Rabbits, Australia’s number one feral pest

© Othmar Vohringer

Rabbits are Australia’s most widespread and destructive environmental and agricultural pest animals. Rabbits are not native to Australia. The rabbits have been introduced from England around 1827 and quickly spread all over Australia. Within a few decades their numbers grew to millions, making the rabbit the fasted growing population of introduced species anywhere in the world.

The impact of rabbits on native plants and agricultural crops includes damage to vegetation through ringbarking, grazing and browsing. Rabbits also prevent regeneration of native plants by eating seedlings. As well as causing detrimental habitat change, rabbits threaten native mammals through direct competition for food and shelter.

The damage to the agricultural economy is estimated to be in the billions and the damage to wild habitat and wildlife is considered “threatening”. Compared with Europe and America, Australia has few predators and lacks wild predatory species (e.g. ferrets and weasels), which kill young rabbits in great numbers. Australia's moderate to tropical climate permits rabbits to breed throughout the year, often having as many as four times offspring. A rabbit can raise as many as 16 young. The survival chances of the offspring is regraded "excellent" due to the preferable climate and the lack of predators that feed on rabbits. To give birth and raise their young rabbits burrow deep holes in the ground. A large population of rabbits can completely destroy vast tracts of land with underground tunnels.

Overgrazing by rabbits removes plant cover and contributes to soil erosion. Rabbits cause changes in the quality of flora and habitat of native fauna. Most rabbit damage to native vegetation occurs when the annual pasture dries off and rabbits are forced to eat native perennial plants.

Shooting, trapping, poisoning rabbits and using dynamite to blow up their burrows have little impact on the fast expanding rabbit population. In a last ditch effort to eradicate Australia’s number one pest the government introduced myxomatosis, a deadly illness that only befalls rabbits, but it did not have the hoped for effect to curb the devastating rabbit plague. The rabbit population is still growing out of control.

Yesterday I reported that PETA successfully bullied Alannah Hill into the discontinuation of using fur as trim for her famous fashion garments. Alannah caved in after PETA members sent over 4,000 abusive messages and threatened to kill her and harm her seven-year old son if she doesn’t stop to use fur. You may ask, “What has that to do with Australia’s rabbit pest problem?” I’ll tell you. Alannah Hill used exclusively wild rabbit fur for her fashion clothing and PETA objects to using a side product of a pest killed in the millions. In other words PETA puts animals over the interest of people. Even, as in this case, said animals destroy vast expanses of wildlife habitat and agricultural land.

It would be preferable to PETA if Australia is totally over run and destroyed by rabbits than having a fashion designer making use of a pests fur and making a living by doing so. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. PETA went many times on public record stating that an animal’s life is preferable over that of a human. Ingrid Newkirk made the following infamous statements; “Even if animal tests produced a cure for AIDS, we’d be against it.” Or how about this one “Humans have grown like a cancer. We're the biggest blight on the face of the earth.” Of course these are only two of many such human degrading statements, like the one where she compares the horrors endured by the Jews in Nazi Germany with that of chickens.

Mind you PETA only plays the animal advocate if it suits their agenda propaganda. Behind closed doors they have as little regard for animals as they have for humans. PETA kills more animals in their pet shelter than any other animal shelter in North America. PETA is so much into killing animals that some of the pets that are handed over to them never make it alive to the shelter, and that despite promising the owners of the pet to do their utmost to find a good home for it. There are also documented cases where PETA and the HSUS have willfully inflicted pain on animals in order to obtain “realistic” film footage for theit propaganda videos.

Can you spell “hypocrites”?

Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Tags: Alannah Hill, PETA, Ingrid Newkirk, Australia Rabbit Plague, Fur

PETA succeeds in bulling fashion designer into submission

© By Othmar Vohringer

Yesterday I published a news release issued by the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance. According to which PETA launched death threats against renowned Melbourne fashion designer Alannah Hill.

