Poaching has been making a lot of news lately and I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.
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Three men from St. Paul, Minn., were charged when authorities caught them with 17 poached deer, a bear and a walleye. Timothy Heidenreich, Terry Cotton and Shane Rylander have been charged with theft for having possession of the animals, all of which were mounted and considered to be worth thousands of dollars.
Extra stupidity points: The three men weren’t charged with poaching because what they did was steal 17 deer heads, one bear and a walleye that had already been poached and mounted. The trio broke into a trailer owned by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources that houses part of the MDNR’s “Wall of Shame,” an exhibit of animals that have been killed or caught illegally.
It’s believed to be one of the few cases in the U.S. where animals have been poached twice.
Dumber-than-a-bag-of -hair bonus: The only reason they were caught is one of the men, in court on another charge, was seen stealing a tomato from the courthouse cafeteria and presented the officer questioning him with a fake ID … which led to more charges, which led them to his house, where the animals were found.
Then there were the two teenagers who shot an elk in Anderson County.
They shot a 5 x 5 elk 10 times with a .22 rifle and, since they are under 18, their names have not been released. The pair face a juvenile court date.
Extra stupidity points: They got caught because they were talking about what they did, and at least one of the people they told talked a little more and TWRA got wind of it.
Suggestion for the next Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission meeting: Why not start posting the pictures of Tennessee’s convicted poachers on the TWRA website? .