NDOW seeks help to stop poaching

According to a recent press release by the Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), as the last of the 2006 big game hunting seasons near their close, Nevada Department of Wildlife game wardens are seeking the public's help to solve a substantial increase in the number of poached big game animals across the state.

NDOW game wardens have discovered many poached animals around the state throughout the hunting season.

Near Battle Mountain, game wardens found four poached mule deer since the start of archery season in late August.

In Lincoln County, wardens are investigating reports of three cow elk poached.

Game wardens also discovered several mule deer poached in Washoe County.

All these cases are in addition to individual animals sporadically found in other parts of the state.

More alarming to the wardens is the disturbing trend of groups of poached animals killed and left to waste.

In Elko County, wardens are investigating a report of three poached elk and a group of five poached deer.

"We are used to seeing some poachers pretending to be hunters during the open season," said Rob Buonamici, chief game warden in Reno. "But the concentration of some of these poached animals is alarming. Each and every animal killed without a tag is a felony, which we take very seriously. We intend to use all our resources to apprehend the persons responsible for these crimes."

Along with these extraordinary cases, wardens are also seeing an upswing in more traditional wildlife crimes, such as loaded guns in vehicles, improperly punched tags and so-called party hunting.

"We are getting many spike bucks killed mistakenly by doe hunters. We have had several cases of mistakenly killing multiple animals. We see these kinds of cases year after year, but this year there seems to be more of everything," said Game Warden Lieutenant Jerry Smith.

Game wardens are asking hunters in the field to report suspicious activity and wildlife crimes to Operation Game Thief (OGT) at (800) 992-3030.