October 28, 2024 • 26 mins
This week Cal talks about deer and calcium, poaching spree, and no that buck won't pay your mortgage, babe.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Klag Here's
cal Wildlife officials in Hollywood, California are still searching for
a deer that was captured on video with what looks
like a leg bone lodged in its mouth. The deer
(00:30):
was spotted in the Hollywood Hills hiking area last week.
Witnesses say the bone makes it difficult for the deer
to eat, and it's easy to see why. In the video.
It looks exactly like the deer is munching on a
leg bone from a large animal, except the bone appears
to be stuck. No one knows exactly how it happened,
and a local biologist says it's the strangest thing he's
ever seen. If this had happened in Michigan or Tennessee,
(00:53):
social media users would have smashed that like button and
gone on with their day. But this isn't Michigan or
see this is Hollywood. Yeah, jac its China Town. Subsequent
reporting revealed that residents had previously named this mule deer
dough Floppi, and park officials closed the hiking trails to
try to find and save this unfortunate animal. Local media
(01:16):
dispatched a helicopter to search the area, and as of
this recording, the search is ongoing. That's one expensive deer.
How a legbone could get stuck in a deer's mouth
without choking to death is a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes,
But since Old Sherlock isn't around, we reached out to
Old Gim Heffelfinger, who's a biologist with the Arizona Game
(01:38):
and Fish Department and a certified deer expert. Here's what
Jim said, quote, deer chew on bones all the time,
probably for calcium. At a deer check station, I once
dislodged a deer ankle bone that was stuck between the
cheek and gums. The teeth had worn grooves in the
bone because it had been stuck in the cheek for
so long, and as the animal chewed on food, it
(02:00):
wore those grooves into the bone. So there you go,
mystery solved. The deer was looking for a little calcium
and managed to get the bone stuck, probably between its
teeth and gums. And you know, I'm sure you've been there.
Get something abnormally large stuck between your teeth. But you know,
we got the use of those opposable thumbs man. And
(02:20):
here's another little tidbit as we look forward to Halloween.
About a decade ago, researchers in Texas had what's called
a corpse farm where they lay out human remains and
study the rate of decomposition. That sounds gruesome and it is,
but also pretty cool that info the different ways a
body can be laid out on top of the ground
(02:40):
or partially buried or fully buried can be very valuable
for investigators when they find a body in the woods. Anyway,
they had trail cam set up and researchers were shocked
to see a dough white tailed deer munching on a
human rib bone and holding it in its mouth quote
like a cigar. As Jim says, it was just trying
to get some calcium in diet. But the photo call
(03:01):
is quite astir when it rocketed around the internet in
twenty seventeen. And let's be honest, for all you deer
hunters out there, there's some poetic justice in the thought
that your remains might eventually become a multiviamin for a
mewle or white tail. This week, We've got the crime desk, listener, mail,
(03:24):
culinary corner, and so much more. But first I'm going
to tell you about my week. And my week, you know,
was pretty darn good until it wasn't. If you've been
checking in on the old cal Instagram feed, you'll know
already that Snort got some old barbed wire run through
your chest. Later open fileted her chest. As you could say,
(03:44):
this was our second pheasant outing of the season. All told,
we got about four hours of hunting in for the
whole season. She's like a high performance vehicle or a
helicopter something like. You know, when she runs, she runs hot,
and that run time will cost you. Now, even though
I travel with a huge trauma kit for just these
(04:05):
sorts of occasions, the cut was large enough and oblong
enough to where I couldn't get the skin to patch
up using my standard go to patch it all stuff,
which is EMTJL like a liquid suture, so I was
only able to clean and disinfect the wound in the
field and patch her up for travel. It was also Sunday,
and I didn't think an emergency vet visit was needed, so,
(04:27):
of course, when we got to the vet Monday morning,
we had a choice to make best way and the
next best way. Best way was to cut off the
flap of skin and suture or staple fresh skin to
fresh skin, but that would also require putting her under,
which just makes me extremely uncomfortable, especially in non emergency situations.
(04:49):
So we went with the next best way, which was
to stapler up as is and hope for the best.
Snort is a very patient patient at this point. She's
been doctor so much so this Doggie Doc was actually
able to trim some of the hardened flesh on the
wound a little bit, got it to bleed, which made
it closer to putting fresh flesh against fresh flesh, and
(05:13):
that is going to increase our odds of meat bonding
back together. Also lowered the vet bill, and we still
have a happy dog. I'm letting the wound breathe during
the day and then I'm rubbing it down with a
salve called helo It, which is a plant extract based
antibacterial anti fungal. It's worked great on her and myself
in speeding up the wound healing process. Doggie Doc says,
(05:37):
two weeks and a little luck, we'll be back at it.
So I'll put the backpack back on, blow the dust
off the old rifle. See if I can smack an
elk until that little girl gets back up, and run on.
Moving on to an unfortunately extensive edition of the crime Desk,
(05:59):
Four people in wiscon Center being charged with illegally killing
over one hundred white tail deer, targeting deer with their car,
and torturing them. The gruesome case, which you can read
more about over at the meeater dot com, involved three
teenage boys and one adult woman. The sixteen year old
kids would allegedly drive around at night and shoot deer
from the car window with a rifle. They left most
(06:20):
to rot, but they would occasionally cut the head off
a buck and take it home. But what's getting the
most attention are two accounts of what amounts to deer torture.
