Sunday, December 16, 2007
Hooligan hunters need to be reported
Mark Taylor is outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times.
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It wasn't unusual for Roxie the chocolate lab to wander off and explore the woods.
But she always came back to the house her owners Cara and Dennis McClane rent in the country near Wirtz.
So when Roxie didn't come home on Dec. 3, the McClanes feared the worst and hoped for the best.
They searched for the dog on Dec. 4 and again on Dec. 5.
Dennis finally found her in the woods about a quarter-mile from the house.
She had been shot in the neck, and covered with a piece of sheet metal and an old tire.
Amazingly, she was still alive.
But the wound was so badly infected the McClanes had to have their pet euthanized.
They were distraught, and talking with nearby landowners and neighbors didn't exactly help.
"They said that kind of thing happens all the time in hunting season," Cara McClane said.
Actually, it doesn't happen all the time.
"We don't hear that a lot," said Virginia conservation police officer Sgt. Bryan Young, a supervisor for Bedford, Craig, Franklin and Roanoke counties.
But it happens just enough to create a perception among some that it happens "all the time."
I shouldn't be writing about this, should I?
After all, I'm an obsessed hunter and an unapologetic cheerleader for hunting, which provides recreation, meat, game management and huge economic benefits for communities in Western Virginia.
Why would I want to bring attention to something like this? Something that, while the act of a careless or malicious individual, can't help but reflect poorly on the rest of us who are out there doing things the right way.
Because it's not good enough to say, 'It's just a few bad apples," and then move on.
We need to focus our attention on those bad apples, report them, fine them, humiliate them, saddle them with felony convictions and do our best to make sure people understand they are not hunters.
Maybe what happened with Roxie was a mistake.
Maybe in fading afternoon light a careless hunter thought the dark, four-legged creature was a deer.
Mistakes happen, although rarely.
"I've been doing this more than 10 years and I've never worked a case where a dog ... was mistaken for game," Young said.
It will take an investigation to figure out what really happened. The McClanes are hoping to get things rolling by offering a $300 reward for information that leads to the identification of the shooter.
If it wasn't a mistake, why would someone want to shoot a dog?
In the old days there used to be a saying that if you saw a dog chasing a deer, you should let the deer go and shoot the dog.
I've never actually heard of anyone doing that, but I suppose there are some out there who still cling to that misguided notion, and maybe would follow through on it.
But maybe this wasn't about hunting at all. Maybe this was someone -- maybe a hunter, maybe not -- just being mean.
That's almost certainly what was going on in another recent situation that hit close to home for me.
A few weeks ago I got an e-mail from my friend Marie Levine, whose family graciously allows me to hunt on their cattle ranch near Stewartsville.
Marie was livid.
Someone had shot one of their cows.
How do you mistake a cow standing in the middle of a pasture for a deer?
You don't.
This was the work of a piece of scum, or probably more than one, who did this for kicks.
It brought back memories of a case when four of my high school classmates thought it would be funny to shoot a horse.
Fortunately, they felt compelled to brag.
Fortunately, someone squealed.
And that's what I hope happens here.
You know Roxie's shooter isn't the only one who knows what happened. The same goes for the case involving my friend's cow.
Anyone with information about the cases, or any other wildlife crime, needs to call (800) 237-5712 or e-mail wildcrime@dgif.virginia.gov with the tip.
Tipsters can remain completely anonymous.
Hunters have long battled stereotyping as a bunch of careless hooligans. When cases such as these occur during hunting season, it doesn't help.
But the people who pull stunts like this aren't hunters.
They are criminals.
And they need to be treated as such.
