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I got this off anotehr hunting site, Bushnell Outdoors Online Community.
Found this article in a St. Paul Mn newspaper. Its something we need to be aware of and on the lookout for. Most state department of natural resources or equivilent provide numbers to call to report these things, carry them with you or have them handy. It helps all of us. Thrill killing: Wardens worry about new 'extreme sport'
BY BOB RIEPENHOFF
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Conservation wardens in Wisconsin are seeing a disturbing trend among young game violators called "thrill killing."
Chuck Horn, Conservation Warden Supervisor with the Department of Natural Resources at Dodgeville, defined thrill killing as killing large numbers of animals with little or no attempt to retrieve them.
"All over the state, lots of animals are being killed with little or no attempt to recover the animal or utilize the meat," Horn said. "There was one case in Grant and Lafayette counties where 34 deer, 34 raccoons and one red-tail hawk were killed and left to rot."
Horn recently completed a study of this phenomenon.
"It seems to have escalated in the past couple of years," he said.
For the study, Horn contacted wardens around the state and found that, in about the past three years, there were 20 thrill-killing cases where the participants were arrested and three more cases that remain unsolved.
Most of those arrested were teenagers or young adults. Seventeen cases involved participants 22 years or younger, Horn said.
Typically, the cases involve people killing a combination of deer and small game. Pheasants, opossum and sandhill cranes have also been targets.
"Most of them are a shining and shooting situation," Horn said. Most cases take place between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
But he said: "There were several cases where the vehicle alone was the weapon. They'd run down critters."
All of the cases involved at least two people; one case involved 15. "A group of kids were going out in northern Wisconsin," he said. "It looked like it was a competition thing."
People have been convicted of a variety of criminal charges, including shining and shooting deer, shining in an area inhabited by deer while in possession of a firearm, hunting out of season and possession of an untagged deer. Civil charges have included shooting from a vehicle or roadway, shooting before or after legal hunting hours, shooting a protected species and using an illegal weapon, such as a rifle in a shotgun-only area or a .22-caliber rifle to shoot deer.
Most of those convicted were assessed fines, had hunting and other DNR privileges suspended; some received jail sentences. In addition, firearms, spotlights and, in one case, a vehicle were confiscated.
The question on many wardens' minds, Horn said, is this: Why are young people engaging in this activity?
"There's all kinds of speculation out there that maybe these kids played video games where there is more or less instant satisfaction. That's not always going to be the case in a hunting situation. In an actual hunt, you have to work a little harder than that. You have to do some scouting and have some knowledge of (wildlife) habits and habitat.
"In a video hunting game, it doesn't talk about field dressing the deer, butchering it or cooking the venison. Basically, when the animal is down, the hunt is over, and you get points."
Others speculate that televised hunting shows may contribute to the problem by creating unrealistic expectations.
"People watch a half-hour show, and there are three or four successful hunts where people bag a deer or a turkey," Horn said. "What people don't realize is there were probably several hundred hours of footage that went into that show."
Horn believes the phenomenon needs study. He hopes to find a professor or a graduate student to interview participants about their background and motivation.
"What we'd like to do is see a graduate student in psychology or sociology talk with some of the people involved in this activity to see why they did it and if there is something that could have been done to prevent it," he said.
In one case last month, Horn said, "One of the participants said he had never deer hunted before, and he thought this was the way you did it."
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Found this article in a St. Paul Mn newspaper. Its something we need to be aware of and on the lookout for. Most state department of natural resources or equivilent provide numbers to call to report these things, carry them with you or have them handy. It helps all of us. Thrill killing: Wardens worry about new 'extreme sport'
BY BOB RIEPENHOFF
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Conservation wardens in Wisconsin are seeing a disturbing trend among young game violators called "thrill killing."
Chuck Horn, Conservation Warden Supervisor with the Department of Natural Resources at Dodgeville, defined thrill killing as killing large numbers of animals with little or no attempt to retrieve them.
"All over the state, lots of animals are being killed with little or no attempt to recover the animal or utilize the meat," Horn said. "There was one case in Grant and Lafayette counties where 34 deer, 34 raccoons and one red-tail hawk were killed and left to rot."
Horn recently completed a study of this phenomenon.
"It seems to have escalated in the past couple of years," he said.
For the study, Horn contacted wardens around the state and found that, in about the past three years, there were 20 thrill-killing cases where the participants were arrested and three more cases that remain unsolved.
Most of those arrested were teenagers or young adults. Seventeen cases involved participants 22 years or younger, Horn said.
Typically, the cases involve people killing a combination of deer and small game. Pheasants, opossum and sandhill cranes have also been targets.
"Most of them are a shining and shooting situation," Horn said. Most cases take place between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.
But he said: "There were several cases where the vehicle alone was the weapon. They'd run down critters."
All of the cases involved at least two people; one case involved 15. "A group of kids were going out in northern Wisconsin," he said. "It looked like it was a competition thing."
People have been convicted of a variety of criminal charges, including shining and shooting deer, shining in an area inhabited by deer while in possession of a firearm, hunting out of season and possession of an untagged deer. Civil charges have included shooting from a vehicle or roadway, shooting before or after legal hunting hours, shooting a protected species and using an illegal weapon, such as a rifle in a shotgun-only area or a .22-caliber rifle to shoot deer.
Most of those convicted were assessed fines, had hunting and other DNR privileges suspended; some received jail sentences. In addition, firearms, spotlights and, in one case, a vehicle were confiscated.
The question on many wardens' minds, Horn said, is this: Why are young people engaging in this activity?
"There's all kinds of speculation out there that maybe these kids played video games where there is more or less instant satisfaction. That's not always going to be the case in a hunting situation. In an actual hunt, you have to work a little harder than that. You have to do some scouting and have some knowledge of (wildlife) habits and habitat.
"In a video hunting game, it doesn't talk about field dressing the deer, butchering it or cooking the venison. Basically, when the animal is down, the hunt is over, and you get points."
Others speculate that televised hunting shows may contribute to the problem by creating unrealistic expectations.
"People watch a half-hour show, and there are three or four successful hunts where people bag a deer or a turkey," Horn said. "What people don't realize is there were probably several hundred hours of footage that went into that show."
Horn believes the phenomenon needs study. He hopes to find a professor or a graduate student to interview participants about their background and motivation.
"What we'd like to do is see a graduate student in psychology or sociology talk with some of the people involved in this activity to see why they did it and if there is something that could have been done to prevent it," he said.
In one case last month, Horn said, "One of the participants said he had never deer hunted before, and he thought this was the way you did it."
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