In one incident, described in a press release from the
Fondilac County Sheriff's Office, the juveniles wounded a deer so
badly with their car that they were able to load
it into the trunk alive. They recorded video and took
(06:41):
selfies with the deer and took it to various locations
while it suffered in the trunk. One of the videos
showed the suspects holding the deer, still alive but clearly suffering,
while walking around the inside of their home. The sheriff
notes the deer eventually died while in their captivity hours
after being struck with the vehicle. In another incident, the
suspects captured a still alive fawn, drove it around, and
(07:03):
took it back home. They later released it back into
the wild, but it's unclear what had happened to it.
There's still a bunch of questions to be answered here.
It's unclear what exactly the relationship is between the three
teens and thirty six year old woman. She obviously wasn't
giving sage advice as the older one in the group,
and the prosecutors haven't said who is being charged with what. However,
(07:25):
the sheriff did provide a list of potential crimes, which
include mistreating animals, shooting an animal without a reasonable expectation
of harvesting it, and obstructing a game warden. We'll keep
you in the loop as this case progresses. In a
surprising turn of events, an Ohio hunter who was accused
of poaching one of the biggest bucks in state history
(07:47):
has pled guilty to fourteen charges. CJ. Alexander has been
in the spotlight since December of last year, when Outdoor
Life shared his story of killing a two hundred inch
buck in Clinton County. He claimed to have an aerow
the giant with a crossbow while hunting his sister's nine
acre property, but game wardens launched an investigation and confiscated
(08:07):
the record setting rack. He was charged with twenty three
crimes back in June, but always maintained his innocence until
last week. His change of heart is probably due to
the damning cell phone evidence that investigators have since released.
Text messages indicate he was knowingly hunting a neighboring property
without permission, which is where he ended up killing the buck.
(08:28):
Then he and his buddies moved the animal to his
sister's property and staged it to look like he'd killed
it there. Even worse for Alexander's reputation is that he
did it all for money. Three weeks before he killed
the buck, he texted his fiance quote, I'm going to
get offered stupid money for this deerhead babe, like buying
a house type money. This deer is gonna make us money.
(08:50):
The scheme almost worked, too. He had reportedly sold the
antlers to an antler buyer and the exclusive rights to
his story to a hunting magazine. He had also signed
a promotional deal with the hunting company before his story
started to unravel. Tell you what gang intersection a cash
and wildlife rarely ends with good things happening. The start
(09:13):
of the History Channel show Swamp People found himself down
to Bayou without a paddle last week after being cited
for failing to properly tag an alligator. Troy Landry, who
the History Channel says is known as the King of
the Swamp, got caught by Louisiana game wardens for using
the wrong tag on a gator. Someone had sent in
a tip about unauthorized gator lines, so wardens staked out
(09:34):
the area for six hours. They observed Landry and a
few others harvesting an alligator, so they stopped to ask questions.
Turns out, Landry did have permission to hunt gators on
that property, but his tag was only good in a
different parish. Landry at first denied taking an alligator on
the property, but eventually confessed when game wardens explained that
they'd been watching him the whole time. Maximum penalty for
(09:57):
the ticket is one hundred and twenty days in prison
and a nine hundred and fifty dollars fine. Listener Cody
Hunter sent me a wild crime story from his neck
of the woods in Manitoba, Canada. Most poachers are content
to hunt on a property without permission, but it takes
real audacity to offer guided hunts on a property you
don't have permission on yourself. That's apparently what happened in
(10:18):
Western Manitoba, where a fifty two year old man is
being accused of advertising and executing guided bison hunts on
a property that didn't belong to him. The Royal Canadian
Mounted Police say a social media post was advertising bison
hunts for only one thousand dollars per animal, and at
least three hunters responded to the offer. Problem was, the
actual owners of that farm had trail cameras all over
(10:41):
the property and so they were immediately aware that something
seriously shady was going down. When they went out to
visit one of their pastures. They also noticed that the
locks and all their gates had been changed. RCMP investigators
determined that the four people drove in with the pickup
truck and off road vehicles shot the bison and removed them.
Cody Hunt tells me this story was all over social
(11:01):
media up there, and the suspect has since turned himself in.
The Hunters claimed to not know what the heck was happening,
and I haven't seen any reports of additional charges. Last
one from the crime desk anyway, all the way back
in episode two fifteen, I told you about a conservation
easement scheme that defrauded American taxpayers out of billions of dollars. Basically,
(11:23):
fraudsters would bundle up a bunch of land illegally inflate
its value, and then sell conservation easements on those properties
to give investors a massive tax break. A land appraiser
pled guilty in June of last year, and this week
the IRS announced that two accountants had been sentenced to
twenty months in prison. Victor Smith and William Tomasello both
sold these syndicated conservation easements as tax shelters to wealthy clients,
(11:47):
knowing that they quote lacked economic substance. They knew that
their wealthy clients participated in these sham investments only to
obtain a tax deduction and received only a tax benefit
for their participation in the tax shelters. Smith sold fourteen
million dollars in false tax deductions, causing a tax loss
to the irs of about four point eight million dollars.
(12:07):
Tomasello sold approximately eight and a half million dollars in
false deductions, causing a tax loss of about two point
three million we Ethical hunters and anglers often complain that
poachers don't get a harsh enough sentence, but I think
you'll agree that these fellows are getting everything that they deserve.
Along with serving nearly two years in prison, Smith will
be paying over four point eight million dollars in restitution,
(12:28):
while Tomasello will pay over two point three million dollars.
If wildlife poachers were facing that kind of penalty, I
bet the crime desk segment would be a whole lot shorter,
and I'm glad to see investigators crack down on these schemes.
