OHIO

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:54 am

The power of the pen (keyboard) is indeed something to behold. You wrote letters. Your voice was heard. And the principles of the free enterprise system came into play. The object of a business is to make money. And those business's that do it in a fair and correct way are welcomed with open arms. And those fair and correct businesses want little to do with those that are not fair and correct. You saw that in the response to your letters.

But now, there is a new task at hand. As has been discussed here in the forum before, Ohio has a new system in place where restitution must be made regarding any animal illegally taken. It can be very steep!

Lethal Impact Outfitters stated in their web site content that only 130 pt. bucks or larger were allowed to be taken. If the restitution guidelines are followed in this case, each buck would have a determined value of several thousand dollars. I know that records and computers were confiscated. It is my hope that a determination can be made as to how many bucks were illegally taken and restitution mandated. This number could be very large.

And I hope it is! These alleged poachers took in eighty grand. Let's hope the size of the penalty is in concert with their illegal monetary gains!

If ever there was a time and place for a state wildlife management arm of the government to make a statement, this is that time and place.

It is also now the time and place to implement the same tactics to go after the state of Ohio. And I say "go after" in a good way. I love the hard working officers who are out there everyday trying to protect the wildlife that we cherish. I do not love the lawmakers. And they are now the targets.

We as Ohio hunters are suffering from the successes of the policies of the Ohio Dept. of Natural Resources. The harvesting policies of the state of Ohio should be a model for surrounding states with regard to the whitetail buck. But with this success has come the inevitable greed of less then honorable hunters to cast aside rules in pursuit of the dollar. And it must be stopped!

Rules and accountability must be demanded from anyone who converts the hunting of the whitetail deer in the state of Ohio into a commercial venture. As it stands now, anyone from any state can build a website, receive large sums of cash, and place hunters in remote areas of our counties to harvest deer without regard to any state regulations pertaining to this "business." How is it that we provide better protection of fish from commercial fisherman then protection of the whitetail buck from commercially based businesses?

What can we Ohio hunters do? Plenty! We have the power. We have the pen. And the most important weapon in our quiver is the written word. We must write! Tell the DNR how outraged you are by this rape of our resources for monetary gain! Tell them you want regulation of this business. And the first thing that must be done is to identify them. If nothing else, at least start by identifying those business's that generate all of their income as a result of the harvest of a whitetail buck. Make them register!

At least that way we can watch them while thought is given as to how to regulate this industry so that unscrupulous practices such as what has happened do not reoccur.

Ohio, you are on notice.

wildwindom · Post by **wildwindom** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 10:13 am

Very good as always mike. I will be sending the odnr my opions also. Do you know when there court date is??

fuzzy · Post by **fuzzy** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 1:23 pm

crazyfarmer · Post by **crazyfarmer** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 2:24 pm

i dunno why so many want to hunt in Ohio.. its nothing there but 150-220 inch bucks.. I mean, whats the big deal

but back to the poachers.. they will get whats coming to them. Im sure they will end up paying far more than the 80k they took in

mikej · Post by **mikej** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 2:25 pm

they should double the fine because not only were they poachers but they attempted to profit from it

Grizzly Adam · Post by **Grizzly Adam** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:21 pm

Mike P wrote:The power of the pen (keyboard) is indeed something to behold. You wrote letters. Your voice was heard.

Certainly the ability to clearly express oneself is of inestimable value in a case like this, as we see from the speedy and favorable response of vendors to our collective outcry against those "Lethal Impact" jokers.

It seems to me that we out-of-state hunters could wield considerable influence with Ohio's DNR if we declare that we are not willing to come hunt with outfitters in the state until stricter oversight of guides is enacted.

As you have noted, money talks!

I would encourage all who share Mike's concern to unsheath their swords of complaint and slash the ODNR where it hurts ... in the soft belly of potential revenue lost.

I'll make it a point to contact them tomorrow.

Who will join me?

mikej · Post by **mikej** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 9:42 pm

i'm in grizz and mike. got a link

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 7:55 am

mikej wrote:i'm in grizz and mike. got a link

http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Default.aspx ... s/wildlife

maple · Post by **maple** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 10:02 am

Message sent.

Grizzly Adam · Post by **Grizzly Adam** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 11:42 am

Had a break just now, and gave 'em a little something to read myself!

Excalibur Crossbow Forum

OHIO

OHIO

Re: OHIO