oregon poachers
Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife
Previous Post
Next Post

By Travis Smola

The Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division has charged four people with poaching at least 27 big game animals in a case that may result in huge fines.

In a press release, the OSP F&W said criminal citations were issued to 34-year-old William Hollings, 39-year-old Nicholas Lisenby, 33-year-old Eric Hamilton and 37-year-old Amanda Hughes for alleged crimes that crossed county lines to Linn, Lane, Lincoln, Tillamook and Polk counties.

Authorities believe at least 27 big game animals including elk, deer, bear, mountain lions and bobcats were allegedly poached by the group. The OSP is keeping the exact details of these poaching incidents quiet until they go to court, but the press release states that a search warrant executed on Hollings’ home in Philomath led to warrants being issued for the other suspects.

Search warrants for the others were served on April 25. The penalties for the alleged crimes could be very steep. Under new rules for increased fines for poaching crimes, the four could be facing as much as $162,700 in restitution payments for the illegally taken animals as well as the loss of their hunting and fishing privileges.

Wildlife officials are thanking a tip called into the state’s Turn In Poachers (TIP) Line.

“We had an anonymous member of the public lodge the original complaint,” Senior Trooper Jim Andrews said in the release. “He’s the reason we got this case going and he’s going to get some hunting preference points.”

Oregon’s TIP line offers incentives in the form of cash or preference points for any report that leads to arrests or citations in wildlife crime. The suspects in this case were not taken into custody, but were issued criminal citations.

Previous Post
Next Post

75 COMMENTS

    • Friend, the king doesn’t own the deer, we do.

      Here’s more bloodthirsty vandals, feeling empowered to kill our big game animals without permission or recompense.

      I just hope none of them were endangered, it would be sad to see the extermination of wildlife species just to satisfy their blood lust.

      • We don’t have any endangered game animals here to my knowledge. We have some moose that you can’t hunt due to low numbers, but they’re not endangered.
        Hope these f$&$ers are fined the maximum.
        They are stealing food from those of us who play by the rules.

        • Fuck a poacher! In the United States it’s not the king’s deer. That was old Europe. We severed those ties. They’re our deer. And ducks, turkey, upland bird, small game, etc. When someone poaches they steal from all honest hunters and fishermen. We have summer food plots planted. We have been irrigating in an effort to keep them from burning up in a three week drought. Thank God we finally got a couple of inches today. Casey, Mark, Stewart and I spend thounds and work year round to improve our hunting. When someone poaches it’s like putting a hand in my pocket and stealing my money. I was a deputy sheriff. Not Game and Fish, but I never passed an opportunity to make a case against a poacher. Oregon, burn those asswipes world down. Before I retired my hierarchy of criminals were:
          1. Child molestation.
          2. Rapists.
          3. Murders. (Unless it was a misdemeanor murder.)
          4. Poachers.

        • Chris, remember those first three words? “We the People… Yeah the government regulates hunting and fishing. Remember the passenger pidgeon? Neither do I. They’re extinct. Because of market hunting. The American bison almost was. Elk used to be common east of the Mississippi River. Bison also. I’ve read that elk have been reintroduced to Kentucky and Pennsylvania. Maybe you would like to return to those days. Not me. I buy a Florida Sportsman Gold License every year. Even though it has permits attached that I never use. Like a management area permit. Even though I haven’t set foot on one since the late ’80s. Fresh water fishing license. Haven’t wet a hook in fresh water in twenty years. In Florida! Etc. I also attend the annual Ducks Unlimited and NWTF banquets. If you don’t contribute, go home and be quite.

        • Hey Gadsden Fag, what else do you carry in your wallet? Joking, nobody cares! Be “quite,” dumbazz

    • If I was homeless, I would poach daily. What are they going to do about it? Other than provide me a secure home with TV, food, water, shelter, and entertainment on their own and taxpayer’s dime. When they fined me, I would just flip them the bird, while blasting government owned wildlife in the face dead just to spite them. After all they do it to dogs all the time under the guise of “enforcing” the law.

      • Anonymous, I’ve spent a little time with the homeless. Never met one with a deer rifle. A compound bow. Even a .22 LR. Poach and sleep on the dirt on private land. See how that works out for you when the landowner finds you. And he will.