The news release went on to say that Alannah issued a public statement against PETA after receiving the alleged threat from a person indicating a relationship with the animal rights group. According to a statement published in several international newspapers, Hill stated that police were contacted on August 4 in order to “investigate a disturbing and heated death threat.” The threat was from the e-mail address “newsmanager@peta.org.”

Last night I read on PETA Watch that the fashion designer buckled down to the pressure of PETA after receiving over 4,500 abusive emails and death threats. The last straw for her was when a PETA member threatened her seven year-old son.

This is not the first time that PETA has used threats, insults, slander and even violence to intimidate people to comply with their crazy agenda. There isn’t a country in the world that does not have a mile long file on record about animal rights terrorism against law abiding hard working people that mind their own business and go about a legal profession. Ingrid Newkirk, the founder and president of PETA, herself has gone countless times on public record endorsing violence against people as a justified means to achieve the outlandish anti-human goals of her organization.

PETA spokesperson Ashley Fruno predictably denied being behind the attack.
"That's not something PETA ever does. Our entire philosophy is based on compassion to all beings." Yea right and what you call this or this. If that is what PETA calls "compassion" then God help us.

By the way, Ashley Fruno is one of PETA's most notorious activists. She has been arrested in many countries around the world on grounds of indecent exposure, harassment, intimidation and assault among a long list of other violations. Fruno is blacklisted and barred from entering several countries in Europe, Asia and other parts of the world. Ashley’s claim to animal rights activist fame is that she has been in more jails and courtrooms around the world then most other animal rights. It seems fitting for PETA to choose Fruno, a "hero" of the animal rights movement, as their spokesperson. It also says a lot about the violent nature of that movements agenda.

Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Tags: PETA, Animal Rights Terrorists, Death Threats, Alannah Hill, Animal Rights Violence, Animal Rights Threaten To Kill Seven Year Old Boy

PETA Issuing Death Threats?

Is PETA showing their true colors again?

From the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance

A recent e-mail sent to an Australian fashion designer from what appeared to be a PETA e-mail address contained an alleged death threat. If found true, PETA will have taken its outrageous acts to a new level.

Fashion designer Alannah Hill issued a public statement against PETA after receiving the alleged threat from a person indicating a relationship with the animal rights group. According to a statement published in several international newspapers, Hill stated that police were contacted on August 4 in order to “investigate a disturbing and heated death threat.” The threat was from the e-mail address “newsmanager@peta.org.”

PETA had been protesting outside Hill’s boutique in Melbourne, Australia by donning Grim Reaper outfits and criticizing use of rabbit fur in her designs.
According to media reports, a PETA staffer indicated that it does oppose Hill’s work, but denied that it was behind the specific threat made in the e-mail.

Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit


Tags: PETA, Death Threats, Animal Rights, U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance

The pink wave

© By Othmar Vohringer

Have you noticed the pink wave in the outdoor stores? I am sure you have. It seems as time goes on pink hunting and fishing gear proliferates at rapid speeds. I’ve seen pink rifles, bows, arrows, camouflage, gun cases and game calls. It's no different on the fishing side, pink rods, reels, fishing line, tackle boxes and fishing tools. I've even seen deer lure bottle labels, flashlights and get this; pink flashlight batteries, hunting knives and more.

What’s up with that pink wave on the hunting store shelves? It all started as a ploy to get more women interested in the outdoors and it worked to a degree. But has it now gone to far? Over the years I have talked to many women hunters and the opinions on pink differ vastly. Some women scoffed at the industry’s pink marketing mentality and think the industry would serve female hunters better by designing special equipment to accommodate women better then just painting everything pink. As one huntress put it. “What good is a pair of pink hunting boots to me if I can’t find them in my size.”

