http://www.argusleader.com/article/20100119/NEWS/1190321
Given the penalties for poaching in South Dakota, conservationists say it’s cheaper for someone to illegally shoot a trophy mule deer than it is to pay for a guided hunt.

The largest civil penalty the state can enforce in deer poaching cases is $1,000. Guided hunts can run more than $4,000.

State and national conservation groups, concerned hunters and the state Game, Fish and Parks Department want that to change.

Game, Fish and Parks officials have introduced legislation to the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee that would increase the penalties for poaching. House Bill 1014 would use Boone and Crockett scoring guidelines to help set the penalties for poaching.

"This bill tries to reduce the desire of people who want to go after that big deer illegally," said Emmett Keyser, assistant director of Game, Fish and Parks.

"It creates a consequence for them. It’s another mechanism we can use for people who violate the law."

And while Game, Fish and Parks officials say most South Dakotans practice safe and ethical hunting practices, there has been a rise in the number of poaching cases investigated since the state began its Turn In Poachers program in 1984.

From July 1, 2008, to last June 30, Game, Fish and Parks investigated 481 poaching cases, TIPs coordinator Charlie Wharton said. The 481 investigations were down slightly from the year before when 550 cases were investigated and 169 arrests made.

"You know, people do a lot of funny things when they think nobody’s watching," said Dan Hight, a rancher who lives near White River. "Out where I live, our conservation officers get spread pretty thin. And when it’s cheaper for a guy to come into the state and illegally shoot an animal than it is to buy that out-of-state license, there’s a lot of guys who will take that chance. And if they do get caught, they’re still better off financially."

Boone and Crockett

Hight said his only criticism with the bill’s language is that it might set Boone and Crockett scores too high for big-game animals native to the state.

"You know, we tried to craft a bill where people would say, ’Yep, that’s a big one,’ " Keyser said. "But it’s not to say those values couldn’t be tweaked during the session. Still, hunters pretty much know what a Boone and Crockett standard is."

President Theodore Roosevelt helped found the club in 1887 as a conservation group. Its scoring system is the benchmark for hunters. Several measurements of antlers or horns are added together for a final score.

"All wildlife violations are setbacks for conservation, of course," club president Lowell Baier said in a prepared statement. "But we’re especially pleased to see stiffer penalties for illegally taking an animal that is larger, has lived longer, is worth more as a benchmark of good management - and would have been a rare and cherished prize for a legal, ethical, license-buying hunter."

The bill would "define trophy and non-trophy antelope, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and elk, and establish a civil penalty for the unlawful taking of trophy animals."

It would require fines of $5,000 for nontrophy elk, mountain lion or bison as well as trophy antelope, mule tail and whitetails, $10,000 for mountain goats, mountain sheep or trophy elk, and $1,000 each for nontrophy mule deer, whitetail, antelope or bobcats. Other fines would cover upland game birds and fish.

A similar bill was defeated in the House last year when it was determined that the financial nature of the fines needed a two-thirds majority to pass.

"We’ll be working on that this year as well," Keyser said. "We’ll start rounding up the support we need to get this passed."

HB 1014 already has the support of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the South Dakota Bowhunters board of directions, Safari Club International, Mule Deer Foundation and the Wild Sheep Foundation.

’The only deterrent’

"Fines and penalties are the only deterrent to poaching," said Miles Moretti, president and CEO of the Mule Deer Foundation, based in Salt Lake City. "I know after Utah passed its legislation, it had an affect, there was a decrease in poaching. It works."

Rep. Tom Brunner, R-Nisland and chairman of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, has signed off on the bill, but said that he is unsure of its chances in a legislative session that will be dominated by the state’s budget woes.

"It’s an agency bill and those usually do OK, since the need has been identified," he said. "But it’s hard to say. Each year is different."

A poaching case wrapped up in 2008 highlights the need for stiffer penalties in South Dakota, conservation leaders and hunters said.

Scott Lanpher of Sioux Falls pleaded guilty in April 2008 for prohibited big-game hunting.

Lanpher was hunting at night, using his headlights to shoot at what one conservation officer described as a "monster" trophy whitetail buck in 2006. The buck was shot near Interstate 229 and East Benson Road. Lanpher then took it to Moody County where he was licensed to hunt.

Lanpher received a 10-day jail sentence, with another 50 days suspended as long as he had no more hunting violations for two years. He also paid $200 in fines and court costs and was ordered to stop hunting for one year by Minnehaha Magistrate Judge Doyle Sage.

Using Boone and Crockett, the animal would have scored in the 190s, which for a South Dakota whitetail buck is gigantic, hunters agreed. A Boone and Crockett rating of 150 is considered a trophy.

"I like Boone and Crockett scoring, because you know it’s a trophy," Moretti said. "Here it is, here’s the fine."

Other states are starting to raise fines for poaching. In Ohio, the penalty for taking a whitetail buck with a Boone and Crockett score of 200 or more ranges from $400 to $17,000.

In October, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that established fines of $5,000 to $40,000 and/or imposes a penalty of up to one year in county jail for violators who are convicted of illegally selling, buying or trading any amphibian, bird, fish, mammal, or reptile for profit or personal gain.

It’s one of the strictest poaching laws on the books.

Now, it’s time for South Dakota to follow suit with stricter laws of its own, hunters and conservationists said.

"I’d rather be known as a state with the strictest poaching laws, rather than the most lenient," Hight said. "We’ve got to do something to stop this."

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