Conservation easements are one of the most effective ways to
encourage private land conservation. In my own home state of Montana,
(12:49):
there's a bunch of folks who are in charge that
have a lot of bones to pick with permanent conservation easements,
even though they do a hell of a lot of
good and it's a right that you can extra size
as a private property owner. I'd like to think that
fraudulent activity here is a big reason why these folks
don't like a good conservation Easema. Moving on to the
(13:13):
cooking desk, the CDC reported last week that ten people
attending the same party likely contracted tricknosis by eating undercooked
bear meat. Don't worry, Steven Ronello was with us in Louisiana.
The agency surveyed thirty four attendees of the gathering in
western North Carolina, and twenty two reported having eaten the meat.
(13:35):
Of those twenty two, ten reported symptoms consistent with tricknosis infection.
Nine patients had facial swelling, six had myalgia, and four
had documented fevers. This story got some attention in the media,
since it's always fun to put the word outbreak in
a headline. And I bet a lot of people don't
even realize that hunters eat bear meat, But most bear
(13:55):
hunters are aware that bears often carry the round worm
larvae that causes trickonosis and meat should be cooked to
at least one hundred and sixty five degrees to kill
the little buggers. It's also worth noting that the folks
who were infected didn't seem all that concerned. The CDC
reports that a majority of the patients took the parasite
medication I'll bend a zol, but several patients said they
(14:15):
weren't willing to spend one hundred dollars per dose. Others
delayed the taking of the medication. Only five of them
were actually tested for trick, and those tests came back negative.
The CDC explains that reliable diagnosis can offer require additional
testing because you know, the little roundworm larvae are multiplying
inside of you. But none of the patients returned to
(14:36):
be tested again. Sounds like their symptoms had resolved enough
that they didn't care about confirming their diagnosis. The incubation
period in these cases was between seven and twenty six
days from the consumption of the meat to the onset
of the symptoms. That means if you're a bear hunter
and ever experienced strange flu like symptoms facial swelling, sore
on us, we have to think back over three weeks
(14:58):
to determine if undercook bear meat is the culprit. Mild
cases of trick can resolve on their own, but several
cases can result in death if not treated. Since you
don't know what you have, you should always head to
the hospital to get yourself some anti parasitic medication if
you suspect you have the trick. Moving on to the
Mountain Lion Desk. By this point you might be tired
(15:21):
of hearing about the proposed mount Lion hunting band in Colorado,
but listener Ross mcgree wrote in with a very interesting development.
Game wardens and biologists for state agencies are often prohibited
from taking a position on contentious wildlife issues, especially when
it comes to bills and ballad initiatives. I know this
is frustrating for many of them, since they have strong
and well informed opinions that they can't share in public. Instead,
(15:45):
they use non work emails and write in here to
ask cal at the Meat Eater dot com, and we
love you for it. We've seen the same neutral stance
from many Colorado parks and wildlife employees about this Mounta
Lion ballad initiative, but Ross sent me a resolution passed
by the Colorado Wildlife Employees Protective Association. The CWEPA represents
(16:06):
over two hundred wildlife officers biologists, wildlife technicians, aquatic staff,
administrative assistance, and education and outreach personnel. The resolution doesn't
mention mount lion hunting specifically, but the timing and content
make their position clear enough. It affirms that quote all
wildlife in Colorado is best protected, enhanced, and managed by
(16:27):
the science based wildlife management professionals employed by the State
of Colorado. It also recognizes the contribution and role of
hunting and fishing as primary methods of wildlife management. That's
an obvious knock on the ballot box biology. Currently before
Colorado voters. Prop One twenty seven would ban mount lion
hunting in the state, even though the lion population is
(16:48):
healthy and sanctioned by the State of Colorado. It would
put wildlife management decisions in the hands of the general public,
many of whom are completely disconnected from their food but
can be easily swayed by cute cougars on billboards to
focus on other people and what those people do in
a law abiding, in legal way, instead of on themselves
(17:10):
and their own problems. This resolution by the CWEPA speaks
directly to that problem, and I hope it will have
some sway with Colorado voters. Unfortunately, not all members of
Colorado's wildlife management community are on the same page. Richard Reading,
the current vice chair of the Colorado Wildlife Commission, penned
an op ed and a local paper arguing that mountain
lion hunting methods violate the principles of the North American
(17:33):
model of wildlife conservation. His stance was echoed in another
op ed by current commissioners Jack Murphy and Jessica Blue,
both were appointed recently by Governor Jared Polis and confirmed
by the state Senate despite strong opposition from the hunting community.
It is illegal for Colorado Wildlife Commissioners to take a
stance on ballot measures unless the statements include language about
(17:54):
not representing the views of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. One
of the op eds initially failed to include the disclaimer,
but it was later added. Others say that the op
ed for Murphy and Blue still violated a Colorado law
that prohibits commissioners from discussing policy issues outside of a
public forum. It would have been tough for these two
to write a joint op ed without talking through the issue,
(18:15):
which may run them a foul of Colorado's open meeting law.
The early voting period in Colorado began October twenty one,
so be sure to get down to your local polling
place and cast your no vote against Prop One twenty seven.
Moving on to the economics desk, a new report from
hunter advocacy group Sportsmen's Alliance indicates that hunters and sports
(18:37):
shooters have an even greater economic impact than previously thought.
The report also breaks the data down into state and
local levels, so you can actually see how much hunting
and sport shooting impact your congressional voting district. I won't
get into all the details, but here are the top
line numbers. Taken together, hunting in shooting sports generated one
(18:57):
hundred and six point two billion dollars in retail sales
and contributed one hundred and thirty three billion dollars to
economic growth in twenty twenty two. The industries support more
than one point three million jobs that create in excess
of eighty point five billion dollars in wages and income.
In turn, that economic stimulus generated two hundred and fifty
(19:18):
one billion dollars in economic activity through the multiplier effect.