Other women find the pink wave downright sexist. They argue that in an age where we try to foster equality pink will achieve the opposite. “Hey look here I am a female hunter. I am different.” A new huntress on our hunter education course said. “I don’t want to be a female hunter, I want to be a hunter, period.” Another huntress said, “Bringing gender into it comes off as pandering and we do not need that in the hunting community. Women fought hard to be accepted as equals in the hunting community and now some of us want to make a visible statement that they are different. I don’t get it.”

The majority of the women I talked to fall somewhere in between. Like my wife who owns a pink fishing rod, they simply like the color while others say that pink isn’t for them but if it helps to bring more women into the hunting and fishing community, that’s great.

Not every pink colored item on the hunting store shelf is created to lure women. Some of the products are pink to raise funds for the Breast Cancer Foundation, like the pink binoculars introduced by Alpen Optics. Some of the proceeds generated through the sale of the pink Innerloc broadheads are also donated to the breast cancer foundation and so does Victory Archery with the sale of pink carbon arrows.

Next time you head to an outdoor store and see a large variety of equipment and gadgets available in pink remember that not all of them are a ploy by the industry to get more women into hunting. Some companies go a step further and combine the “catch” with something more useful by supporting breast cancer research. That is a good thing and we should support it. A pair of pink binoculars or a pink broadhead might not be out of place after all.


Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Tags: Pink Hunting Products, Pink Wave, Breast Cancer Foundation, Alpen Optics, InnerLoc Broadheads, Victory Archery

YouTube duck poachers plead guilty

© By Othmar Vohringer

That went fast! On Saturday morning I reported that the infamous YouThube duck poachers have been arrested a week after hunters unleashed a Canada wide manhunt.

Today the Global News reports that the three poachers pleaded guilty in court and have been sentenced. This must be the fasted I have ever seen somebody been sentenced. It caught be a bit of guard as I was fully prepared for the case would drag on for weeks if not months. The sentences are not what hunters and I expected. If a possible 300,000 dollar fine plus jail time the three poachers were only fined 16,000 dollars between them and no jail time.

Rowlands, the main shooter in the video, pleaded guilty to five charges and was fined $6,000. David and James Fraser each pleaded guilty to four charges and were fined $5,000. All three are unemployed and that might have figured in to the modest fines they were handed down. You can’t wring water out of a dry stone. Makes me wish they would bring back forced labor for prisoners, that way they could be put to work to pay the fines, damages and court costs, like it used to be in the good old days.

The three poachers had just recently moved from Toronto to a small community and that in itself may be punishment too. One of the poachers told the court that the community gives them a hard time. Silently I hope that the community, predominantly made up of hunters, forces these three to eventually move out of their town.

You can read the full article here.


I would like to thank all the bloggers that linked to my “duck poacher” articles and helped to spread the word. My thanks also go to everyone who posted their comments on this blog regarding the poachers. I would like to pick one special comment out and provide my answer here.

Monica wrote the following comment on “Duck Poachers Captured”

“I'm an animal advocate and am as happy as any of you that these idiot killers were apprehended. This is one of those instances where we can celebrate the common interests of hunters and animal welfare proponents. We all abhor this type of horrid slaughter. I find it disappointing that you've used this blog space to create more philosophical distance where we could, in fact, find agreement. It's when we come together that decency prevails. I believe tips came in across the board, from both hunters and non-hunters. We should celebrate that joint success.”

My answer:

I agree with you Monica. Animal rights or, animal welfare proponents, can agree on certain issues even work together on solving an issue. I have had many conversations with animal rights and in the majority these conversations had been very civil. Some animal rights respected my views after I explained to them what hunting is really all about. Others even changed their mind in favor of hunting and hunters while others agreed to disagree without hard feelings.

However, these are individual people. What I am aiming at are the animal rights organizations. Animal rights organizations have only one agenda and that is to make money of gullible people and abusing peoples emotions to that end. To achieve that, animal rights organizations will do whatever it takes to make hunters and hunting look bad in the public. This includes slander, criminalizing, dehumanizing, twisting facts or simply make them up as they go along. If anybody would talk about other minorities in this fashion they would be quite rightly sent to prison for hatemongering.

