All, below is an article I submitted to Bugle for the ethics section they have in their publication. I have no idea if it will ever be published so I thought I would post it here not only to share my experience but also spur some good dicussion. Hope you enjoy.
Ethical Conundrum
Shawn Stafford
Since childhood I have been a hunter. I grew up and still live in the Midwest where most of my hunting has taken place. As my means have increased along with my age I have been working to expand my hunting experiences outside my traditional grounds. Needless to say when an opportunity arose to hunt the Wapiti for the first time last year I was beside myself. The hunt was to take place with some good friends on public ground in Colorado. After extensive research we opted to go with an outfitter that would pack us in to a drop camp and leave us to test our own hunting prowess against that of the Rocky Mountain Elk. The physical training began and the acquisition of some additional gear and supplies was enjoyable and education leading up to the big trip. Finally it was time for the 24 hour trip from Illinois to see the Rockies for the first time. Everything was like a dream as the ground was covered with a fresh blanket of snow the morning of our pack in and riding a horse through the mountains was even cooler than I could have imagined. Camp was everything that you would hope an elk camp would be with a wall tent, wood stove, creek, and meat pole all nestled into the valley floor.
Success struck our party of four on day one with the taking of a fine 6x6. The next couple of days went without any shot opportunities but we were seeing elk and soaking in every second of the experience. Another partner and I devised a plan ascend several thousand feet and be on the top of a ridge at daybreak on day four to ambush some elk we had been seeing at a distance the previous days. I left my partner at the apex of the ridge while I moved down the other side approx. ¼ mile. The sun rose and everything was perfect when suddenly the morning silence was broken by the echoing of four shots in the direction where I had left my buddy. This is where the ethical downslide began. He had lost his radio early in the trip so I had no open communication with him. But I was sure that it was him since we were in the middle of nowhere and had devised the perfect plan. Not wanting to rush in I waited as long as I could (which only amounted to about 10 minutes) before heading in his direction. My excitement was overwhelming as I reached the area he was supposed to be at. He wasn’t there when I arrived but after about 15 minutes I found him. I remember asking him “where is it” with a touch of hysteria. His face told a story different than what I had expected to hear. Looking back I should have known something was up when I heard four consecutive shots and his rifle only held three. His words of “it wasn’t me” couldn’t have been more deflating. I remember thinking how could it not have been him? He was devastated so I knew that this was no joke. He told the story that he heard elk approaching his position on the ridge top. He began creeping slowly to overlook a small shelf where the footsteps were originating. He had even seen a set of legs through the trees and was preparing to get into a position to shoot when three hunters came parading past him within yards as if he wasn’t there. Here was our first display of poor ethics. Cleary my partner was stalking an animal and these guys gave no regard whatsoever to his situation. It’s public land and they were perfectly within their legal right but definitely made a poor choice to disrupt my partners hunt as they did. Inside of sixty seconds from passing my partner the four shots were fired. He did not pursue but rather waited until I arrived and we discussed the situation. After pondering the situation curiosity got the best of us and we wondered in the direction the three had went. What we found was a second and hideous display of ethics. We found one dead cow that the quarters had been stripped off leaving behind a significant amount of meat. Only 20 yards away we found a dead calf that was untouched. No hunters were to be found. We were sick to our stomachs and in a situation we really weren’t prepared for. Hoping that the hunters planned to return to get the remainder of the meat, but certainly doubtful since they had made such short work of the cow and didn’t even bother gutting the calf, we planned to move down the ridge for the evening hunt. One thing that we did do prior to moving off was examine the carcasses for bullet holes. We found two wounds on the cow and only one on the calf. We just assumed that the fourth shot was a miss but we would later find out that it wasn’t. We finished our hunt that evening without success and had to pass back through the area with the slain elk on our way back to camp. As we feared, neither body had been touched since we saw them hours before. Up to this point we were merely spectators in the nightmare of ethical decisions. Unfortunately for us that had changed by the time we arrived back at camp that evening.
