As a hunter and outdoor enthusiast, I have a negative opinion of poachers.
I can only imagine the level of frustration experienced by producers who must regularly contend with land trespassers. They have my sincere sympathy.
It is awkward that many hunting seasons coincide with harvest. Farmers are busy harvesting for long hours and ranchers are tending their livestock. No one has the time to deal with criminals on their land.
Unfortunately, law enforcement is spread thin over large geographic areas, and the perpetrators are often gone by the time a crime is reported and an officer is able to respond.
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Friends of mine live on an acreage near MacDowall, Sask., and poachers recently dumped the carcass of a young moose on their land. The moose was killed illegally, field dressed and its untagged remains dumped. Sadly, this is a fairly common story when it comes to honest landowners versus senseless poachers.
The situation raises the question of what is the best course of action for acreage owners and producers to take when it comes to criminals on their land. Anger in the moment can lead someone to take the wrong course of action, which could lead to an even worse state of affairs.
Fences and signs keep out only the honest crooks. Such things will not deter a dedicated poacher.
However, clearly posted signs and possibly fences seem to be important in building a legal case against the offenders.
When you see someone trespassing or poaching on your land, try to avoid the natural urge to confront them. Your best weapon in today’s world is gathering clear evidence and immediately providing it to law enforcement.
A camera is your best friend, if you or your loved ones are not being directly threatened.
From a safe distance, record or photograph the group of offenders, their faces, any vehicles involved and licence plates. A camera with a long lens keeps you at an even safer distance.
Avoid confrontation. Do not stick around any longer than needed to take enough incriminating photographs to clearly illustrate to a neutral party what was happening.
A hunting trail camera is another type of camera you may want to consider owning.
Conceal them in areas that you suspect are hot spots for trouble. They make perfect silent witnesses as they monitor the area day and night. Trail cameras can record thousands of photographs and run for months on inexpensive batteries. Just make sure they are well concealed from trespassers.
Poaching and trespassing have been problems around the world for a long time, but it is not an issue we can simply ignore. Honest folks must safely keep up the pressure on these criminals.
Try to leave confronting the criminals to law enforcement, but let’s do our part in providing our officers with all the right information so that their chances of success are much better.
The photo with this article is from one of my Bushnell trail cameras. It is a coyote triggered by the camera motion sensor.
Kim Quintin is a Saskatoon outdoor enthusiast and knife maker. He can be reached for column content suggestions at kim.quintin@producer.com.
