Poaching, Poaching, Poaching!!!

Every year we hear of the poaching nonsense that happens all over the country, and…really… all over the world. Recently this thread popped up on our Forum: https://forum.eastmans.com/threads/nice-bucks-poached-in-utah-how-can-we-stop-poachers.22129/

I’m preaching to the choir, here, but hopefully someone is reading this and maybe will think twice before shooting something they don’t have a legal license for.

North American wildlife resides in a public trust, belonging to the people of North America. No single person owns them, we all own them collectively, similar to our public lands. With this in mind, none of us has the right to poach animals whenever we see fit, no matter the species or size of the antlers/horns on the animal.

The fact of the matter is poaching is stealing, lying, and cheating. If you illegally shoot wildlife, you are stealing from your children and fellow man. If you illegally shoot wildlife, you are lying to those around you and yourself about how you harvested it. If you illegally shoot wildlife, you are cheating others just like you out of the opportunity to harvest that critter during legal hunting seasons and not allowing that animal to die with grace as a true sportsman would.

Come on, brothers in the field, we are better than this. This activity only puts a black eye on all of our reputations to the voting public. Hunting is a heritage going back as far as our earliest records of mankind. In the United States, hunting is a privilege that can be taken away. 

If you know of someone inclined to poach, talk some sense into them. This is bigger than all of us. To quote Russell Crowe in the famous movie Gladiator, “What we do in life, echoes in eternity.” Be a gentleman sportsman, a hunter-conservationist. We are the first conservationists in history and need to act accordingly.

Get prepared. Stay prepared. Hunt hard.

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