What I particularly object in this case is the fact that in all the broadcasting about the duck poachers, with very few exceptions, hunters were slowly phased out of been mentioned. To the end nowhere in the media has been made mention that in fact it was the hunting community that started the ball rolling and kept at it until the poachers were arrested. Nowhere in the media has it been mentioned that the hunting community offered over 1,000 dollar reward for information leading to the arrest of the poachers, long before the government or the Humane Society of Canada offered rewards.

All we heard in the news, and still do, is that the Humane Society of Canada, an affiliate of the notorious Humane Society of the United States (SHUS), offered a reward for the capture of the poachers. The turn started the moment the organization released thousands of press releases and henceforth hunters and their efforts were not talked about anymore in public. This is a sick trick of the animal rights movement and sympathizing media to make the Humane Society of Canada look good in the public eye. A hunting friend of mine was declined and interview in favor of a member of the Humane Society of Canada and that despite the many hours and days my friend helped the media to gather information for the news.

With that in mind, I used my blog to make sure that the people on the street know that it was thanks to the Canadian hunters and their unparalleled combined effort that got the poachers arrested, and not the Humane Society of Canada, the police or even the government. The simple fact is. Had it not been for the hunters this atrocity would never have gotten the attention of the mainstream media, the Humane Society of Canada or the authorities. In fact if it were not for the hunters that poaching case, like so many others, would most likely never have have been investigated. It is a well established fact in the law enforcement that hunters are at the very forefront in fight against wildlife and environment violations. It was hunters that helped to fund "Report A Poacher" programs.

I also find it objectionable that the Humane Society of Canada only put up the award after the case was all over the media. This was clearly an attempt to gain public exposure given the thousands of press releases they sent out to the media. There are other animal abuse cases the Humane Society of Canada put rewards out but they never make the mainstream media. There is not a newspaper in Canada or TV station that does not mention the Humane Society of Canada, making them look instrumental in this case. Yet, as I write this, the Humane Society of Canada gets ready to unleash another emotional barrage of hunter bashing and hate mongering in the mainstream media in an effort to outlaw bear hunting in British Columbia. The intent is clear to see, people will say, “This is the organization that helped bring down the duck poachers - which are often portrayed in public as hunters as "hunters" – now they are saving the bears from the nasty hunters. Well done, lets write a check out.”

In light of this it seems to me very important that the people know that hunters are not the “monsters” the Humane Society of Canada and other animal rights organizations makes them out to be. It is important to me that people know that hunters do more for the protection of wildlife and conservation then all animal right organizations and the so called environmental organization combined. Here is an article that outlines what hunters do to ensure that future generations can enjoy the variety and abundance of wildlife we all take for granted today.

Like I said, I always have respected individual animal rights and their views but I never will respect an organization that shamelessly abuses people emotionally and engages in hate mongering for financial benefit.

-ov-

Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Angling ambassador program

© By Othmar Vohringer

In all the hoopla about the outrage of a duck hunting video posted on YouTube and the following arrest of the poachers last week I didn’t have much time to write about an event that is very dear to me.

The Angling Ambassador Program, a joint endeavour of the BC Wildlife Federation (BCWF) and the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC (FFSBC) is an exiting new project to promote fishing and I am proud to be part of it. The objectives of this program are:

• To educate the general public on the benefits of angling and to provide instruction on fishing regulations interpretation pertaining to angling and conservation.
• BCWF members will offer fishing advice ( where to and how to ) at various lakes in the Thompson/Nicola Region.
• The program will encourage the general public to participate in angling, providing the opportunity to have fun for individuals and families.
• Provide information on BC Wildlife Federation, Report All Poachers and Polluters (RAPP), Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC (FFSBC), Habitat Conservation Trust Foundation (HCTF) and Ministry of Environment(MoE).
• The Thompson River watershed and the Nicola River watershed are designated sites including various lakes in the region and surrounding area.

