With 5,000 animals killed illegally a year, poaching is a growing Oregon problem as police, hunters try to fight back

 

By BRIAN BULL/KLCC

Oregon State Police reported a dozen cases of wildlife being shot illegally across seven counties in November – including two cases in Lincoln County.

Aside from a bighorn sheep whose head and horns were removed, all animals were left to waste where they fell. And those are the reported cases. Many others are never called in.

Morri Hudson lives just off of the Lorraine Highway south of Eugene. She enjoys the relative solitude and natural beauty of the rural area, and often takes walks with her dogs on some of the trails. But one morning Hudson came across a disturbing sight: a deer she watched since it was a fawn, and nicknamed “The Little Prince,” was lying dead on her property.

Hudson figured someone shot it from a car.

“And decapitated it,” she added. “Which is, I … I wouldn’t call it hunting. I’d call that animal murder.”

Hudson said she’s not anti-hunting, but is against trespassing and reckless endangerment in this area where she and her neighbors live.

Plus, she said, The Little Prince wasn’t even a yearling.

“Just, just … little, little velvety nubs,” Hudson recollected. “So taking his head as a trophy is a very odd and disturbing act. It wasn’t somebody desperate, needing food. Or they’d have taken the whole body.

“It was a criminal act.”

Tyler Dungannon, the conservation coordinator for the Oregon Hunters Association, told KLCC that poaching is truly a disgrace. He said hunters are tired of the practice, as it’s unethical and anti-conservation.

And most poachers are reckless, especially those who shoot game animals near populated areas, including city limits.

“There’s just no excuse for that,” said Dungannon. Sometimes you see deer or elk running around town with a horrible shot by a poacher, or there’s an arrow sticking out of it. It gets ugly and it’s not safe.”

Lots of territory

One person who’s monitoring the issue is Yvonne Shaw, the anti-poaching coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. She said these are crimes with “voiceless victims,” and last year there were at least 5,000 animals illegally killed in the state.

“Another thing to note about that,” continued Shaw. “OSP Fish & Wildlife troopers only find a fraction of these crimes that occurred.”

Shaw said there are 128 troopers with her agency, trying to cover Oregon’s forests, high desert, and coastline. But because poachers often know what they’re doing is wrong, they commit their acts in remote areas or under cover of darkness.

And while these crimes are often committed for a twisted sense of accomplishment, they’re also often done for black market profit.

“For instance, a bear gall bladder can sell for $500,” said Shaw. “We also have sturgeon poaching that happens for profit. People who poach sturgeon are often after the eggs, for caviar. So they’re targeting the really big, older females that are 80, 90, 100 years old.”

Shaw added poaching can also include the overharvesting of marine life.

“Last year, troopers discovered more than 1,000 salmon that had been taken illegally, and more than 1,800 clams,” she said.

Shaw said with the limit on razor clams being 15, there has to be a lot of people hoarding over limit to get to nearly 2,000.

For Native communities like the Coquille Tribe who’ve seen numbers of Chinook salmon decline to near extinction over the past decade, poachers who take more than the legal limit can hurt efforts to restore populations of these fish.

“Salmon are challenged in many ways in the world today,” said Shaw. “We don’t need to add poaching to be one of that ways.”

Poaching can even be the illegal sale of exotic pets online, which has created problems with critters like snapping turtles. In a June 2022 interview with KLCC, Susan Barnes of the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife said many were appearing in state waterways, threatening native species.

“Snapping turtles are omnivores. They will eat anything they can fit into their mouths,” said Barnes. “They will directly prey upon amphibians, snakes, waterfowl, little turtles, potentially.”

Poaching at its worst is the killing of wildlife for sheer “thrill kills,” and it seems hardly a week goes by in Oregon without several counties reporting incidents of animals — including endangered wolves — shot for little reason but to take down something out in the wild.

Back at her rural home outside Eugene, Morri Hudson finished her stroll and brought her dogs back inside. She told KLCC that she wears red whenever she goes outdoors to avoid getting shot in this area, as gunfire has been routine enough to keep her cautious. Hudson would like poaching to be reined in, for her peace of mind and safety.

“Well, it’s part of rural life, but does it need to be?” she said. “You know, we need to do better.”

• If you witness a poaching incident, authorities encourage you to use the Turn In Poachers (TIP) Line. The most expedient way to share a tip is to call (800) 452-7888 or *OSP (*677) from a mobile phone.
• Tips can also be emailed to: TIP@osp.oregon.gov,8 a.m. – 5 p.m., Monday – Friday.

 

• This story originally appeared on KLCC, a nonprofit public radio station in Eugene and a news partner of YachatsNews