South Texas game wardens recently wrapped up a six month multi-state investigation of an illegal commercial hunting operation on a ranch in Live Oak County. The wardens were contacted by a landowner regarding his ranch manager selling hunts under the table and hunting without consent. The landowner learned of the illegal activities when contacted by a taxidermist regarding an unpaid balance for several mounts belonging to the ranch manager. The landowner did not give the ranch manager or his family permission to harvest any animals on the ranch. During an extensive investigation, wardens determined the ranch manager had been selling trophy hunts to out of state clients, pocketing their money, and falsifying the ranch harvest records. The ranch manager was responsible for brokering illegal hunts for 14 white-tailed deer (with scores ranging from 245 B&C to under 100 B&C) and numerous exotic game animals. The ranch manager and his daughter also unlawfully appropriated $17,450 from the ranch owner. Hunters paid for their hunts by check made out to the ranch manager or daughter instead of to the ranch. The wardens obtained arrest warrants for the ranch manager for hunting without consent for white-tailed deer and exotic animals. He was arrested without incident.
Leave that Fawn Alone
On June 5, a Bell County game warden was alerted to a person who had stopped at a gas station with a fawn in her vehicle. The complainant sent pictures and a license plate number, which showed the vehicle registered to a woman in Rogers. The warden also learned the woman had an arrest warrant for assault with bodily injury. The warden contacted the suspect, who admitted to driving the deer around in her car; however, she couldn’t find it now on her 10-acre property. The woman was placed under arrest for the warrant and for illegal possession of the white-tailed deer.
Road-Killed
A Travis County man was arrested recently on a warrant charging him with hunting from a vehicle for an incident back in January in Blanco County. A Blanco County warden had received a call regarding a shot fired from a roadway and with assistance from local law enforcement caught up to the suspect. The warden discovered a dead white-tailed deer in a trash bag in the bed of the subject’s truck, and observed a small bullet wound to the deer’s head. The subject stated he had picked up the deer from the roadway after it was hit by a car. The warden saw no evidence that the animal had been struck by a vehicle. The driver of the vehicle was cited for possession of white-tailed deer in closed season and released. The warden then spent the next three hours on foot searching the area where he believed the deer was shot, and found a single shot .22 rifle laying in the ditch. An arrest warrant was issued for a Travis County resident for hunting from a vehicle. The charges are pending.
Reports are compiled from law enforcement reports made by Game Wardens for the Texas Department of Wildlife.
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