On Wednesday August 5th we had our first ambassadorial duties. Our group from the Nicola Valley Fish & Game Club (Photo from left to right, Jack Madryga, Cyril George, Bill Otway, Othmar Vohringer and Paul Komonoski) headed to the Kentucky Lake located in the stunningly beautiful Kentucky Alleyne Provicial Park. After we set up the information booth and unloaded all the boxed full of fishing literature, tackle and fishing rods to be given away to young anglers we just had time for a refreshing cup of coffee before the action started.


In no time the booth was busy with anglers of all ages asking questions or just stopping by for a friendly chit-chat. The children were exited and thankful for the presents and all the advice we dispensed on how to catch fish. It didn’t take long before the first child came back to our booth and proudly showed off the trout she caught with the rod and tackle she received from the Angling Ambassador Program team.

Part of our “job”, and for me the most rewarding one, was to walk around the lake visiting with the anglers and helping them with any questions they may have. For me the biggest joy of the day was a young girl that tried for the better part of two hours to catch a fish. She kept asking her father what to do but he has never fished before either. After setting her fishing rod properly up and choosing the lure of the day and then showing her how to cast she caught a handsome rainbow trout of a respectable size. To see the girl’s face light up with a bright smile when she reeled the fish in combined with the joyous “Daddy I got one, Daddy look here I caught a fish.” was all the reward I needed.



















As I said at the beginning of this article, this was our first Angling Ambassador Program but it certainly was not our last one. As anglers and hunters we do not need a title and a uniform to become ambassadors of our great outdoor heritage. Every time a hunter or angler helps somebody else less knowledgeable with advice and some friendly encouragement he or she is an ambassador of our sport and contributes to the continuation of our treasured outdoor heritage.

Learn to catch more fish. Othmar Vohringer offers fishing courses for the beginning to advances angler.

Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Tags: Angling Ambassador Program, fishing, Kentucky Lake, BC Wildlife Federation, Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC

Duck Poachers Captured

© By Othmar Vohringer

Officials with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment confirm that three individuals have been arrested early Saturday morning in connection with the duck killing video posted on YouTube. I reported in my column on August 03 about the outrage of the Canadian hunting community and the hunter communities combined national effort to capture the poachers.

It took less than a week to catch these criminals. This must be one of the shortest times in apprehending poachers and it's in large part due to the Canadian hunters. Ones again hunters have shown that they are the true stewards of wildlife and habitat. Gary Harrison, head of special investigations for Saskatchewan's Ministry of Environment, said "It was more of a response than any other single event since the Turn In Poacher's (TIP) line began, which I believe was in 1989. Not only did we get calls here (in Saskatchewan), but Alberta Turn In Poacher's line as well received numerous calls."

Hunters were on the forefront in this manhunt from the moment the original video was posted on YouTube. After the original video had been taken down by the original creators a hunter from Alberta posted it back up again to make the video available to as many people as possible. Hunters created a special Facebook page “Get the Poachers” for the gathering and exchange of information on the poachers and to spread the word to as many people as possible.

The Alberta Outdoorsmen Forum created a special discussion section about the duck poachers and became the national "duck poacher action headquarters". Some members used their media connections to spread the word and ask for information about the identity of the poachers on TV and radio appearances. Other forum members familiar with video editing dissected the video frame-by-frame to find clues to identify the area where the crime happen and details of the firearms and vehicle that had been used and to obtain "mug shots" of the perpetrators. It was in any event an extraordinary effort on behalf of all ethical and law-abiding hunters of Canada that ultimately lead to the capture of the poachers this Saturday morning.

With this exemplary effort by hunters to bring the criminals to justice it seems almost like a joke that the Canadian Humane Society, an affiliate of the notorious Humane Society of the Untied States (HSUS), felt that they had to chime in too. Three days ago Michael O'Sullivan, the executive director of the Canadian Humane Society, announced that his group is offering $1,000 to anyone that helps catch the perpetrators. This was after a group of hunters already pledged a $ 1,000 reward for the capture of the poachers.