      • Oh, forgot to mention. Trespass with a firearm in Florida is a felony. You don’t just to get to flip them the bird and walk away from your fine. We call your new home the Department of Corrections. They are not pleasant in Florida.

        • unless it has changed it is a third-degree felony that you will get you a fine unless it is also posted then you also are stuck with trespass after warning that is a little worse with the two charges you might get some jail time and lose some rights just according who you get caught by whether it is the state or local law and if you are on state or private land all maters

        • Exactly right Gadsden. For anyone here who thinks prison is an easy ride, It should be noted Florida Prisons have no AC. No AC. In Florida. Think about that.

        • Truckman, you think a 3rd degree felony won’t land you in prison? Commit one. I have a friend who had an employee who was convicted of a white collar crime. First offense. Third degree felony. Seven years in DOC. Forward mail to ACI.

    • All you “King’s Deer” people probably don’t even hunt.

      There’s absolutely nothing wrong or unconstitutional about the law restricting the amount of game one can take.

      I absolutely love hunting but the 2A isn’t about hunting and if we whipe out all the deer now our kids won’t have any to hunt.

    • Basic Americanism 101

      We own the critters on public land.

      We elect representatives to make laws on our behalf. This includes laws saying who sets the hunting seasons, limits on take, weapons, etc.

      When we do not like what we get, we pretend we are being oppressed by a great tyranny of government.

      It’s the American Way, after all.

      Still, them’s is our wild critters, not some damned poacher’s!

    • The Common Law definition of poaching is the taking of game without the land owner’s permission. Black’s Law Dictionary.

      It follows that if you have the land owner’s permission, then there was no poaching. Buy the State tag if you feel the need to make a contribution to the King’s Treasury.

    • Then the king needs to pay for the damage his animals do to private property, otherwise, the meat from the animal should be considered compensation.

  1. Fuck them. I play by the rules when I hunt and I feel no pain for those that don’t and get bent over for it.

    • fuck regulations and bullshit ecology fake ass studies and lobbying crack whores…hunt and fish year round, no license I say….

      • Anyone that knows anything about hunting and history knows we need game regulations. Lots of species aren’t with us because of overhunting. Poachers steal from all of us. They are literally the worst. It was with great satisfaction that I watched game and fish bust some poachers like you. Anytime I see it I’m calling the sheriff immediately. I will smile at you when I drive by as they take your truck and guns.

        • Would mean more if they had put a limit on bat masterson, buffalo bill and all those shooting thousands of buffalo back in the day. There should be no TAX on hunting in public lands…you could set reasonable limits so as not to kill off a species…we pay enough taxes…the government needs to be held accountable for their corruption…but too many have been brainwashed…land of the free my ass.

        • “Anyone that knows anything about hunting and history knows we need game regulations. Lots of species aren’t with us because of overhunting. Poachers steal from all of us. They are literally the worst. It was with great satisfaction that I watched game and fish bust some poachers like you. Anytime I see it I’m calling the sheriff immediately. I will smile at you when I drive by as they take your truck and guns.”

          Does your tongue get tired licking all those boots?

        • Just be glad the law takes care of poachers and not the ranchers and farmers I grew up with. We know how to deal with trash like you.

        • Its a fee, not a tax. They of course accomplish the same thing. I’d support no fees for hunting licenses and tags/stamps. Of course government would then need to raise revenue in some other way to take care of those lands, fund their natural resources police/game wardens to enforce the laws preventing over hunting/fishing or dangerous hunters, etc. I would absolutely be all over every American having to pay $10 or $20 more a year to support all of the public lands that are for all people to enjoy, rather than $60-80 in licenses and stamps every year. But the money still has to come from somewhere.

          Sure, I’d also be all for getting rid of some of the graft like legislaturists funneling money to defense contractors, presidential cronies, Boeing/ULA for their over priced rockets, etc. That would easily free up the tens of billions of dollars to support public lands properly without any fees or increased taxes.

          Government does fees all the time. If they didn’t, people would bitch and moan even more about how high their taxes are and supporting things like vehicle registrations when they don’t drive no vehicle. Or a doctor’s license to dispense narcotics. Or a pharmacist’s license. A store’s liquor license. Etc. I am sure it varies wildly across the various states, but they all collect significant fees to support operating of said government to make sure that wild life is managed properly. Poachers are taken care of. People don’t go blind drinking bad liquor. Drugs aren’t adulterated. Gas stations don’t diddle their pumps to overcharge. Etc. The vast majority of the onerous regulations we have in this country are because someone was actively abusing something/someone so we created a law prohibiting it and regulations to enforce the law and people to monitor the companies or people to be sure the regulations are being followed.