The numbers are also pretty impressive if we compare the
economic impact of hunting to other economic factors. Hunting generates
about forty five point two billion dollars per year, which,
according to the Sportsman's Alliance, is higher than the gross
domestic product of one hundred and twenty one countries. There
(19:38):
are one hundred and ninety five countries in the world,
so that sounds pretty good. That's also more annual revenue
than Nationwide Insurance, United Airlines, and Tyson Foods. It's ten
times more than the revenue of the top ten most
valuable NFL teams combined, and equal to the combined system
wide sales of both Starbucks and McDonald's. Hunting also supports
(19:59):
over five one hundred and forty thousand jobs, which is
more than any US company except Walmart and Amazon. It's
interesting to put these numbers in context, but it makes
an important point. Limiting hunting and sports shooting opportunities is
a bit like forcing Starbucks locations to close or NFL
teams to shut down. It harms a major driver of
the US economy, So legislators and policymakers should really think
(20:22):
twice before, say a banning mountain lion hunting in Colorado, which,
just to harp on this more, Gang Prop one twenty
seven is literally an exercise in people saying I don't
like what you do, so you can't do it. There's
no scientific basis for it. It's ridiculousness on the highest scale.
(20:44):
I just want you to think about all the things
that you do or your neighbor does, as nitpicky as
it may be, and then you create a law that
says they can't do that. It's insanity. Moving on to
the mailbag, a list if 're in the proprietary of
elevation angling and Gunnison Colorado wrote in with a thoughtful
(21:04):
take on the robopants issue we covered a few episodes ago,
and here's what John Kessler thinks about electronically assisted to
hiking bridges and other kinds of tech that make it
easier to get out into the woods. Personally, I think
it's too much of an advantage and just bloody expensive
to boot. I'm not immune to the new technology, as
I lean really hard on my on ex subscription. Now
(21:24):
for the crux of the issue. Do I like the
long range capable scopes, robotic pants that make hiking easier,
or sonar that's practically a camera. No? Do I feel
I should advocate for their removal? From the modern hunting
and fishing scene. Also know, with a decrease in hunter recruitment,
I feel it necessary to keep the older age class
in the game as long as possible, if only for
(21:46):
the money they contribute to conservation. Is that an odd
take on the issue? Hey, thanks for righting man well Rich, No,
that is not an odd take on the issue. I
will remind you, however, that there's a sizable portion of
our hunting and angling communities that buy licenses and tags
every year and never go hunting, and that money still counts.
(22:10):
I fully intend to do that in my older age provided,
you know, social security is still a thing when I
got to hang things up. You know, the efficacy of
emerging technologies is something that we've struggled with forever as
a hunting community and state regulatory framework. It's going to
be a moving target forever. We just can't get over
(22:33):
the line, right, Like, we can't make things so darn
easy that there's a noticeable impact on game populations. You know,
hunting is not hunting if it's a foregone conclusion, that's harvesting.
That can be wildlife for game management. But I'm in
it for the hunting. The arms race within muzzleloaders is
(22:56):
a great example. When muzzleloaders seasons were first introduced, it
was generally accepted that the efficacy of that weapon was
such that you could provide a lot of opportunity with
the knowledge that success rates were going to be so
low that it wouldn't have that much of an impact
(23:17):
on the wildlife. Agencies could make some money. But then
you saw folks chasing the odds of that high opportunity hunt,
meaning that let's say you're in a point system state,
if it took ten points to get a rifle tag,
it only took five points or three points to get
a muzzleoader tag, but they wanted the success rate of
(23:41):
the rifle tag. They wanted to have ten point success
for three point draws. And so all of the sudden,
there's this shift from harvest numbers being at an acceptable level,
meaning that when you added up your archery take, your
rifle take, and then your muzzleloader take, you were still
(24:02):
maintaining your objectives for elk or deer or whatever it is.
But then all of a sudden, your muzzleoader gets way skewed,
and then that affects your rifle, and that affects your
archery because all of a sudden, everybody's got a muscleoader
and a projectile that's super accurate at five hundred yards
when the whole system was set up around one hundred
(24:22):
yards or less. Let's just say that's why it's always
going to be a moving target. Everybody's going to try
to improve gear wise, and ideally your skills improved too. Right,
I think it is still real and likely that your
hunters that spend the most time in the field are
likely the most successful hunters and therefore take the most
(24:44):
amount of game. One of the biggest misconceptions with non hunters,
right is that every license tag issued represents a dead animal.
Every time a hunter goes out in the field, that's
a dead animal. The reality is that's an opportunity. That's
what the system's based on on. Everybody's heard me cry
like a mashed cat over eating the mule deer tag
in Wyoming this year. That's what I signed up for,
(25:07):
the opportunity to chase mule deer, not a dead mule deer,
And that's like the target that we're really chasing when
we talk about wildlife management, and in order also to
keep that in check. We need to also take advantage
of the opportunities that result in dead animals a lot
of the time, which would be like those white tailed
(25:28):
dough harvests. Didn't think i'd get that in there, digit
doug during That's all I got for you this week.
Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write into
askcl that's Ascal at the meat eater dot com. Yes,
it's election season. We almost got through the whole darn
thing without me talking about it. Remember, voting is a
responsibility game. I like to vote for public lands, waters
(25:50):
and wildlife. I think you should too. But no matter
how the ballot box fills up, you're still going to
be on the hook for keeping your elected officials response
and accountable. And we do that by writing, in calling,
and testifying in public when things are in session. Get
that commission meeting, et cetera. So that's why you're here, Gang,
(26:11):
got to keep you motivated. Thanks a bunch. I hope
you're having a great season. I'll talk to you soon.
