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Department of Environmental Conservation Environmental Conservation Officer Maxwell Nicols reported that on the evening of April 25, he received a tip about a Facebook post showing multiple turkeys killed prior to the season opener with a subject claiming to have harvested the birds during the youth hunt weekend.
According to ECO Nicols, he located the photographer at his home, and after a conversation, the man admitted to harvesting three of the birds. When asked where the meat from the birds was, the man reportedly hung his head and looked into his kitchen, where a family member was cooking dinner. Upon further investigation, the officer determined that the subject had prior convictions barring him from possessing any firearms.
The defendant was charged with criminal possession of a weapon, taking turkeys during the closed season, and hunting turkey without turkey hunting privileges. All charges are returnable to Essex Town Court. The shotgun and remaining turkey meat were seized as evidence, and ECO Nicols said the dinner was allowed to proceed as planned.
The investigation continues into who took a fourth turkey.
Photo from a Facebook post showing the illegally hunted turkeys.
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Couldn’t have been a very enjoyable meal.
But a meal none the less.
Kinda tasted like…
… crow ?
Makes one wonder how many poachers are members of the hunting community. Far too many “incidents”.
I hope they throw the book at that
Illegal turkey hunter!
“The shotgun and remaining turkey meat were seized as evidence…”
Was the shotgun the only firearm found in his possession? Are guns banned from the household or just the individual? What happens when one family member is not allowed to have weapons, but other family members are not restricted? Just curious.
Guns are only banned for the individual
If a resident of a household is not allowed to possess a firearm due to be a convicted felon or domestic violence conviction or not suitable to possess the firearm(s) need to be safely secured via a gun lock, gun safe,etc. NIce Work by the ECO. The incident may seem trivial to a non-hunter but it is good to see such follow-up on part of the DEC. Hopefully the fines will be substantial
Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t take their dinner right out from under them.
“The peasants will follow the dictates of the King! Or the alphabet people will come, seize the king’s stuff and give you tickets”.
This guy should do some jail time and a lot of community service.
Jail time??? For what, acquiring dinner for his family? Doing it on the wrong date? Without government permission? Who did he hurt? Who has a claim of harm against this man?
I think the fact that I pay $72 a year for a hunting license and don’t take game out of season I have a claim of harm against him. Also the fact that he is not permitted to possess a firearm and was in possession of one the state has a claim against him. He was not simply trying to feed his family he was illegally taking game out of season. There are limits on the amount of turkey that can be taken per hunter per season for a reason.
Todd Says:
“I think the fact that I pay $72 a year for a hunting license and don’t take game out of season I have a claim of harm against him.”
Ok then, put some skin in the game and go and file a verified complaint or a claim against him. Then show up in court and prosecute your case against him to recover damages.
He wasn’t allowed to have firearms, yet he went out and poached anyway with a shotgun. So it wasn’t his first offense, otherwise he wouldn’t have had a firearm restriction. You don’t have to harm someone to break the law. What punishment he receives is up to the court.
“You don’t have to harm someone to break the law.” Are you kidding me? Have you ever read any part of the constitution before?
If I walked up to you in the street and told you I didn’t like the shirt you were wearing, and now you owe me money, would you give it to me? Or would you tell me to take a walk?
Imagine this; you own a business, the business you had been running is growing and getting to be too much to handle. To ease your load, you hire an office manager to take care of administrative duties so that you can focus on the actual work, whatever that may be. Then imagine your office manager tells you that you are in trouble and owe him/her extra money, because he/she doesn’t like the curtains you hung in your office. They don’t match the company theme he/she laid out. Maybe he/she even tells you that you’re fired, from your own company… You’d tell him/her they’re nuts, right? The federal & state government is our office manager, an employee, not a monarchy. They can’t bring action against us for having violated the company rules, that we set out for them, not us.
If this man didn’t have a hunting license, he isn’t subject to the terms of that license/contract. i.e. the statutory regulations, not laws.
So if this person were cutting and stealing trees from public land to build a house, that would be OK? If he diverted a public stream to run a personal mill – no problem? These are game birds, not vermin he killed. Unless they were captive birds he raised and released on his own property, they are not his birds to kill. He is stealing game from the taxpayers (not the Crown), pure and simple. He was poaching with a firearm he wasn’t allowed to have. He will have his day in court to explain himself. If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.
The prisons are full of people who were charged with simple possession of drugs thanks to the “War on Drugs”. How did they harm anyone? So is jail time justified in this case? Not up to us. That will boil down to the verdict and sentencing. In this case, much will depend on why he was not allowed to have firearms.