O'Sullivan also said that the Canadian Humane Society would ask the prosecutors to take away the privileges to hunt and own firearms from the criminals. Which is a mute statement clearly aimed at sounding important or concerned. The removal of hunting privileges and taking away the privileges to own firearms is already common court procedure in all poaching cases. Not that criminals ever where overly concerned about the loss of hunting and firearm ownership privileges. What bites more are the heavy fines, up to $ 15,000, and possible jail time that awaits the duck killers.

I fully expected, and predicted it in my first column about the duck poachers, that the animal rights fanatics would chime in and try to get some media mileage out from that case. I also predict that the animal right will use this case in the future in their bid to ridicule hunters and associate us with poachers. The animal rights must just hate that it had been hunters, the very people they decry as “cruel”, that showed passion and respect for wildlife and the law and by doing so are responsible for bringing down the duck poachers.

Following this story through the media I am pleased to say that the media behaved and not ones, as usually is the case, used the words “hunters” and “poachers” interchangeably. In fact the media made it very clear that these are poachers, not regular law abiding hunters. It is my hope that in future the media will do the same and not revert to the “mistake” of using the word “hunter” for poachers.

Well done my fellow hunters and conservationist from Alberta and Saskatchewan. This is another day to be a proud hunter.

Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Tags: You Tube Duck Killing Video, Duck Poachers, Alberta, Saskatchewan, duck Poachers Arrested, Alberta Outdoorsmen Forum

A great outdoor ambassador introduces her own blog

© By Othmar Vohringer

I am a bit late with this exiting news. But better late than never. I have been rally tied up with stuff lately that lets me very little time to blog or visit other blogs. So thanks to an email alert it came to my attention that one of the great voices of the outdoors has just created and released her own blog. That’s right I wrote “her” because the writer is Kristine Shreve the great ambassador of all things outdoors.

I am thrilled about the new blog and deep down I somehow always knew that Kristine would start her own blog. If you have been following this blog then you know that Kristine used to be the writer of “Hunt Smart, Think Safety” for just over three years. During that time she made herself a name in the outdoor blogging world. The company Kristine wrote the blog for unfortunately had to close the doors a month ago and with that the blog went down too.

Kristine is also the main writer of the Outdoor Bloggers Summit, an organization of which Kristine is a co-founder. After a brief hiatus from blogging Kristine is thankfully back with her own blog Tenderfoot Diaries.

For all of you who know Kristine you’re probably like me and pleased to see this important voice back in the outdoor blogger sphere. For those of you that do not know Kristine, I encourage you to go and read her new blog.

It’s great to have you back Kristine. Here is to you – lifts his whiskey class and cheers - to long and prosperous blogging career. By the way, I like your post about the positive outdoor influence your father had on you I can relate to that from my own childhood .

Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

The wildfires rage on

© By Othmar Vohringer

As I write this Merritt, the country music capital of Canada, is shrouded in a cloak of smoke so thick that visibility has been reduced to a couple of miles. In addition the air is filled with the pungent smell of burned wood and grass. These are definitely not good times for people suffering from asthma.

Merritt is surrounded by a ring of forest and wildfires. To the north, south, east and west of our small picturesque town fires rage out of control. So far the fires have consumed several thousand hectares of grassland and forest. Fire bombers and firefighter helicopters fly over our town day and night filling up their water tanks in the Nicola Lake and then fly back to battle the infernos. Some of the wildfires are hard to access due to the steep terrain that even helicopters have difficulty flying in.

It all started off with a forest fire in Kelowna two weeks ago. That fire is now under control but still burning. Since then we had a thunder and lightening storm pass trough the area. The welcome moisture was quickly evaporated by the intense heat wave we experience and the lightening sparked more forest and grassland fires ending in all the fires we have today. The government reports that alone in our area there are about 150 small to large wildfires.