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Klag Here's
cal Wildlife officials in Hollywood, California are still searching for
a deer that was captured on video with what looks
like a leg bone lodged in its mouth. The deer
(00:30):
was spotted in the Hollywood Hills hiking area last week.
Witnesses say the bone makes it difficult for the deer
to eat, and it's easy to see why. In the video.
It looks exactly like the deer is munching on a
leg bone from a large animal, except the bone appears
to be stuck. No one knows exactly how it happened,
and a local biologist says it's the strangest thing he's
ever seen. If this had happened in Michigan or Tennessee,
(00:53):
social media users would have smashed that like button and
gone on with their day. But this isn't Michigan or
see this is Hollywood. Yeah, jac its China Town. Subsequent
reporting revealed that residents had previously named this mule deer
dough Floppi, and park officials closed the hiking trails to
try to find and save this unfortunate animal. Local media
(01:16):
dispatched a helicopter to search the area, and as of
this recording, the search is ongoing. That's one expensive deer.
How a legbone could get stuck in a deer's mouth
without choking to death is a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes,
But since Old Sherlock isn't around, we reached out to
Old Gim Heffelfinger, who's a biologist with the Arizona Game
(01:38):
and Fish Department and a certified deer expert. Here's what
Jim said, quote, deer chew on bones all the time,
probably for calcium. At a deer check station, I once
dislodged a deer ankle bone that was stuck between the
cheek and gums. The teeth had worn grooves in the
bone because it had been stuck in the cheek for
so long, and as the animal chewed on food, it
(02:00):
wore those grooves into the bone. So there you go,
mystery solved. The deer was looking for a little calcium
and managed to get the bone stuck, probably between its
teeth and gums. And you know, I'm sure you've been there.
Get something abnormally large stuck between your teeth. But you know,
we got the use of those opposable thumbs man. And
(02:20):
here's another little tidbit as we look forward to Halloween.
About a decade ago, researchers in Texas had what's called
a corpse farm where they lay out human remains and
study the rate of decomposition. That sounds gruesome and it is,
but also pretty cool that info the different ways a
body can be laid out on top of the ground
(02:40):
or partially buried or fully buried can be very valuable
for investigators when they find a body in the woods. Anyway,
they had trail cam set up and researchers were shocked
to see a dough white tailed deer munching on a
human rib bone and holding it in its mouth quote
like a cigar. As Jim says, it was just trying
to get some calcium in diet. But the photo call
(03:01):
is quite astir when it rocketed around the internet in
twenty seventeen. And let's be honest, for all you deer
hunters out there, there's some poetic justice in the thought
that your remains might eventually become a multiviamin for a
mewle or white tail. This week, We've got the crime desk, listener, mail,
(03:24):
culinary corner, and so much more. But first I'm going
to tell you about my week. And my week, you know,
was pretty darn good until it wasn't. If you've been
checking in on the old cal Instagram feed, you'll know
already that Snort got some old barbed wire run through
your chest. Later open fileted her chest. As you could say,
(03:44):
this was our second pheasant outing of the season. All told,
we got about four hours of hunting in for the
whole season. She's like a high performance vehicle or a
helicopter something like. You know, when she runs, she runs hot,
and that run time will cost you. Now, even though
I travel with a huge trauma kit for just these
(04:05):
sorts of occasions, the cut was large enough and oblong
enough to where I couldn't get the skin to patch
up using my standard go to patch it all stuff,
which is EMTJL like a liquid suture, so I was
only able to clean and disinfect the wound in the
field and patch her up for travel. It was also Sunday,
and I didn't think an emergency vet visit was needed, so,
(04:27):
of course, when we got to the vet Monday morning,
we had a choice to make best way and the
next best way. Best way was to cut off the
flap of skin and suture or staple fresh skin to
fresh skin, but that would also require putting her under,
which just makes me extremely uncomfortable, especially in non emergency situations.
(04:49):
So we went with the next best way, which was
to stapler up as is and hope for the best.
Snort is a very patient patient at this point. She's
been doctor so much so this Doggie Doc was actually
able to trim some of the hardened flesh on the
wound a little bit, got it to bleed, which made
it closer to putting fresh flesh against fresh flesh, and
(05:13):
that is going to increase our odds of meat bonding
back together. Also lowered the vet bill, and we still
have a happy dog. I'm letting the wound breathe during
the day and then I'm rubbing it down with a
salve called helo It, which is a plant extract based
antibacterial anti fungal. It's worked great on her and myself
in speeding up the wound healing process. Doggie Doc says,
(05:37):
two weeks and a little luck, we'll be back at it.
So I'll put the backpack back on, blow the dust
off the old rifle. See if I can smack an
elk until that little girl gets back up, and run on.
Moving on to an unfortunately extensive edition of the crime Desk,
(05:59):
Four people in wiscon Center being charged with illegally killing
over one hundred white tail deer, targeting deer with their car,
and torturing them. The gruesome case, which you can read
more about over at the meeater dot com, involved three
teenage boys and one adult woman. The sixteen year old
kids would allegedly drive around at night and shoot deer
from the car window with a rifle. They left most
(06:20):
to rot, but they would occasionally cut the head off
a buck and take it home. But what's getting the
most attention are two accounts of what amounts to deer torture.
In one incident, described in a press release from the
Fondilac County Sheriff's Office, the juveniles wounded a deer so
badly with their car that they were able to load
it into the trunk alive. They recorded video and took
(06:41):
selfies with the deer and took it to various locations
while it suffered in the trunk. One of the videos
showed the suspects holding the deer, still alive but clearly suffering,
while walking around the inside of their home. The sheriff
notes the deer eventually died while in their captivity hours
after being struck with the vehicle. In another incident, the
suspects captured a still alive fawn, drove it around, and
(07:03):
took it back home. They later released it back into
the wild, but it's unclear what had happened to it.
