Property Theft by Slow Torture
By Anne Muller
Mostly women who live alone are abused by hunters, government agencies, courts. Politicians are afraid to help.
The good ol’ boys have stolen lands, and wrecked lives and finances. Their abuse has to stop!
THESE REPORTS WILL INFURIATE YOU AND WILL CAUSE YOU TO QUESTION OUR SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT. IF IT CAN HAPPEN TO THEM – attorneys, teachers, administrators, business-women – IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!
THE HORROR OF HUNTING GOES BEYOND KILLING ANIMALS, though for C.A.S.H. that is reason enough to see it abolished. It invades the lives of those who live in the country and suburbs. It’s not surprising that the hunter-cowards’ easiest human victims are women who live alone.
Constant harassment and killing are literally driving people from their homes. Courts are impoverishing them as they pay fines, fees, and attorneys to defend themselves against what should not need defense: keeping trespassers off of their property, and enjoying their land and wildlife in a peaceful, non-consumptive way.
FROM A DISABLED WOMAN AND HER DAUGHTER IN NORTH CAROLINA:
I am in a desperate situation as I have been informed today that I have only 14 days from last Friday when my appeal was turned down (so by Nov. 18th) to file my motion for reconsideration on my appeal before the 4th Circuit Appeals court. I have been forced from the first to represent myself pro se, despite notifying and providing evidence to the court of my physical disabilities, an inoperable brain tumor, and proven cognitive deficits. Now, after the court ordered me to file an “informal” brief to determine assigning me a court appointed attorney (after they granted me pauper status), they have come back and not only denied me an attorney but have ruled against me on the case, based only upon my best pro se efforts in the “informal” brief.
If anyone knows of an attorney who could help me write the informal brief please have them contact me at 828 724 4221 or at pace@mcdowell.main.nc.us. I have two commitments for help with legal research and assistance. The Forest Service deliberately moved my property line in order to falsely show that the FS officer was on my property when he issued me the ticket for interfering with a FS road. I have an 1897 land grant deed for 150 acres and the FS has cut this to 89 acres and taken my easement as their own, and is now charging me $347 per year to use a short road segment that I must maintain. I was later charged about $2,500 in restitution for this FS-directed fraudulent survey that took my land.
I firmly believe that I have a First Amendment right to stand on any public or private road and verbally express my belief that the hunter had no right to use the road.
Thanks for everyone’s support and empathy.
Elizabeth and Daisy O’Nan
FROM A BUSINESS WOMAN IN OHIO
For four days straight I found men with guns on my property and around the property line. I called the game warden several times and they refused to respond. They said it was impossible for them to respond to every trespassing call they get. My husband placed a radio in our window in hopes of scaring the deer away so we would not have deer on the property, attracting the men with guns. The police showed up and told us we had to turn the radio down because we were disturbing the peace, because the radio could be heard across property lines; apparently gunfire being heard across property lines is not disturbing the peace.
Several months later, the game warden showed up at our house, unannounced and uninvited, saying that he was investigating complaints about hunters in the area. I said FINALLY!!! I reiterated all the events and times over the last several years I had called for help to no avail. He said, “So what have you done to stop them?” I said we had put the radio in the window to try to scare the deer. He then handed me a ticket that he had already written up in my name (not my husband’s) for “deterring the natural path of deer while the deer are being hunted on neighboring lands”. Of course, I hired a well-known local attorney to fight it.
In the course of things, we found out that the game warden had joined the hunters (one of whom was a police officer) that had acted illegally toward my property for days, taping our every move. They found nothing illegal about anything that took place on our property, but they complained about boys being too loud there. They complained that I played with my dog on the property. They described a heavy set man making too much noise (no heavy set man lives here). They told a lot of lies to justify their illegal actions. I contacted both an attorney and my state representative but finally I had to give up and I’m literally a prisoner in my own home during hunting season, with no one protecting my civil rights, my right to privacy, my right to peace.
We live in a very corrupt time.
