Good News

[snuffy]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Edmonton+poachers+fined/7507929/story.html

[hydropsyche]

They should have got jail time. Fines are nothing to the rich. Some will pay 50K for legal trophy hunting. 100K is a not a deterrent to people who can afford Hummers. A few months shacked up with "buba" is. The real message sent was "we could send you to jail but we never would".

[snuffy]

As much as we might like to see people hung, drawn, and quartered for criminally infringing on our interests, that's not realistic. I doubt that they were so flush with cash that the loss of $100000 and a $50000 vehicle won't be extremely painful, especially with their revenue stream now gone. Given the resources at their disposal, I'm pleasantly surprised that SRD caught them.

[Pipestoneflyguy]

I would call that a very successful prosecution !

[reevesr1]

Having a Hummer don't make you rich! $100,000 and the loss of the vehicle is a deterrent to almost anyone. I think the fines are certainly an appropriate outcome.

[hydropsyche]

Obviously, I can't tell if they are rich because they owned a Hummer. I take that back. My point being that fines as a deterrent are relative. Jail time is not. I would say the fine was not a detterent because.....they did it anyway!!!

 

If they made over 100K over the years, they consider it a cost of doing business and worth the risk. It probably cost the taxpayer a lot to investigate and prosecute these scum, so we can consider the 100k cost recovery. I do think this was a missed opportunity to send a real message. Martin Sharren thinks the same, so I'm glad I'm not alone.

 

Snuffy, I'm curious about your phrasing "criminally infringing on our interests". Do you think this is just a special interest group concern?

[dutchie]

sweet , such a nice fine , plus he lost his hummer , and worse for him is he is now done for hunting and they will forever be watching him

 

hope they start getting heavy fines in the fishing world if you poach

[ironfly]

Forever watching him? That seems unlikely to me, but if you say so...

 

So what if he can't get a license? It's not like he needs one for his preferred activity. I thought fines were supposed to be a lesser punishment, when there are extenuating circumstances. I don't have the whole story, but it sounds to me like he should've gotten jail time.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad they caught him, but a 2 year investigation to catch one poacher? Maybe that's just how the system works, but I bet in that same time 10 (or at least 2) other guys started doing the same thing.