Ca. Teens caught Poaching

[southwind]

A auto/deer accident is a far cry from a mass thrill killing of a dozen deer. I don't get your comparrison on that at all.

I will go along with you on the community service but with a significant dollar fine in the package.

And no we do not need to build bigger jails but if your telling me that a cereal poacher for instance does not qualify for both criminal felony and jail time than brother we will never be on the same page.

Now, I know this is about some really really dumb teenagers and on a case by case basis that deserves a different look but if the reward is greater than the risk they will take the risk the majority of the time.

[daveytech]

It's been some time since I've visited the site.

I respect your opinion NONYA but I'm having a hard time trying to understand your view on this situation. Might be my "typical Ca. attitude". Not sure.

Have a great day

[Code Red]

Daveytech, I have to agree with NONYA on this one. The best form of punishment for teens is labor, and what better punishment for poaching than labor requiring them to be outside improving habitat and wildlife? As has been mentioned, monetary fines will only be picked up by their coddling parents, and they will not learn a thing. Prison/jail time does little to deter them either, or why else would they be doing it in the first place? Educate these criminals through hard labor. After countless hours of service trying to restore what they undid, maybe they will gain an appreciation for wildlife and nature. Had I been caught doing anything similar to this as a teen my dad told me he would have let me rot in jail and wouldn't have bailed me out. Then once my jail time was up I guarantee you he would have had me do additional community service (all this after an almost certain butt whoopin' too)!

[GPWDeer]

All teenagers have is time. When they have too much they use it to get into trouble (gangs, sex, drugs, shoplifting, poaching, you name it). The kids who play sports and work part time jobs don't have time to go out "spotlighting" deer because after they close up at Burger King, they have to go home and read Hamlet for their English class the next day (my wife teaches high school English ).

These kids obviously had too much time on their hands and I have to agree in theory with Nonya that the best way to handle this situation would be a stearn monetary fine plus forcing them to contribute back to society by rebuilding habbitat and working with BLM or Fish and Game officers that will make them do physical labor and help them to realize the value of what they have taken away. I also think the side benefit from this punishment is that the kids will not only be working their butts off and learning work ethic, but they may also find that they are interested in the habbitat or the animals and may find a career path in those fields interesting. It could be just the thing to get them on track as humans. You never know.

As far as the fines being paid by the parents, I can tell you that if my parents had ever had to pay a fine for me, it would have been considered a loan with a minimum of 10% interest and on top of the community service I would have had to get a job and pay them back with juice.

GPWDeer

[TheGreatwhitehunter]

All poaching should bring FELONY charges!!!!!

[Duckdude]

Fellas,

I can appreciate your passion for wildlife and the outdoors and and believe me, I too share in that passion. However, before you all rush to judgement on these two youngsters, remember that things in life aren't always black and white and not all kids that poach fit into one nice tidy category. If you're like me you can look back on your adolescent years and see some bad choices and some good choices. Some of us didn't get caught when we made these bad choices, but some kids did. Should we condemn only the kids who get caught and write them off as bad seeds that should lose all rights and privelages for the rest of their lives? I hope not.

I happen to know of one of these youngsters and I can tell you that this case isn't one of these spoiled rich kids with nothing to do type situations. The background of this kid is a very complex one and if you knew it, it would be no great mystery as to why he may have ended up doing these things. I'm not condoning this behavior, but I'm just saying that it's not all cut and dry.

In my opinion, even good kids can do bad things. And some of those kids will get caught. This doesn't mean that they will always be bad. I did things that I'm not proud of while growing up (and didn't get caught), but I still learned a valuable lesson from those times. Today, I feel that I'm a respectful human being who has a great love and passion for wildlife and the outdoors (probably more so than that of the average person). This is due to the fact that I'm a good person at heart and I grew out of my adolescence. By all accounts these are good kids who made very poor decisions. I feel that they should be punished for these acts through community service and habitat work, not through extravagant fines and lifetime bans of hunting privelages. This is my opinion.

DD

[daveytech]

I'm probably overreacting with the lifetime bans. I take it very personally when someone poaches my deer. In my experience, California deer herds are in bad shape and poaching not just one, but a dozen deer is just absolutely terrible and tragic to me. Not that this crime would be any less tragic anywhere else. I'm glad that they have been caught. (To answer NONYA's earlier question: I have never poached an animal and never will.)

Deer hunting in California is very hard as it is. It just got that much more difficult.

I agree that locking them up is not the right choice. I would like to see them "work it off" by restoring habitat, or something along those lines. I really couldn't care less if the parents have to pay massive fines either. It's their responsibility to control the actions of their children. This situation is an example of what happens when there is a complete lack of responsibility on both sides.

In response to Duckdude: No matter what variables are involved in this childs life, it was their decision to kill these animals. They know right from wrong. I wish I could use my bad childhood as an excuse for my shortcomings, but I don't. There is absolutely no excuse.

I get worked up just thinking about this. Maybe I'm being too emotional about it.

September can't get here soon enough

[straightshooter]

Alright I haven't been here for a while so I am just catchin up but since I am from California, it hits home with me also. As Daveytech said, deer hunting in Cali sucks already and the bottom line is these kids knew when they killed and (don't forget) cut out the choice meat, exactly what they were doing. Now I might be all for the idea of community service invloving habitat restoration or some other wildlife project, but the sad fact is that California does not spend any money on Wildlife. Our sportsmans money goes to the general fund. So if the judge sentenced them to some sort of community service, more than likely, there wouldn't even be any project for them to serve on, and also no one to supervise them. So being that they are from Cali, and that our jails and prisons are overcrowded as it is, I think that they should be farmed out to Utah (where I hunt) and given AT LEAST 1000 hours of community service, and pay $1,000.00 per animal, and even if mom and dad aren't rich, that's what a second job is for (been there done that)!