Review of Poachers Caught!
From Poachers Caught!, a book by a retired Minnesota Conservation Officer:
In mid-March, a crust formed on the melting snow overnight, preventing already weakened animals from getting to food sources only 30 feet from the trail. Deer were slowly starving.
Many rural dogs located these weakened populations and their primitive instincts prevailed. The size and breed of the dog had no bearing on the dog's desire to kill; they were pets transformed into wolves. The morning was the critical time for the killing sprees. The snow, still crusty after a cold night, would support the dogs' weight and allow them to take long romps far from home over the frozen surfaces. A pack of mutts would actually form a hierarchy, the largest and strongest dog assuming leadership.
Just after sunrise, I patrolled the edges of yards known to have "pack dogs" looking intently for fresh canine tracks entering the woods.
The first set of tracks was quite large, ambling ahead of two smaller prints. The thin crust was unable to hold my weight, forcing me to limit my forward stumbling to the deer trails. Within five minutes of my grueling march, I spotted the first sign of mutilation: a yearling deer lay half buried 3 feet off the deep path. It appeared to have hardly struggled while raging teeth had torn it apart. Dogs on a deer mission seldom eat their prey; they only kill for the primal thrill!
Twenty yards farther was another red swirl of devastation. Two more fawns lay a few feet apart amid a layer of brown and white hair strewn about the otherwise white surface.
Before my morning trek was finished, I witnessed 16 carcasses of deer, all slaughtered and left for the ravens and coyotes to complete the feeding cycle.
I appreciate the book. It gives a real education in natural resource enforcement.
I learned:
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A good way to poach fish at night without attracting attention is to sink a light into the lake and spear the fish as the come to check out the light.
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Don't tell the conservation officer that all the fish you have cut up and packaged are rock bass. He won't believe you.
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Poach in an area without vehicle access or surrounded by private lands.
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Don't mark the path to your illegal gill netting operation with orange tape
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If you use booze to control the alchoholic butcher that processes your poached deer, keep the shack were he lives locked.
There is a great deal of "It was a dark and stormy night" writing here. However, the exciting stories and insight into north woods culture make the "forward stumbling" through the flowery prose worth while.
Pretty much a meat and potato storyteller, he wades into the technical detail of his work without a look back. I find the details interesting. He has a deep knowledge of the biology of the resource he is trying to protect and great skills at watching and dealing with people. I read in the Star Tribune that he published the book himself. He could have used a better editor.
Despite the rough writing, he made his poachers come alive. There are sheepish tourists that know they are breaking the law, drunken, gun toting hard core poachers who physically intimdate the officer. He nails the descriptions of these people and that in itself is entertaining.
12:02:25 AM 
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