FROM A TEACHER IN MICHIGAN
I read the story about Jan and the hunters. I, too, have a similar problem. I have 10 acres in S.W. Michigan, Barry County. A hunter who has property bordering mine put a tree stand on a high tension power line that also touches my property. His aim would be right at my property. When I caught him and two buddies shooting and gutting a buck on my property, I gave them a trespass warning (my property is posted). His response was to move his tree stand to face my property so the only way he could shoot a deer was right on my property. I contacted DNR, Consumers Power Company, took pictures, etc. to show his illegal hunting and how unsafe my life would be on my own private property. The result: he can have his tree stand facing any way he wants if it is on his private property, and he can file hunter harassment against me if I walk on my private property in front of his tree stand. I was told by the conservation officer that I could not talk, walk, or do any kind of work on my private property during hunting season which is from October 1st to Dec 31st here in Michigan.
I use wood to heat my house so I have been picking up wood, walking my property lines, and doing whatever I want because it is my civil right. I do not talk as that can be construed as obstruction. My case is still under investigation, I have been denied a complaint number, Freedom of Information Act requests for the report, signed statements of witnesses who have lied and said I was on his private property, etc. All this because I told the hunter that he no longer had a right to be on my property for any reason, to gather a dead deer, walk to the road or anything because I could not trust him to abide by the law, and that he actually shot and gutted a buck on my property in my presence.
There should be a landowner harassment law.
Sincerely,
Terri MacKenzie, Michigan
FROM A BROOKLYN, NY, RETIREE, NOW LIVING IN UPSTATE NEW YORK
I am the target of the DEC’s selective enforcement. I have to appear in court for a second time, as I’m being accused of feeding black bear. The DEC officer came onto my property without any warrant or permission.
A week later the officer came back and ticketed me again, this time claiming that he found corn on the property line adjoining with a neighbor who keeps her pet pig in the yard behind her house. I hadn’t even put any corn there. I had seen that neighbor standing in MY yard in the area that he claims to have found the corn, and the neighbor was carrying a shot gun. This occurred 1 1/2 days prior to the DEC officer’s arrival. Last year the court gave me permission to feed birds from bird feeders only. I was told, however, that I couldn’t put any seed on the ground.
The DEC is taking sides against me with the neighbor and fails to realize that keeping a prey animal (a pig) penned up outside, and feeding a pig outside, and keeping pig food around the area is what attracts the bear to the neighbor’s home. I have even heard shots fired from the neighbor’s property. I presume that the neighbor is shooting at the bear. They’re also shooting within a narrow radius of the surrounding homes. The neighbor claims that the bear charged at her. This is unbelievable, as I just have to say BOO and the bears run away. I don’t own any firearms.
Additionally, the neighbors come onto my land with shotguns, and it is highly likely that they placed the corn that the DEC is trying to prosecute me for. When I asked the DEC officer why he thought that it was me and not them that put corn down, he responded, “Oh, come on.”
My home is zoned for keeping livestock, just as the neighbor’s is, although I don’t own any. It seems, however, that I can keep livestock, but can’t feed them. No one has prohibited the neighbor from feeding their pig. I’m clearly being victimized by the DEC. Selective enforcement of absurdity? Can someone help? Can you give me some sound advice? I have no one to turn to.
Aster
ASTER WROTE AGAIN ON 11/10/11
The officer wrote on the deposition that I had been ticketed by his predecessor in 2010 for feeding wildlife. Just so that no one would forget that I already had 2 tickets dismissed last time. And since I have the same judge as I did last year, I’m afraid that I’m not going to get these dismissed so readily. My father says that it looks very bad to be found guilty because if I ever go to court again, no one will ever believe me. I’m sure that no one is going to believe me this time anyway. Why should they believe me if an officer swears that I’m the liar, not him?
A NY man was charged with hunter harassment for using his cell phone within earshot of state land where someone was hunting. The man was found guilty of interfering with the lawful taking of wildlife. The appeal is pending.
KATHY ANDREWS WROTE on 11/12/11
Due to constant harassment by hunters, I moved and rented my house. Now my renters have left because the hunters continued to harass them in hopes of getting to me. They succeeded in pushing them out. This abuse has no end it seems.
This type of abuse is going on daily with people who won’t speak out like you. Thank God for this listserve and the people on it. There needs to be federal legislation passed against hunter harassment like this.