          In most cases, those regulation enforcement gets paid for by fees on the people covered by those regulations. In a lot of cases it means the vast majority of the honest folks are paying to police the dishonest ones.

          In an ideal world I think the FDA should be abolished. Why should we charge companies millions of dollars to prove that their drug is safe and works? Because companies at one time weren’t honest about it (and of course sometimes the FDA catches companies taking short cuts or find out later the trials weren’t done properly through no willful negligence on the part of the company, or later evidence comes out that just wouldn’t have been caught during the drug trials).

          But we don’t live in an ideal world.

  2. did they eat them? donate the meat? I pay my crap every year to hunt and fish, but I disagree completely in regard to seasons and licensing.

  3. But it’s “ok” to murder your pre-born baby…couldn’t these ruffians claim Injun status like Fauxcahontas?!?😎😋😏

  4. Message for tough talking guys…Keep your Fish and Wildlife dept. smiling otherwise they can and will take you to court and make your life miserable. That’s just the way it is.

    TRUMP/PENCE 2020.

  5. They best hire on some more Kings men, cause it’s going to get worse. I just left the grocery store and 5lb’s of ground beef is 38.49. Poaching ? With those prices I will consider it feeding my family taking a deer. I sure can’t afford the luxury of beef anymore.

    • Birda,

      Five pounds of ground beef for $38.49 equals $7.70 per pound. Unless you live in Hawaii or some remote location in Alaska, that seems way too high even with current COVID-19 supply hiccups.

      I encourage you to look for a different grocery store.

    • You are fortunate to be able to get meat from the store. Once the media said “meat is next” the runs started and the “feat of missing out” crowd wiped out the shelves in a matter of weeks. I could smoke some coyote jerky…

  6. Everybody knows that you can’t poach moose. Eggs, sure. Salmon, definitely. But poaching moose would require an enormous pan. It’s better to roast them.

  7. I do not support such ludicrous, astronomical fines for poaching. There is no way in the world that the average restitution price of a game animal is $6,000.

    As for prosecution of poaching, I say it depends on the situation. Were those four people selling the meat/hides/mounts commercially? Then I fully support prosecution for poaching. Were those four people making trophy mounts for themselves and wasting the meat? Again, I fully support prosecution for poaching. Were those four people impoverished and using all the meat to feed their families? Then I do NOT support prosecution for poaching.

  8. Yeah, I guess these guys were supposed to just sit back and starve while the urban throngs cleared out the Costcos and Sam’s Clubs. The reason the prosecution is keeping this quiet is because the public would sympathize with them and demand the charges be dropped.

    This has been going on in mountain towns everywhere all across the nation since this lockdown insanity victimization of us all began. Most people (rightly) keep their mouths shut. I’m certain this began as a settling of some score between the rat and the harvesters.

      • Doug,

        Good point. I would have to be quite literally starving before I would try to kill and eat a bobcat or mountain lion.

        I have to think that hunters would be far more likely to succeed hunting for deer, elk, rabbits, and game birds rather than bobcats and mountain lions. I am now thinking that those four people were trying to acquire/sell mounts and I support prosecuting them for poaching.

    • atfsux,

      With respect to people who are in dire financial straights due to the COVID-19 economic implosion: I support their right to feed themselves, which includes subsistence hunting (even if those animals are not in season) and I do not support prosecuting those people for poaching.

      Now, having said that, I just realized that the Oregon wildlife enforcement agency is claiming that those four people poached 27 animals, including deer and elk. If that is true, it would be nearly impossible for those four people to honestly claim subsistence hunting, especially if most of the animals that they harvested are deer and elk.

      If each of those four people were subsistence hunters for their own families, I could see them taking as many as eight deer or two elk (or some combination thereof) for food over the last two months if they had large families. And that likely even allows for some extra meat still in their freezers. I cannot imagine, though, how they would have harvested 27 game animals over the course of two months of subsistence hunting.

