FWP Officer Ticketed

sweetnectar

sweetnectar

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Saw this in the news this morning and wondered what your thought were on the matter:

A Sanders County Fish, Wildlife and Parks agent was recently ticketed and fined by the agency he works for after mistakenly shooting a bull elk.

Warden Captain Lee Anderson says Bruce Sterling was on an agency damage hunt, looking for cow elk.

Sterling fired at an animal he believed to be a cow. After approaching the animal, he realized it had small spikes.

Captain Anderson says Sterling acted appropriately, the agency ticketed and fined him, and Sterling has since paid his fine.
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Seemed like an honest mistake to me while trying to do his job. What are your thoughts?
 
Mistakes can happen. You should know what you are shooting and you are responsible for your shot. No excuses. It seems appropriate.
 
Honest mistake but unfortunatley if he didn't turn himself in somebody would of blown a whistle and cried fowl. Would be interesting to see a picture of the spike. Probably had like 2 inch nubs that couldn't be seen between it's ears. Would also be interesting to know this guys temperment towards others as an officer. I'd bet the majority are great guys and do their best to be fair and partial but then you have a handful of hardnoses that wouldn't let anything slide.
 
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Seems a little weird, but I'm sure they are doing it for damage control before anything can get started by any of the public saying there is favoritism in enforcement matters. Looks to me like he's probably taking one for the team as they say!
 
I've talked to Bruce a fair bit through the years and know a lot of people who live in "his" area and know him well... never heard a bad thing about him. Honest mistake.

Isn't there a rule that if the spikes are under 4 inches it can be harvested as a cow?? Or am I making that up? If you have a doe tag and kill a fawn buck with no horns, you aren't in trouble are ya?
 
Horn Seeker said:
I've talked to Bruce a fair bit through the years and know a lot of people who live in "his" area and know him well... never heard a bad thing about him. Honest mistake.

Isn't there a rule that if the spikes are under 4 inches it can be harvested as a cow?? Or am I making that up? If you have a doe tag and kill a fawn buck with no horns, you aren't in trouble are ya?
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Yep 4 less than 4 inches is legal with an antlerless tag. And you can shoot buck fawns on a doe tag or any deer with antlers under 4 inches.
 
Good input. Giving him a ticket for it doesn't seem like the right thing to do. I feel like topgun....he is taking one for the team.
 
sweetnectar said:
Good input. Giving him a ticket for it doesn't seem like the right thing to do. I feel like topgun....he is taking one for the team.
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It doesn't say what he was ticketed for. In Colorado, you will get a ticket 100% of the time for a mistake like that. If you make the mistake and choose to leave the elk (waste it), you will be ticketed for wanton waste, a felony. If you attempt to sneak the elk home and are caught, you get ticketed for illegal possession, a fine of over $1,000. If you turn yourself in and admit your mistake, you get a $68 tagging violation ticket. He could have very well received a penalty far less than the maximum.
 
Just this year a friend of mine was shooting at a bedded cow in the timber, the cow jumped up and an unseen spike bedded behind her was laying there dead. We packed the animal out and he called the game warden. The game warden seemed pretty surprised he turned himself in. The warden took the elk and gave him the ticket. The warden then went to the courthouse and recommended the minimum fine. Like oak said, if you leave it and try to get away with it you'll face a much stiffer penalty, as you should. And..

Turning yourself in is the right thing to do. I'd have a lot more respect for the guy who turns himself in, than the guy who tries to get away with it.
 
I know Bruce and the ticketing officer personally. It was a special damage control hunt and both Bruce and the ticketing officer had applied for and drawn tags along with several others. I wasn't on the hunt but as the scenario was explained to me it was basically a group of guys targeting a herd of elk that had been damaging a ranchers hay pile. Multiple guys killed elk out of the same herd as they were in the field. In the midst of the commotion, Bruce shot an elk. I didn't see it, but it was described to me as being a small spike. I'm guessing it was a classic case of the targeted elk changing positions or else Bruce not seeing the spikes before he fired.
At any rate, he shot an illegal elk and was ticketed, just the same as another guy I know about that mistakenly killed an illegal spike. (Then second guy payed a $170 fine if I remember correctly) I'm sure that Bruce's fine was along similar lines. I think the situation was handled in an appropriate manner given the situation. I don't see any reason why a FWP employee should be given a pass any more than you or I would had we made a similar mistake. I also understand why FWP tickets accidental situations such as this. If they didn't ticket and confiscate the animal there would be all kinds of "accidental" illegal kills.
It's not like he got busted for poaching an animal. The fines are much, much, less when a hunter turns himself in for an illegal kill.
As a side note, I'm not sticking up for Bruce or criticising him either. If I'm critical of anything about this whole scenario its the fact that we don't have nearly enough elk here in the northwest MT to be authorizing depredation hunts. If a rancher is too cheap to fence his hay pile, he deserves to have elk eating his hay. They were there before he was.
BTW, Bruce is a biologist, not an enforcement officer.

Seemed like an honest mistake to me while trying to do his job. What are your thoughts?
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- Sweetnectar, Bruce had a FWP issued tag on an agency hunt, but the elk was for his personal use. No different than you or me having the tag and participating. He was on his own time, hunting for his own freezer just like all the other tag holders, including the ticketing officer.
 
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