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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Division of Wildlife officials are asking for the public’s help in gathering information about three separate poaching incidents during November.
The first poaching occurred sometime on Nov. 15 near Henefer City, Summit County, according to a DWR news release. Conservation officers said a four-point buck deer was resting on an embankment above Highway 64 south of Henefer City when it was shot with a broadhead tipped hunting arrow. The buck deer then jumped up, ran down the embankment and was struck and killed by a passing vehicle. The vehicle slid off the road and hit the embankment, wildlife officials said.
The deer was left to die with no attempt to salvage any part of it.
Wildlife officials believe the poacher shot from across the roadway, which was out of the Wasatch Front Extended Archery Unit. There were no active hunts for buck deer in that part of Summit County during that time period, DWR officials said.
“Unethical and illegal hunting activity hurts everyone,” wildlife officials said in the news release. “It robs opportunity from law-abiding citizens of our state to enjoy the wildlife resources we all cherish. It hinders the efforts of DWR officials to manage the wildlife entrusted to them.”
The second poaching incident occurred in the Mt. Aire area near Lamb’s Canyon sometime between Nov. 15 and Nov. 22, wildlife officials said. A hunter called the Utah Turn-in-a-Poacher hotline to report that he had located a bull moose carcass while he was hunting elk in the area. However, there were no legal moose hunts happening at the time in that area, DWR said.
The moose had been partially skinned and the antlers were removed, but the rest of the meat had been left to waste.
The third illegal killing was reported during Thanksgiving weekend from a citizen who reported finding a headless carcass of a buck deer in Lehi, DWR said. Conservation officers said they responded to the scene near 1350 W. 800 North and discovered the deer had been shot and killed with a rifle. The poacher took the head of the deer and left the rest of the meat to waste.
“People who frequent the area reported seeing a mature buck with unique drop tines on both sides of the antlers,” DWR officials said in the news release. “It is possible this carcass is from that unique, drop-tine buck.”
Anyone with information about any of these illegal killings can call the UTIP hotline at 1-800-662-3337 or email the information to toturninapoacher@utah.gov. Rewards are often available for information leading to the successful prosecution of wildlife crimes, and tipsters can remain anonymous.