    • Indeed, what my neighbors do or don’t do on their own land is their own business, as long as its not affecting me. They “poach” something, I didn’t see nuttin.

  9. So, I have to say, I am downright amazed by how down and out incompetent a lot of people sound when it comes to preparing food. “I must consume 8 lbs of meat per day! My family is starving!”. Really? Is that what people have come to? If it isn’t ground beef (or some other ground meat) I can’t cook!

    What, are you too good for red beans and rice now? Not able to make a potato pancake? Fish stew? Chebureki? Chicken and dumplings?

    Free lunch tip:
    Two to three potatoes, fried till soft
    Add one to two onion with carrot
    One to two eggs
    Seasons with salt, pepper, and of course…the bay leaf

    You can google the man, but there is quite literally the all potato diet.

    With half a pound of ground beef I can make about 7 or 8 good sized chebureki and eat that for three or four meals. I buy maybe a pound of ground beef for myself per week.

    • ManiacBard,

      What you describe supplies plenty of calories. And what you describe also supplies an insufficient amount of protein.

      No, an average adult does not need eight pounds of meat every day. The average adult does need at least 60 grams of protein per day — and even more if they are extra physically active. With respect to ground beef, you would have to eat over half a pound of ground beef every day to get 60 grams of protein. With respect to eggs, you would have to eat 10 eggs every day to get 60 grams of protein. And remember, 60 grams is the minimum.

      Note: in order to get 60 grams of protein from beans and rice, you have to eat a HUGE amount of it. If your beans were pinto beans, you would have to eat about 1.5 cups (dry, before cooking) of pinto beans every day along with something like 3 cups (dry, before cooking) of wild rice. Combined that is 4.5 cups of dry ingredients which would expand to about 9 cups cooked. Can you honestly consume 3 cups of cooked rice and beans at every meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)? Most people cannot.

    • One gram per pound of bodyweight. Body builders in the pro range also calculate their meat requirements by the pounds per week. Had one guy in a gaming clan that ate seven pounds of tuna every week

  10. All the “People own the animals” folks crack me up. What are you even talking about. The government owns them and let’s you hunt where, when and how they see fit. But only after you pay them for the privilege. And since most state wildlife departments run only off money collected from hunters/fisherman we’ll make the rules so complex it will near impossible to follow them. Then we can show up and fine, to fund our agency. See, the “People” own the animals.

    I didn’t vote for the Wildlife Department employees who are making the rules. Did you?

    How can we claim to have Private Property when the government decides its has dominion over any animal that sets foot (or flies over) you private property. Deer been living there 8 years? Tough, we own him not you.

    We should be on the European model, own the land own the animals. Super simple and it gives the animals value which gives people a reason to manage them correctly. Unlike here in America where the animals have zero value so shot a Deer in the ass? No one saw, just wait for another.

    • Wrong. In Europe only the wealthy hunt, and only the wealthy own guns. The rest of the people hate both. We have enough problems with wealthy elitist buying ranches and then they turnaround and charge10,000 to hunt an elk. Your idea would be the final nails in the coffin of hunting for the next generation.

      • Wrong. I lived in Germany for 5 years and hunted all over Europe. I never hunted with “wealthy” people. Regular folk who usually belonged to a hunting club that leased a large area’s hunting rights.

        Private property is either private or it’s not. You think those ranch owners are going to let you hunt for free? Let the Gov run public land and let land owners run their own land. Pretty simple. Animals on private property belong to the land owner, not the state.

        • Wrong again. I hunted the west for a long time. It wasn’t until the last 10 to 15 years that landowners started charging big bucks to hunt. Used to be we would throw a bottle of crown at the landowner and they were more than happy. Than rich guys like John Malone just shut it off.
          I also have seen Europe’s hunting. If you think the hunters are poor you don’t have anything to worry about

  11. Wrong Fuddy. Private landowners have no responsibility to provide access to their land for whatever you deem a fair price. That is why it is private land. Hunt public land and beg the King for permission. Private landowners should have the right to manage their game as they see fit. Either way they are not letting you hunt for a bottle of crown.

    And you are wrong about Europe. You have “seen” it. Well I lived their. All the folks I hunted with in Czech, Poland, Hungary and Slovenia were far from rich. Stop thinking about yourself and think about what is right. Own the land own the game.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here