Several communities around Merritt have evacuation alerts in place and in few communities people have been told on shot notice to evacuate, leaving everything but the absolute essentials behind. Merritt I am happy to say is still safe from such drastic measures but given that the closest forest fire rages only a few miles outside town I am watching the sky and the news very carefully.

The weather is hot and its bone dry. Today I had to dig a hole in the garden and down to about two feet the dirt is dry as the dessert. You ought to think that these conditions make people more aware of the danger and therefore more careful yet I still see some people flick their burning cigarette stumps out of car windows. This makes me wonder just how stupid some people are. All it needs in these conditions and the high winds is a spark to explode into a raging fire within seconds. I keep watching and praying.

Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Tags: Merritt, Forest Fires, British Columbia, Firefighters

Canadian hunting community outraged

© By Othmar Vohringer

A video posted on YouTube has the Canadian hunting community and wildlife conservation agencies outraged and disgusted.

The video that has been posted sometime early last week on YouTube shows a group of young men driving in a car along a lakeshore, shooting indiscriminately at ducks and ducklings with air rifles and a .22 rimfire rifle. It is illegal this time of year to hunt ducks. It’s also illegal to shoot out of a vehicle and killing or harassing animals.

The Canadian Internet hunting forums soon were abuzz with comments from outraged hunters. Some said that the video was so violent and disgusting that they couldn’t bear to watch it to the end. I watched the video to and it frankly made me sick to my stomach. Many of the ducks and ducklings these punks shot at were crippled and condemned to die a slow and agonizing death. In addition what made it very hard to watch is the obvious joy these poachers displayed, laughing and hollering each time one of them killed or crippled a duck as if it were a video game.

Comments ranged to from disgust and upset to outright anger. One forum member said what many felt about the video. "Deep down I really hope all of these guys get what's coming to them. The blatant disrespect for wildlife and ultimately the law is just cause to put these guys in jail, not to mention the millions of law abiding gun owners, hunters and huntresses that they have disrespected."

It didn’t take long before the phones to the various conservation agencies and the RCMP (police) run hot from outraged hunters alerting the authorities what they have seen on YouTube. The authorities have launched a full investigation after they dissected the video frame by frame. By late last week the RCMP and wildlife agencies were able to follow the first leads and narrow the crime scene down.

So far the authorities have narrowed down the province and area where this atrocity occurred. They also know the vehicle that has been used and have a fairly good description of one perpetrator.

The car is a Hyundai Tiburon. The area is most likely southwestern Saskatchewan or southeastern Alberta based on a field of canola in the background of the video that only grows in these areas. One man in the video is referred by the name of Dave and another is called Jer. Both youth in the video a white and around age twenty. The car driver is shown wearing a grey shirt and orange shorts, while the second man is wearing a red shirt and dark pants. The videographer also turns the camera toward himself at one point, revealing he's wearing a black hat and has a goatee.

There is hope that the authorities soon will apprehend the criminals. If you have any information please call the Saskatchewan Environment Ministry tip line at 1-800-667-7561 or any other conservation and RCMP station in Canada.

This outrages video has show ones again that if it matters hunters are on the forefront of environmental and wildlife protection banding nationwide together in an effort to bring law violators to justice. On a interesting side note, as hard as I searched on the Internet I couldn’t find any animal rights organization making any mention of that outrages video. I guess they wait until the perpetrators are caught to use the occasion to launch a “ban hunting” campaign.

Another interesting side note. YouTube took the video offline and a hunter re-posted it again on YouTube, thus making sure many hunters see it what ultimately led to the investigation of the crime.

You can view the video here, but we warned the content is graphic and very disturbing.


Othmar Vohringer Outdoors
Founding Member of Outdoor Bloggers Summit

Tags: Poachers, YouTube Duck Poacher Video, Canada, Alberta, Saskatchewan