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When I first started to write this article, six months ago, I began to talk to families and hunters, and fishermen and I bet at least 90 percent of them told me of a bad experience they had while out trying to enjoy Mother Nature. They told me that they really did fear Fish and Game Officers and that their children would almost break out into a cold sweat of fear every time they saw a man or woman with a badge or uniform. Wow!! What is wrong with this picture? No wonder the numbers are way, way down on hunting, fishing, and camping. No wonder they have a free fishing day and now are advertising on TV to take your family and enjoy fishing again. Here are a few true stories that have been told to me either in person or over the phone since I started writing this article six months ago…
John, Fred, and Jim went hunting deer in southern Utah. Jim killed a nice buck just before dark so they tagged the deer, left it in a tree and planned on returning in the morning to haul it out. The next morning on the way to get the deer, Jim had a heart attack and they had to rush him to the nearest hospital where he was admitted. The day was hot so John and Fred decide they had better return and get the deer out, so it wouldn’t spoil. They were stopped by the Fish and Game and were told that it didn’t matter that Jim was in the hospital, it was still illegal to haul his deer out and they were given every ticket they could possibly give them no matter what was said. Cost: both John and Fred were charged $500 plus court costs. They both told me next time the deer would rot. Where is the common sense in this case?
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Tom drew an ‘any bull’ elk tag in one of the open draw areas here in Utah. Tom killed a rag horn bull, brought it home and had it hanging in a tree in front of his house. One of his kids ran in and told him that some people were stealing his elk. Tom ran out to find three Fish and Game Officers cutting down his elk. When Tom asked them what in the *#+*# they were doing…they told him that he poached this elk and that he shot it in a spike- only area, and that they are taking his elk as evidence. After a lot of time, loss of sleep, and money was spent they discovered that he had an ‘any bull’ tag and that he did shoot it in the right area.
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Bob has lots of land and as a result he has lots of deer and elk on his land. Bob obtained a depredation cow elk tag. He gave it to his son and let his boy shoot the cow on his private ground. His boy shot the elk but only wounded it. The elk jumped the fence off his private land. Not wanting the animal to suffer, his shot again killing the elk. The Fish and Game showed up and wrote him a ticket for poaching. You can’t shoot elk once it gets off your private land. A felony and two class B misdemeanors later, five times in court, over $5000 in cost, and the loss of his hunting privileges as a result. Bob, the owner of all the land is one mad, mad, mad man. I wonder how he and the Fish and Game are going to get along from now on. I can’t write what he told me or how he feels about the Fish and Game.
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A scout leader takes his scouts rabbit hunting with a spot light in his neighbor’s field. The Fish and Game hauls them all back to the church parking lot and interrogates them and gives them all a $200 ticket.
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An old man lives alone. He has a loving dog to keep him company. He has a job feeding cows each morning and night. In the wintertime elk and deer come into the feedlot and eat the feed. One morning his dog, his only friend in the world, chases some deer out of the feedlot. The Fish and Game kill the dog for harassing big game. They told the old man that he should have kept the dog tied up.
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Four boys go on a camping and hiking trip. They have to leave after work so it is late when they finally reach their destination. They set up their tent and fall into bed at midnight. At 1 a.m., a park ranger comes into their tent with a big light scaring them to death. He tells them that they need to move their tent because it is in the wrong spot. He makes them get out of bed and move their tent 12 inches.
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Fish and Game came to Fred’s home and arrest him for poaching an elk. Fred tells them he is innocent and that they have the wrong man. They interrogate him and try to put the ‘fear of God’ into him and make him confess to the crime. Months later after $5000 in court cost, loss of sleep, time and much fear to his family; they find out that the bullet didn’t match any of Fred’s guns and that another man was guilty.
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I have always been told that here in America - the land of the free - that a man or woman is always innocent until proven guilty. That doesn’t seem to be the way it is with some agencies anymore. You are now guilty until you can prove yourself innocent. To me this is totally un-American. When I can talk to anyone I see out hunting or fishing, or just out enjoying Mother Nature and 90 percent of them can tell me of an unjust treatment of some kind or another; in what direction have we gone? Question: When did elk, deer, big horn sheep, eagles, bugs, spotted owls, weeds, etc. become more important, more valuable, and more honorable than our families, our children, or a man or woman?
I have been a hunter and fisherman and lover of nature all my life. It is my life! But, I must tell you all that trying to live this way of life has been hard indeed. I have had a lot of success as a hunter which has put me in the limelight. I have fought to keep this way of life and as a result I am very outspoken on things that I thought were not right. I am not afraid to sign my name to all things I feel passionate about. I sometimes feel I am in this fight alone. There are very few in the ranks today who are not afraid and who are willing to fight for their rights. It has been said that for Tierney, dictatorship, and communism to flourish all that has to happen is for good men to do nothing.
I know for a fact that there have been thousands of good men and women who loved to hunt, fish and be out in Mother Nature who are no longer doing so because of all the problems and confrontations with those in authority. I have talked to at least a hundred people who used to hunt, fish and take their families hunting, fishing, and camping but do it no more because of all the ‘badges of fear’ and crap they had to put up with time and time again whenever they went out in Mother Nature. Almost every one of them told me that they now just play golf with their friends who feel the same way about hunting, fishing, and camping. Since they no longer go hunting, fishing, and camping they no longer have any problems with the boys and girls in authority. ‘No more fear’ and they now get a little enjoyment in their lives out on the golf course enjoying Mother Nature.
I have four sons of my own who have been with me many times over the years. I have tried to pass on to them my love of hunting, fishing, and being out in Mother Nature, but because of all the crap and hunting confrontations they have had to go through and have seen me go through all the time, they all tell me it’s just not worth it. Even if there were big bucks on every ridge like in the good ole days, none of my four ‘Wintch’ son’s ever hunt or fish like I do because of fear. It’s not a lack of game, money, or the difficulty of getting a tag. It’s not the time they have to take off work, or love of family, or love of Mother Nature that will keep many thousands now and in the years to come from ever hunting.
It is and will be all the taxes, fines, fees, laws, rules, and regulations that will stop them. It will be all those people who have given so much authority that will stop them. One of the big questions I would like to ask all those who are in authority; those who sit in a room with a big coffee pot; with four dozen donuts in front of them and 10 new trucks outside which, by the way, were paid for by ‘we the people’ (tax payers); those who think up more and more laws and more ways to collect the money for those laws; those who are taking more and more of our freedoms away from us as they make these new laws and regulations. My question is…don’t any of you have families, children and grandchildren?
Don’t you realize that they will be affected by what you are doing? Their freedoms are being taken away also and they will have to pay the price in the future. How proud will they be of you when they realize it was their Grandpa or Dad who helped to take away all their rights and freedoms as an American? How proud of you will they be when they realize that they no longer have the privilege and opportunity to take their family out to enjoy Mother Nature and that there is nothing they can do about it?
We are living in fear and I don’t see that changing in the near future. Most people are afraid to stand up and be counted on the side of freedom, but if we are to preserve those freedoms that our fathers fought so hard for, we need to be willing to fight for the life style we love. We can’t just sit in the coffee shop and complain about all the things we don’t like and how things are going. We always talk tough around the boys but when we leave the coffee shop, we do nothing. Write to your congressman, or better yet…write to the governor. Let them know what is going on. Let them know of the unfair treatment and harassment. Write down the officer’s names and complain. Do something or we will continue to live in fear. Is golfing really a good trade off because you are tired of living in fear? 
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From
the Dec/Jan. 2005 Issue of Hunting Illustrated Magazine - posted Jan. 6, 2005
