March 25, 2016
From CourierJournal.net
Of nine people checked by Alabama Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries’
enforcement personnel during an investigation in Montgomery County, only one had a valid hunting license.
On January 17, 2016, Conservation Enforcement Officer’s Vance Wood and Kirk Smith arrested a non-resident hunter for failure to wear hunter orange and hunting over bait. The hunter told Wood and Smith about eight other non-resident hunters on the property. Because of the number of hunters involved and the size of the hunting area, Wood called in Senior CEO Brad Gavins, who responded with his tracking K-9, Holyfield.
The remaining eight hunters were tracked to their stands and subsequently arrested for multiple hunting violations. The citations included eight for hunting without a non-resident all-game license, nine for hunting over bait (corn), eight for failure to wear hunter orange and eight for failure to possess or maintain a buck harvest record.
When the accused in this case entered guilty pleas last month in Montgomery County District Court, the judge handed out more than $7,500 in fines.
Kevin Dodd, Enforcement Chief with Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries), has little sympathy for anyone caught hunting or fishing without a license. “We’re not arresting people who are hungry,” he said. “They’re not doing it because they’re starving. They do it for recreation. They enjoy the activity.”