xenia."

http://www.ohiooutdoornews.com/

thats a real shame. 150 thats insane! good thing they caught em


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## saugeyesam (Apr 20, 2004)

thats 150 deer that they know of there could be more. remember back in 93 or 94 operation clan bake the odnr caught 10 guys that called themselves the clan who had poached hundreds of pounds of walleye and 100 or so deer and turkeys pheasants and countless other species in 20 counties all over the state they were from the maumee area those guys lost all hunting a fishing privelages for life got fined lost boats four wheelers trucks guns fishing equipment thousands of dollars of equipment they were selling some of there kills for profit i still have that article out of the paper stashed away somewhere!


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## newfish (Jun 19, 2006)

I say they turn em over to the OGF crew and let us deal with em


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## Guest (Sep 17, 2006)

All they got was basically a slap in the wrist for what they did. Poachers are poachers, they will hunt no matter if they have a license or not. They all should be in jail right now, and stay in there for a long time.


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## BassBlaster (Jun 8, 2006)

Way to go DNR for busting these morons but I agree with the rest of you on punishment. Let us get ahold of em. The punishment for stuff like this is way to weak.


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## catfish1998 (Jul 8, 2004)

way to go DNR


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## Smallmouth Crazy (Apr 4, 2006)

Whats going through peoples minds when they do stuff like that


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## Hetfieldinn (May 17, 2004)

They should have called it 'Operation Slap on Wrist', or 'Operation Slap in Face to the Rest of Ohio Sportsmen'


They have a full body mount of a fawn, for Pete's sake. These guys will hunt again, and poach again. I would have at least cut off each of their trigger fingers.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

Hetfieldinn said:


> They should have called it 'Operation Slap on Wrist', or 'Operation Slap in Face to the Rest of Ohio Sportsman


The ODNR does not set the penalties for violations any more than a police officer determining jail time for crimes committed. The court system passes out the penalties. The ODNR did their part.


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## Fish-N-Fool (Apr 12, 2004)

I agree with you Lundy - ODNR did what they could to convict these poachers.

I think almost all sportsmen agree that the penalties do not fit the crimes in many cases - such as this one. The bottom line is that until the law is changed and the penalties severely increased, ODNR will be dealing with the same group commiting the same type of crimes.

It is a real shame some folks are so self centered and so willing to break the law.


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## Pure river (Sep 12, 2005)

A little stint with ole bubba behind iron bars is what they need.

Operation slap on the wrist..that was funny. It always makes me laugh when they take a poachers hunting privilges away. Kind of an oxy moron if you ask me.

HELLO...THEY ARE POACHING already??? Its kind of like telling a drug dealer "Your not aloud to sell drugs any more" DUHHHHH.

I guess our courts have bigger fish to fry..they just dont realize how important our natural recorces are to some of us.

All the work you put into a good deer then some a****** comes along and snipes it with a rifle some night. It really pisses me off!!

PR


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## FishinDawg (Mar 9, 2005)

I'm with ya pure river, these guys should have been taken out back behind the barn, The DNR does what they can, but once it gets to trial it's really out of there hands, we need the governor or senators to make the punishment harder than whats on the books, Judges can only give whats allowed under the law, these guys got off with a slap on the wrist, and your right, there poachers, what do they care about losing hunting privliges. these guys have no respect. 

I'm sure elected officails would push for tuffer sentences if they new they would lose the backing of fishing and hunting voters of Ohio.


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## Pure river (Sep 12, 2005)

"I'm sure elected officails would push for tuffer sentences if they new they would lose the backing of fishing and hunting voters of Ohio."

One hell of a great point!! something that didnt even enter my mind!!

I am sure that the numbers would probably stagger even us if we know how many people are sportsman and VOTE!!!

I feel a letter AND a petition coming on!!!!!

Dear Mr. govener SIR!!! lol.. we need a govener that is an avid hunter and i bet things would change!!

PR


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## psychobubba (Mar 2, 2006)

give the honest Hunter another black eye .







in the eyes of the anti-es


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