The other two members of our group were already back at camp anxiously awaiting our arrival when we got there after dark. They had been fortunate enough to take a cow elk of their own at the bottom of the valley earlier that day, but that wasn’t the cause of their anxiety. While tending to the chores that follow the killing of an elk they were startled by a loud crashing noise coming from above their position at the valley floor. Peering up the mountainside what they saw was a cow elk plummeting directly towards their location. To the point that they had to physically move away from the elk they were butchering for fear that the tumbling elk was going to hit them (had I not seen the proof I wouldn’t believe it either). Unbeknownst to my partner and I on top the ridge our counterparts had just found the location of the fourth shot. No other shots had been fired anywhere in the vicinity other than the four heard from the poachers and the shots taken at the cow elk from our group. Obviously the two members of the group were shocked and baffled by what had just happened. They waited for a while just to see if anyone was coming to claim their animal. No one came and they finally finished with their cow elk and had the meat hung in trees.
Here is where our group got put into an extremely difficult ethical situation. Over the course of the day we all had to make the decision to leave both the untouched calf at the top of the mountain and the dead cow at the bottom of the valley. There was only one cow tag in our group and he had already put it on his cow. Legally we did not have a tag to put on either the calf or cow. Should be go ahead and butcher them up and salvage the meat or do we leave them to rot? We were sick. If we were to take the meat and get caught with it would the game warden believe our story or would we now be the criminals? As hunters and sportsmen, the thought of wasting an animal’s life is one of the worst things you can do. Could we live with that? We thought long and hard and talked it over repeatedly. We were miles in the wilderness with no real means of getting in touch with a warden. It would be half a days hike to a road then who knows how far to the nearest phone. By that time would the meat even be good? That is assuming we were given the OK to keep the animals. Ultimately the legal system won and we opted to leave the animals as they lay. Right or wrong, that was our decision. Unfortunately we had to pass the cow carcass several times during the remainder of the trip as a constant reminder of the unjust choices of others.
Several days later our outfitter came into check on us and rode directly past the bloated cow which was laying ten yards from the carcass of cow that my group had taken and butchered. Needless to say she was fuming when she arrived at our camp thinking we had done the unspeakable. We quickly explained the situation and offered to tell our story to the game warden if she could make the arrangements for him to meet us after our pack out the following day. When we arrived at the extraction point the following morning the warden was present and took our statement. He and the outfitter were going to ride back in and examine the carcasses in detail as we had given their locations on a map. I doubt that the offenders ever have to answer for their deeds but I do know that it is something I won’t soon forget. Fortunately for our group we did manage to come home with four elk which far surpassed our expectations and we are already anticipating our return in 2015.
Ethical Conundrum
Shawn Stafford
Since childhood I have been a hunter. I grew up and still live in the Midwest where most of my hunting has taken place. As my means have increased along with my age I have been working to expand my hunting experiences outside my traditional grounds. Needless to say when an opportunity arose to hunt the Wapiti for the first time last year I was beside myself. The hunt was to take place with some good friends on public ground in Colorado. After extensive research we opted to go with an outfitter that would pack us in to a drop camp and leave us to test our own hunting prowess against that of the Rocky Mountain Elk. The physical training began and the acquisition of some additional gear and supplies was enjoyable and education leading up to the big trip. Finally it was time for the 24 hour trip from Illinois to see the Rockies for the first time. Everything was like a dream as the ground was covered with a fresh blanket of snow the morning of our pack in and riding a horse through the mountains was even cooler than I could have imagined. Camp was everything that you would hope an elk camp would be with a wall tent, wood stove, creek, and meat pole all nestled into the valley floor.
