I have heard of hunters shooting horses before because they mistook a horse for a Moose or a deer. Until today though, I never heard of them shooting horses thinking the horses were critters much smaller than a whitetail deer. Somehow though, an off duty Sheriff's Officer (who works as a lieutenant in the corrections division of the Ontario County SO in New York) and his hunting buddy wound up shooting two horses in two different locations on one property. Now you might think they must have been out deer hunting and somehow mistook the horse for deer but nope that is not it by a longshot. The fact is they were reported to have been coyote hunting!
I wonder howintoxicated you have to be to mistake a horse for a coyote and then do it again in a separate incident on earth you could mistake a horse for a coyote but these guys are either apparently not talking about that point or what they have said has not been released; so we may never know. As a matter of fact, the horse shooting took place last month and it reportedly took NY's Department of Environmental Conservation, the investigating agency, about three (3) weeks to release any information. Imagine that, it took three weeks for DEC law enforcement officers to divulge that one of the suspects in the case was a sheriff's officer.
The not so skilled hunters killed one horse and wounded the other. DEC reportedly has fined them $200 apiece, has revoked their hunting licenses for three years and is going to make them pay restitution for the dead horse and for the vet bills for the other horse. They reportedly gave out little other information to the press. According to the horses owner, they also did not ell him the names of the suspects - so how is it that he is supposed to seek damages from them and collect what DEC says they have to pay?
When the Ontario County Sheriff was questioned about this incident, he reportedly said he could not comment because this was a private matter. Everyone in law enforcement, who is involved in this somehow, seems surprisingly mum on this. Last time I recall though, a law enforcement officer violating the law (or even the hunting regulations) was a public issue since LEOs are civil servants (aka: public employees). In fact, any hunter violating the law (or hunting regulations) makes this a public issue and not a private one. Let's face it, if it was Elmer J. Fudd and his buddy who had shot the horses, this would have been headline news all over the state almost as soon as it had happened but it was a LEO and LE authorities seem to have suddenly clammed up.
I have to question what would have happened had this been me and my son. I am betting: we would have lost our hunting licenses for at least 5 years, we would have been fined closer to $1,000, we would have been arrested for reckless discharge of a firearm (or whatever a relative charge would be), we would have had our hunting guns confiscated, I would have had my pistol license revoked and we would have been obliged not only with restitution but community service and maybe even jail time. Of course, that is just my guess but then neither me or my son is a lieutenant in the Sheriff's department in the county where the offenses took place. Now, maybe I am getting that wrong, maybe NY is as lenient with out of control hunters as they are with out of control drug dealers and welfare cheats but I think this investigation smells as bad as a month long dead horse.
Source: http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s3711510.shtml.
All the best,
Glenn B
I wonder how
The not so skilled hunters killed one horse and wounded the other. DEC reportedly has fined them $200 apiece, has revoked their hunting licenses for three years and is going to make them pay restitution for the dead horse and for the vet bills for the other horse. They reportedly gave out little other information to the press. According to the horses owner, they also did not ell him the names of the suspects - so how is it that he is supposed to seek damages from them and collect what DEC says they have to pay?
When the Ontario County Sheriff was questioned about this incident, he reportedly said he could not comment because this was a private matter. Everyone in law enforcement, who is involved in this somehow, seems surprisingly mum on this. Last time I recall though, a law enforcement officer violating the law (or even the hunting regulations) was a public issue since LEOs are civil servants (aka: public employees). In fact, any hunter violating the law (or hunting regulations) makes this a public issue and not a private one. Let's face it, if it was Elmer J. Fudd and his buddy who had shot the horses, this would have been headline news all over the state almost as soon as it had happened but it was a LEO and LE authorities seem to have suddenly clammed up.
I have to question what would have happened had this been me and my son. I am betting: we would have lost our hunting licenses for at least 5 years, we would have been fined closer to $1,000, we would have been arrested for reckless discharge of a firearm (or whatever a relative charge would be), we would have had our hunting guns confiscated, I would have had my pistol license revoked and we would have been obliged not only with restitution but community service and maybe even jail time. Of course, that is just my guess but then neither me or my son is a lieutenant in the Sheriff's department in the county where the offenses took place. Now, maybe I am getting that wrong, maybe NY is as lenient with out of control hunters as they are with out of control drug dealers and welfare cheats but I think this investigation smells as bad as a month long dead horse.
Source: http://www.whec.com/news/stories/s3711510.shtml.
All the best,
Glenn B