“If I walked up to you in the street and told you I didn’t like the shirt you were wearing, and now you owe me money, would you give it to me? Or would you tell me to take a walk?”
???
“The federal & state government is our office manager, an employee, not a monarchy.They can’t bring action against us for having violated the company rules, that we set out for them, not us.”
They are our elected officials that we give the power to enable legislation. That legislation is considered law. Break the law and suffer the consequences. That is how this society works – a set of rules (laws) we impose on ourselves. One would need to search long and hard to find a society that doesn’t have them.
“If this man didn’t have a hunting license, he isn’t subject to the terms of that license/contract. i.e. the statutory regulations, not laws.”
Poaching with a firearm he was not allowed to have? I guess the judge will help him understand.
No, the judge will “help” him surrender his rights without knowing it, deny him due process of law, deprive him of his unalienable rights while committing every violation of his oath of office to “serve” the people imaginable.
You have no understanding of law at all. We don’t give elected officials “power”, we give them our consent, to administer the public affairs, strictly within very specific & well defined restraints & never outside them. Never ever standing over us in the hierarchy.
We have become definitively a nation of sheep. Sheep that will fight vehemently for their masters right to line them up for slaughter. The Orwellian nightmare is here.
SCOTUS heard oral arguments on January 8, 2019 regarding subsistence hunting in Herrera v. Wyoming. Although this case may turn on treaty rights, it shall surely illustrate the mess of law vs ethics and the obvious duality of so called laws. Laws that apply to ‘citizens’ and laws that have no jurisdiction whatsoever.
https://www.supremecourt.gov/ … and use the calendar widget to navigate – cases appear when a date is selected. Happy reading.
adkDreamer- I think Herrara has more to do with the treaty rights granted to the Crowe tribe when their land was taken. Crowe members were given the right to continue subsistence hunting as long as game existed on those lands. The case in point here is not that. It is hard to argue with Jefferson Voltaire as he is obviously a Sovereign Citizen so the laws that most of us follow don’t pertain to him
I make no such assumptions and argue with no one. My comment stands alone as reference to an interesting case regarding hunting that is relevant and current.
I tend to agree with you. I’ve known a number of old poachers (my late beloved Father having been one of them) and they were all woodsmen who enjoyed huntin’, fishin’ and loved being out in the woods. They, like Jed Clampett, were happy “rustlin’ up some food.” They always paid for hunting and fishing licenses, but if they saw a big buck or a nice trout the day before or after season, they went for it, keeping an eye out for the game warden. Unless this man was hunting to sell turkeys, rather than putting them in his family’s freezer, he certainly does not deserve jail time. Community service might be helping to raise and release the turkey poults the DEC sends out each year.
When so many of our government leaders (like DJT) are thieves and criminals, why prosecute this guy?
Are you aware of the recent history regarding specifically turkey’s in this State? You do realize Turkey’s were completely extepated from the entire state for over 100 years largely due to “destruction of forest by excessive logging
and intensive farming, coupled with unrestricted personal subsistence and market hunting by
early settlers.”
https://www.dec.ny.gov/animals/7062.html
The consequences of poaching are numerous and severe as history has repeatedly shown us. Thankfully, however, turkey’s have made an absolutley remarkable comeback in this State, in part due to the hard work and research of a great number of people, despite the actions of the people you described.
Ryan Finnigan,
As you said, “market hunting”… A completely regulable, commercial activity. A very, very different thing than subsistence hunting, with or without someone else’s permission.
It wasn’t hunting, it was poaching. Subsistence poaching? Get real. If he was subsistence poaching he would have several deer hanging out back or in the freezer as well. Not a lot of meat on a wild turkey. He likely wouldn’t post subsistence kills to Facebook. If one can afford access to the internet, I doubt they are starving. Food Stamps took the place of subsistence poaching decades ago.
No censure of legislator for racist post – it’s sad and frightening that a post like that is deemed ok!
Wendy Taylor I think you posted on the wrong story or I totally missed something when I read it
What post are you referring to?
https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/38612/20190507/st-lawrence-county-legislator-not-asked-to-resign-during-board-meeting
If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck. If he is a thief, then he is a thief. Oh, and a FELON.
Suzanne says: “Unless this man was hunting to sell turkeys, rather than putting them in his family’s freezer, he certainly does not deserve jail time.”
I’m not suggesting anybody serve jail time for poaching turkeys, but at the very least he was hunting out of season and this is reason enough to penalize and a sizable fine might be a proper course. I say sizable so as to discourage from repeating the same. Hunting laws are for a reason. Just imagine if everybody who wanted to save a few dollars on buying meat took to the woods to shoot game instead! There’d be no game left in a rather short period of time.