I’ve never been a cheater.  I’m not sure I’ve cheated at anything in my whole life.  It’s not gratifying to me whatsoever.  I never cheated on tests in high school; I never cheated off my classmates in school; I refuse to use cheat codes when playing video games; I will not look up an answer in the back of the book before I exhaust all attempts to figure it out for myself; and I would surely never cheat when it comes to hunting.

Poaching an animal is mesmerizing to me.  I just can’t understand purposely breaking the rules in order to harvest an animal.  I cannot, no matter how hard I try, wrap my brain around shooting a deer while blinding it with a spotlight, and then bragging to my friends about the huge buck I shot.  It’s something I can’t even fathom.

“I just can’t understand purposely breaking the rules in order to harvest an animal.”

And, to take it one step further, what is the deal with so-called “poaching rings”?  I guess I can understand the motivation if we’re talking ivory and things of that nature, because of the monetary benefits – though still crooked and wrong – that can come from it.  But being in a poaching ring for Whitetails doesn’t make sense to me.  I guess if you shot a huge deer, near World Record status or something of that nature, that there could be some monetary gain involved. I can understand that.  I don’t like it.  But I can understand.  But it just doesn’t seem that that is normally the motivation for Whitetail poachers.  They seem to be only motivated by bragging rights – and that’s odd.  How can a person with a conscious brag about something they killed illegally?  I guess I can’t understand it, because cheating just isn’t in my genes.

Personally, I think there needs to be stiffer fines for poaching.  I think all states should adopt the same approach that a handful of states have, and start charging the poacher what the state deems the animal is worth.  And, right along with that, they need to revoke some hunting privileges, for life in some cases, and really send a message that poaching isn’t something that will be tolerated.

I almost didn’t write this post, because at first I felt like I was bringing attention to a subject that gets too much hype already.  I did write it, though, because I want to set the record straight:  Poachers are not hunters, anymore than a bank robber is a cop.  Just because we both use the same tools to reach a common goal, doesn’t mean we are one and the same.  And, despite a common misconception, I think most average people out there, even non-hunters, can figure that out.

I put poachers right up there with thieves, bank robbers, and anything else of that nature.  And I hope that every one of you get caught, and get what is coming to you.  Once that happens, I’ll sit back in my treestand and not feel a bit sorry for you; and love knowing that I still get the chance to kill an animal the right way – by playing by the rules – while you sit in a jail cell.

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