There's still a bunch of questions to be answered here.
It's unclear what exactly the relationship is between the three
teens and thirty six year old woman. She obviously wasn't
giving sage advice as the older one in the group,
and the prosecutors haven't said who is being charged with what. However,
(07:25):
the sheriff did provide a list of potential crimes, which
include mistreating animals, shooting an animal without a reasonable expectation
of harvesting it, and obstructing a game warden. We'll keep
you in the loop as this case progresses. In a
surprising turn of events, an Ohio hunter who was accused
of poaching one of the biggest bucks in state history
(07:47):
has pled guilty to fourteen charges. CJ. Alexander has been
in the spotlight since December of last year, when Outdoor
Life shared his story of killing a two hundred inch
buck in Clinton County. He claimed to have an aerow
the giant with a crossbow while hunting his sister's nine
acre property, but game wardens launched an investigation and confiscated
(08:07):
the record setting rack. He was charged with twenty three
crimes back in June, but always maintained his innocence until
last week. His change of heart is probably due to
the damning cell phone evidence that investigators have since released.
Text messages indicate he was knowingly hunting a neighboring property
without permission, which is where he ended up killing the buck.
(08:28):
Then he and his buddies moved the animal to his
sister's property and staged it to look like he'd killed
it there. Even worse for Alexander's reputation is that he
did it all for money. Three weeks before he killed
the buck, he texted his fiance quote, I'm going to
get offered stupid money for this deerhead babe, like buying
a house type money. This deer is gonna make us money.
(08:50):
The scheme almost worked, too. He had reportedly sold the
antlers to an antler buyer and the exclusive rights to
his story to a hunting magazine. He had also signed
a promotional deal with the hunting company before his story
started to unravel. Tell you what gang intersection a cash
and wildlife rarely ends with good things happening. The start
(09:13):
of the History Channel show Swamp People found himself down
to Bayou without a paddle last week after being cited
for failing to properly tag an alligator. Troy Landry, who
the History Channel says is known as the King of
the Swamp, got caught by Louisiana game wardens for using
the wrong tag on a gator. Someone had sent in
a tip about unauthorized gator lines, so wardens staked out
(09:34):
the area for six hours. They observed Landry and a
few others harvesting an alligator, so they stopped to ask questions.
Turns out, Landry did have permission to hunt gators on
that property, but his tag was only good in a
different parish. Landry at first denied taking an alligator on
the property, but eventually confessed when game wardens explained that
they'd been watching him the whole time. Maximum penalty for
(09:57):
the ticket is one hundred and twenty days in prison
and a nine hundred and fifty dollars fine. Listener Cody
Hunter sent me a wild crime story from his neck
of the woods in Manitoba, Canada. Most poachers are content
to hunt on a property without permission, but it takes
real audacity to offer guided hunts on a property you
don't have permission on yourself. That's apparently what happened in
(10:18):
Western Manitoba, where a fifty two year old man is
being accused of advertising and executing guided bison hunts on
a property that didn't belong to him. The Royal Canadian
Mounted Police say a social media post was advertising bison
hunts for only one thousand dollars per animal, and at
least three hunters responded to the offer. Problem was, the
actual owners of that farm had trail cameras all over
(10:41):
the property and so they were immediately aware that something
seriously shady was going down. When they went out to
visit one of their pastures. They also noticed that the
locks and all their gates had been changed. RCMP investigators
determined that the four people drove in with the pickup
truck and off road vehicles shot the bison and removed them.
Cody Hunt tells me this story was all over social
(11:01):
media up there, and the suspect has since turned himself in.
The Hunters claimed to not know what the heck was happening,
and I haven't seen any reports of additional charges. Last
one from the crime desk anyway, all the way back
in episode two fifteen, I told you about a conservation
easement scheme that defrauded American taxpayers out of billions of dollars. Basically,
(11:23):
fraudsters would bundle up a bunch of land illegally inflate
its value, and then sell conservation easements on those properties
to give investors a massive tax break. A land appraiser
pled guilty in June of last year, and this week
the IRS announced that two accountants had been sentenced to
twenty months in prison. Victor Smith and William Tomasello both
sold these syndicated conservation easements as tax shelters to wealthy clients,
(11:47):
knowing that they quote lacked economic substance. They knew that
their wealthy clients participated in these sham investments only to
obtain a tax deduction and received only a tax benefit
for their participation in the tax shelters. Smith sold fourteen
million dollars in false tax deductions, causing a tax loss
to the irs of about four point eight million dollars.
(12:07):
Tomasello sold approximately eight and a half million dollars in
false deductions, causing a tax loss of about two point
three million we Ethical hunters and anglers often complain that
poachers don't get a harsh enough sentence, but I think
you'll agree that these fellows are getting everything that they deserve.
Along with serving nearly two years in prison, Smith will
be paying over four point eight million dollars in restitution,
(12:28):
while Tomasello will pay over two point three million dollars.
If wildlife poachers were facing that kind of penalty, I
bet the crime desk segment would be a whole lot shorter,
and I'm glad to see investigators crack down on these schemes.
Conservation easements are one of the most effective ways to
encourage private land conservation. In my own home state of Montana,
(12:49):
there's a bunch of folks who are in charge that
have a lot of bones to pick with permanent conservation easements,
even though they do a hell of a lot of
good and it's a right that you can extra size
as a private property owner. I'd like to think that
fraudulent activity here is a big reason why these folks
don't like a good conservation Easema. Moving on to the
(13:13):
cooking desk, the CDC reported last week that ten people
attending the same party likely contracted tricknosis by eating undercooked
bear meat. Don't worry, Steven Ronello was with us in Louisiana.
