Wyoming Man Poaching “Town Deer”

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Many towns across the West have wildlife living inside city limits. Cody, Wyoming is famous for a lot of things: Buffalo Bill Center of the West museum, a jumping off point for Yellowstone National Park, vibrant tourism and the mule deer that live within its confines. Until recently those deer, including some rather impressive bucks, have lived peacefully with city residents and enjoy a respite from the rampant apex predators in the area such as grizzlies, wolves and mountain lions. 

Notice I said until recently. Joshua Tamirat Wielhouwer was arraigned this week on “nine counts of taking a big game animal without a license and nine counts of wanton destruction of a big game animal.” It turns out that “pets”, though these deer are technically wild, aren’t just disappearing in Springfield, Ohio. 

In all, Wielhouwer poached two bucks, six does a fawn mule deer. The deer’s carcasses were discovered between August 27th and September 4th with one doe discovered floating in a pond. All of the deer were killed with a bow. 

If, and hopefully when, Wielhouwer is found guilty, he could face misdemeanor charges that carry a maximum of a year in jail and/or a $10,000 fine each! In all, if I’m reading things correctly, that means he could face 9 years in jail and $90,000 in fines. I’m good with that and personally hope the judge throws the literal book at him. 

There is zero room for wanton poaching and there should be zero tolerance for it either. As I’ve said before, honest mistakes happen in hunting but this appears to be far from that. Acts such as this are heinous maliciousness and need to be snuffed out wherever they occur. 

I’m dying to hear your thoughts on this. In a world where mule deer are struggling across their range and opportunities to hunt them grow more scarce by the year, crimes like this one are intolerable.