Those are not fines, they are the value of the animal killed. It's that price + a fine + forfeiture of guns, equipment, and vehicles used in the crime + loss of hunting privileges.
Partlike wrote:I'm no fan of poaching and I agree with fines but how can they have a sliding scale for the antler size? Why don't they just make all whitetail deer that are poached $8500 and not just the big ones?
A big problem here is the poachers shooting bucks with big racks to sell the head & rack. They locate them and then slip in at night with a rifle and kill them. A few are even dumb enough to try to tag them as archery kills. I've seen the area conservation officer bring bucks in to my buddy's processing place to have them skinned and examined for the method of killing them. In several cases he left with plenty of pics, perhaps a bullet, and the head with antlers attached. The meat is left to donate to needy families, so they aren't wasted in that sense. Matter of fact, some of those tenderloins my family has been eating may have come from some of those deer.
Unfortunately, these days people pay big bucks for big bucks! (pun intended)
Those trophy mounts (or caped heads) can be sold for a lot of $$$$
The killing is illegal, the sale is illegal, the possession of the mount is illegal, but it's still a big business in our impoverished area. There have been a few "poacher rings" busted in Ohio in recent years and the increase in the cost of shooting those bucks
might help slow it down.