The agency surveyed thirty four attendees of the gathering in
western North Carolina, and twenty two reported having eaten the meat.
(13:35):
Of those twenty two, ten reported symptoms consistent with tricknosis infection.
Nine patients had facial swelling, six had myalgia, and four
had documented fevers. This story got some attention in the media,
since it's always fun to put the word outbreak in
a headline. And I bet a lot of people don't
even realize that hunters eat bear meat, But most bear
(13:55):
hunters are aware that bears often carry the round worm
larvae that causes trickonosis and meat should be cooked to
at least one hundred and sixty five degrees to kill
the little buggers. It's also worth noting that the folks
who were infected didn't seem all that concerned. The CDC
reports that a majority of the patients took the parasite
medication I'll bend a zol, but several patients said they
(14:15):
weren't willing to spend one hundred dollars per dose. Others
delayed the taking of the medication. Only five of them
were actually tested for trick, and those tests came back negative.
The CDC explains that reliable diagnosis can offer require additional
testing because you know, the little roundworm larvae are multiplying
inside of you. But none of the patients returned to
(14:36):
be tested again. Sounds like their symptoms had resolved enough
that they didn't care about confirming their diagnosis. The incubation
period in these cases was between seven and twenty six
days from the consumption of the meat to the onset
of the symptoms. That means if you're a bear hunter
and ever experienced strange flu like symptoms facial swelling, sore
on us, we have to think back over three weeks
(14:58):
to determine if undercook bear meat is the culprit. Mild
cases of trick can resolve on their own, but several
cases can result in death if not treated. Since you
don't know what you have, you should always head to
the hospital to get yourself some anti parasitic medication if
you suspect you have the trick. Moving on to the
Mountain Lion Desk. By this point you might be tired
(15:21):
of hearing about the proposed mount Lion hunting band in Colorado,
but listener Ross mcgree wrote in with a very interesting development.
Game wardens and biologists for state agencies are often prohibited
from taking a position on contentious wildlife issues, especially when
it comes to bills and ballad initiatives. I know this
is frustrating for many of them, since they have strong
and well informed opinions that they can't share in public. Instead,
(15:45):
they use non work emails and write in here to
ask cal at the Meat Eater dot com, and we
love you for it. We've seen the same neutral stance
from many Colorado parks and wildlife employees about this Mounta
Lion ballad initiative, but Ross sent me a resolution passed
by the Colorado Wildlife Employees Protective Association. The CWEPA represents
(16:06):
over two hundred wildlife officers biologists, wildlife technicians, aquatic staff,
administrative assistance, and education and outreach personnel. The resolution doesn't
mention mount lion hunting specifically, but the timing and content
make their position clear enough. It affirms that quote all
wildlife in Colorado is best protected, enhanced, and managed by
(16:27):
the science based wildlife management professionals employed by the State
of Colorado. It also recognizes the contribution and role of
hunting and fishing as primary methods of wildlife management. That's
an obvious knock on the ballot box biology. Currently before
Colorado voters. Prop One twenty seven would ban mount lion
hunting in the state, even though the lion population is
(16:48):
healthy and sanctioned by the State of Colorado. It would
put wildlife management decisions in the hands of the general public,
many of whom are completely disconnected from their food but
can be easily swayed by cute cougars on billboards to
focus on other people and what those people do in
a law abiding, in legal way, instead of on themselves
(17:10):
and their own problems. This resolution by the CWEPA speaks
directly to that problem, and I hope it will have
some sway with Colorado voters. Unfortunately, not all members of
Colorado's wildlife management community are on the same page. Richard Reading,
the current vice chair of the Colorado Wildlife Commission, penned
an op ed and a local paper arguing that mountain
lion hunting methods violate the principles of the North American
(17:33):
model of wildlife conservation. His stance was echoed in another
op ed by current commissioners Jack Murphy and Jessica Blue,
both were appointed recently by Governor Jared Polis and confirmed
by the state Senate despite strong opposition from the hunting community.
It is illegal for Colorado Wildlife Commissioners to take a
stance on ballot measures unless the statements include language about
(17:54):
not representing the views of Colorado Parks and Wildlife. One
of the op eds initially failed to include the disclaimer,
but it was later added. Others say that the op
ed for Murphy and Blue still violated a Colorado law
that prohibits commissioners from discussing policy issues outside of a
public forum. It would have been tough for these two
to write a joint op ed without talking through the issue,
(18:15):
which may run them a foul of Colorado's open meeting law.
The early voting period in Colorado began October twenty one,
so be sure to get down to your local polling
place and cast your no vote against Prop One twenty seven.
Moving on to the economics desk, a new report from
hunter advocacy group Sportsmen's Alliance indicates that hunters and sports
(18:37):
shooters have an even greater economic impact than previously thought.
The report also breaks the data down into state and
local levels, so you can actually see how much hunting
and sport shooting impact your congressional voting district. I won't
get into all the details, but here are the top
line numbers. Taken together, hunting in shooting sports generated one
(18:57):
hundred and six point two billion dollars in retail sales
and contributed one hundred and thirty three billion dollars to
economic growth in twenty twenty two. The industries support more
than one point three million jobs that create in excess
of eighty point five billion dollars in wages and income.
In turn, that economic stimulus generated two hundred and fifty
(19:18):
one billion dollars in economic activity through the multiplier effect.
