Senate Bill 266 will receive a first reading on Feb. 9 by the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee.
The amount of restitution would be based on the size of the deer's antlers and could increase if the guilty party chooses not to perform 80 hours of community service.
"Poaching is a real problem on private land and we felt like we needed fines large enough to get a poacher's attention," said Sen. Johnny Ray Salling, R-Baltimore County, one of the sponsors. "If a guy owns five acres and he and his friends hunt on it, he doesn't want to go out on the morning of the hunt and find a deer carcass that somebody shot."
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10 comments:
What about female deer? Weight?
The senator from Baltimore is full of it! This has nothing to do with a guy that owns five acres of land. This is about a very special interest group that has the ear of this state legislator. This is about a very large commercial hunting operation that culls the state herds of deer on very large private tracts of land, to raise trophy bucks for sale to well heeled hunters who pay to hunt for those trophies. It is for their protection and has nothing to do with the 5 acre guys. Like the Senator from Baltimore cares about a 5 acre guy...come on, get real, who believes that he represents anyone like that in his district. The Senator spins it that way to cover the tracks of his being in the pockets of his well heeled benefactors. Oh yeah, I'm sure that he gets generous campaign contributions from whoever requested him to sponsor this bill....and it was no 5 acre guy. LOL
So a $20,000 value for a deer, that means I can kill someone from stealing my deer, I got to protect my valuable property.
5 acre lot? Sounds like a subdivision.Didn't know you could hunt in a subdivision.
How do they know it was a poacher and not a deer who was shot and ran a bit and died on someone else's property. Hunters are allowed by law to trespass to retrieve a deer they shot I believe. I'm not a hunter but I do have a few hundred acres and poaching is not a problem for me. I do find dead deer from time to time and I know they were shot on neighboring property and the hunters couldn't find them.
you cannot kill the kings deer
Happens ALL THE TIME in Wicomico county. Guys don't get a deer, so they travel and spotlight the fields and shoot. Even in small yards with people on the front porch, they don't care. A round or two in the side of their trucks gets their attention more than a fine.
The average shorebilly poaching deer from from an old truck while smoking reds and drinking natural light ain't got no $20,000 to pay a fine. So what then, contempt of court/warrant/jail?
They are the State's deer until they run into the road and cause damage to a vehicle. At that moment, the state suddenly has no ownership of them, because they certainly don't pay for the damages.
95% of poachers caught are CitIdiots from the western shore. One time they even shot a cow.
Hahahahaha. Great point man!!
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