Email this article

On The Track of An Embarrassment

By Jan Nesset

Found in: | Hunting |

It was the first time a wildlife officer had come to my home on official business. I opened the door thinking it was a neighbor or solicitor, but it was the officer I spoke to on Monday, just three days past. I had the good fortune of dropping a cow elk that morning, and I was preparing to hike up for another load of her precious meat when the officer pulled over to check my hunting license.

It was a pleasant encounter in the field, but here at my home, near supper time, something serious was up. The officer asked to see the meat from the elk. There was, she said, a problem with a cow elk that had been killed in the area I had hunted.

Apparently, I was a suspect because she knew my success was with a cow. I said that I had taken the meat to a processor - news which appeared to offer her some relief. Her investigation was to include a stop at the meat processor, which was, as I was about to find out, no place a suspect would take clues to this particular "problem."

I asked whether she could apprise me of the problem. She obliged, saying that a hunter had killed a cow and taken only the backstraps from the carcass. Backstraps, or loins, are choice cuts of meat that run along the sides of the spine of an animal, just a small percentage of the edible flesh.

I bristled. The news was enough to lose sleep over. I expressed this along with hope that she caught the culprit soon. I also offered to hike her up to the carcass of my elk, in case she held any doubts about my thoroughness, but she declined. I was thorough.

I, along with the preponderance of hunters, hunt for both sport and to fill the freezer. I have a family to feed and am appreciative of the privilege to feed it wild game. But at the margin of the hunting population is that despicable embarrassment whose selfish, unethical desires hold little compassion or respect for either wild land or its animals.

I thanked the officer for her diligence. We need her and her kind. For her to be sleuthing after work hours indicates that she is on the right side; a vigilant defender of wildlife and the hunting heritage (yes, they go together). She'll need some help catching the culprit, and the others who follow.

When you come across any information that can put a stop to poaching, trespassing, off-road abuse, etc., or wasting the life of an animal for a pan of its choice cuts, step lively and speak proudly(*).

*POACHING TIP LINE (877) 265-6648