The numbers are also pretty impressive if we compare the
economic impact of hunting to other economic factors. Hunting generates
about forty five point two billion dollars per year, which,
according to the Sportsman's Alliance, is higher than the gross
domestic product of one hundred and twenty one countries. There
(19:38):
are one hundred and ninety five countries in the world,
so that sounds pretty good. That's also more annual revenue
than Nationwide Insurance, United Airlines, and Tyson Foods. It's ten
times more than the revenue of the top ten most
valuable NFL teams combined, and equal to the combined system
wide sales of both Starbucks and McDonald's. Hunting also supports
(19:59):
over five one hundred and forty thousand jobs, which is
more than any US company except Walmart and Amazon. It's
interesting to put these numbers in context, but it makes
an important point. Limiting hunting and sports shooting opportunities is
a bit like forcing Starbucks locations to close or NFL
teams to shut down. It harms a major driver of
the US economy, So legislators and policymakers should really think
(20:22):
twice before, say a banning mountain lion hunting in Colorado, which,
just to harp on this more, Gang Prop one twenty
seven is literally an exercise in people saying I don't
like what you do, so you can't do it. There's
no scientific basis for it. It's ridiculousness on the highest scale.
(20:44):
I just want you to think about all the things
that you do or your neighbor does, as nitpicky as
it may be, and then you create a law that
says they can't do that. It's insanity. Moving on to
the mailbag, a list if 're in the proprietary of
elevation angling and Gunnison Colorado wrote in with a thoughtful
(21:04):
take on the robopants issue we covered a few episodes ago,
and here's what John Kessler thinks about electronically assisted to
hiking bridges and other kinds of tech that make it
easier to get out into the woods. Personally, I think
it's too much of an advantage and just bloody expensive
to boot. I'm not immune to the new technology, as
I lean really hard on my on ex subscription. Now
(21:24):
for the crux of the issue. Do I like the
long range capable scopes, robotic pants that make hiking easier,
or sonar that's practically a camera. No? Do I feel
I should advocate for their removal? From the modern hunting
and fishing scene. Also know, with a decrease in hunter recruitment,
I feel it necessary to keep the older age class
in the game as long as possible, if only for
(21:46):
the money they contribute to conservation. Is that an odd
take on the issue? Hey, thanks for righting man well Rich, No,
that is not an odd take on the issue. I
will remind you, however, that there's a sizable portion of
our hunting and angling communities that buy licenses and tags
every year and never go hunting, and that money still counts.
(22:10):
I fully intend to do that in my older age provided,
you know, social security is still a thing when I
got to hang things up. You know, the efficacy of
emerging technologies is something that we've struggled with forever as
a hunting community and state regulatory framework. It's going to
be a moving target forever. We just can't get over
(22:33):
the line, right, Like, we can't make things so darn
easy that there's a noticeable impact on game populations. You know,
hunting is not hunting if it's a foregone conclusion, that's harvesting.
That can be wildlife for game management. But I'm in
it for the hunting. The arms race within muzzleloaders is
(22:56):
a great example. When muzzleloaders seasons were first introduced, it
was generally accepted that the efficacy of that weapon was
such that you could provide a lot of opportunity with
the knowledge that success rates were going to be so
low that it wouldn't have that much of an impact
(23:17):
on the wildlife. Agencies could make some money. But then
you saw folks chasing the odds of that high opportunity hunt,
meaning that let's say you're in a point system state,
if it took ten points to get a rifle tag,
it only took five points or three points to get
a muzzleoader tag, but they wanted the success rate of
(23:41):
the rifle tag. They wanted to have ten point success
for three point draws. And so all of the sudden,
there's this shift from harvest numbers being at an acceptable level,
meaning that when you added up your archery take, your
rifle take, and then your muzzleloader take, you were still
(24:02):
maintaining your objectives for elk or deer or whatever it is.
But then all of a sudden, your muzzleoader gets way skewed,
and then that affects your rifle, and that affects your
archery because all of a sudden, everybody's got a muscleoader
and a projectile that's super accurate at five hundred yards
when the whole system was set up around one hundred
(24:22):
yards or less. Let's just say that's why it's always
going to be a moving target. Everybody's going to try
to improve gear wise, and ideally your skills improved too. Right,
I think it is still real and likely that your
hunters that spend the most time in the field are
likely the most successful hunters and therefore take the most
(24:44):
amount of game. One of the biggest misconceptions with non hunters,
right is that every license tag issued represents a dead animal.
Every time a hunter goes out in the field, that's
a dead animal. The reality is that's an opportunity. That's
what the system's based on on. Everybody's heard me cry
like a mashed cat over eating the mule deer tag
in Wyoming this year. That's what I signed up for,
(25:07):
the opportunity to chase mule deer, not a dead mule deer,
And that's like the target that we're really chasing when
we talk about wildlife management, and in order also to
keep that in check. We need to also take advantage
of the opportunities that result in dead animals a lot
of the time, which would be like those white tailed
(25:28):
dough harvests. Didn't think i'd get that in there, digit
doug during That's all I got for you this week.
Thank you so much for listening. Remember to write into
askcl that's Ascal at the meat eater dot com. Yes,
it's election season. We almost got through the whole darn
thing without me talking about it. Remember, voting is a
responsibility game. I like to vote for public lands, waters
(25:50):
and wildlife. I think you should too. But no matter
how the ballot box fills up, you're still going to
be on the hook for keeping your elected officials response
and accountable. And we do that by writing, in calling,
and testifying in public when things are in session. Get
that commission meeting, et cetera. So that's why you're here, Gang,
(26:11):
got to keep you motivated. Thanks a bunch. I hope
you're having a great season. I'll talk to you soon.
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