Success struck our party of four on day one with the taking of a fine 6x6. The next couple of days went without any shot opportunities but we were seeing elk and soaking in every second of the experience. Another partner and I devised a plan ascend several thousand feet and be on the top of a ridge at daybreak on day four to ambush some elk we had been seeing at a distance the previous days. I left my partner at the apex of the ridge while I moved down the other side approx. ¼ mile. The sun rose and everything was perfect when suddenly the morning silence was broken by the echoing of four shots in the direction where I had left my buddy. This is where the ethical downslide began. He had lost his radio early in the trip so I had no open communication with him. But I was sure that it was him since we were in the middle of nowhere and had devised the perfect plan. Not wanting to rush in I waited as long as I could (which only amounted to about 10 minutes) before heading in his direction. My excitement was overwhelming as I reached the area he was supposed to be at. He wasn’t there when I arrived but after about 15 minutes I found him. I remember asking him “where is it” with a touch of hysteria. His face told a story different than what I had expected to hear. Looking back I should have known something was up when I heard four consecutive shots and his rifle only held three. His words of “it wasn’t me” couldn’t have been more deflating. I remember thinking how could it not have been him? He was devastated so I knew that this was no joke. He told the story that he heard elk approaching his position on the ridge top. He began creeping slowly to overlook a small shelf where the footsteps were originating. He had even seen a set of legs through the trees and was preparing to get into a position to shoot when three hunters came parading past him within yards as if he wasn’t there. Here was our first display of poor ethics. Cleary my partner was stalking an animal and these guys gave no regard whatsoever to his situation. It’s public land and they were perfectly within their legal right but definitely made a poor choice to disrupt my partners hunt as they did. Inside of sixty seconds from passing my partner the four shots were fired. He did not pursue but rather waited until I arrived and we discussed the situation. After pondering the situation curiosity got the best of us and we wondered in the direction the three had went. What we found was a second and hideous display of ethics. We found one dead cow that the quarters had been stripped off leaving behind a significant amount of meat. Only 20 yards away we found a dead calf that was untouched. No hunters were to be found. We were sick to our stomachs and in a situation we really weren’t prepared for. Hoping that the hunters planned to return to get the remainder of the meat, but certainly doubtful since they had made such short work of the cow and didn’t even bother gutting the calf, we planned to move down the ridge for the evening hunt. One thing that we did do prior to moving off was examine the carcasses for bullet holes. We found two wounds on the cow and only one on the calf. We just assumed that the fourth shot was a miss but we would later find out that it wasn’t. We finished our hunt that evening without success and had to pass back through the area with the slain elk on our way back to camp. As we feared, neither body had been touched since we saw them hours before. Up to this point we were merely spectators in the nightmare of ethical decisions. Unfortunately for us that had changed by the time we arrived back at camp that evening.
The other two members of our group were already back at camp anxiously awaiting our arrival when we got there after dark. They had been fortunate enough to take a cow elk of their own at the bottom of the valley earlier that day, but that wasn’t the cause of their anxiety. While tending to the chores that follow the killing of an elk they were startled by a loud crashing noise coming from above their position at the valley floor. Peering up the mountainside what they saw was a cow elk plummeting directly towards their location. To the point that they had to physically move away from the elk they were butchering for fear that the tumbling elk was going to hit them (had I not seen the proof I wouldn’t believe it either). Unbeknownst to my partner and I on top the ridge our counterparts had just found the location of the fourth shot. No other shots had been fired anywhere in the vicinity other than the four heard from the poachers and the shots taken at the cow elk from our group. Obviously the two members of the group were shocked and baffled by what had just happened. They waited for a while just to see if anyone was coming to claim their animal. No one came and they finally finished with their cow elk and had the meat hung in trees.
Here is where our group got put into an extremely difficult ethical situation. Over the course of the day we all had to make the decision to leave both the untouched calf at the top of the mountain and the dead cow at the bottom of the valley. There was only one cow tag in our group and he had already put it on his cow. Legally we did not have a tag to put on either the calf or cow. Should be go ahead and butcher them up and salvage the meat or do we leave them to rot? We were sick. If we were to take the meat and get caught with it would the game warden believe our story or would we now be the criminals? As hunters and sportsmen, the thought of wasting an animal’s life is one of the worst things you can do. Could we live with that? We thought long and hard and talked it over repeatedly. We were miles in the wilderness with no real means of getting in touch with a warden. It would be half a days hike to a road then who knows how far to the nearest phone. By that time would the meat even be good? That is assuming we were given the OK to keep the animals. Ultimately the legal system won and we opted to leave the animals as they lay. Right or wrong, that was our decision. Unfortunately we had to pass the cow carcass several times during the remainder of the trip as a constant reminder of the unjust choices of others.
Several days later our outfitter came into check on us and rode directly past the bloated cow which was laying ten yards from the carcass of cow that my group had taken and butchered. Needless to say she was fuming when she arrived at our camp thinking we had done the unspeakable. We quickly explained the situation and offered to tell our story to the game warden if she could make the arrangements for him to meet us after our pack out the following day. When we arrived at the extraction point the following morning the warden was present and took our statement. He and the outfitter were going to ride back in and examine the carcasses in detail as we had given their locations on a map. I doubt that the offenders ever have to answer for their deeds but I do know that it is something I won’t soon forget. Fortunately for our group we did manage to come home with four elk which far surpassed our expectations and we are already anticipating our return in 2015.
