According to the Citizen Tribune, two men learned Monday that hunting wild turkey out of season can be expensive.
Approximately one month ago, William Chandler Day of Hawkins County and Heath Bryant of Knoxville were traveling along Fowler’s Grove Road in the Bybee community of Cocke County when they spotted a flock of wild turkeys in a field.
According to Agent Scott Hollenbeck with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the gentlemen stopped the car and Day shot one of the birds with a rifle.
As a result, Day plead guilty to hunting turkey out of season and hunting from a vehicle in Cocke County General Sessions Court last Monday. Judge John Bell ordered Day to pay a $300 fine plus court costs of about $150. Bryant pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the shooting and was fined $250 plus court costs.
The men were ordered to pay $250 each to replace the turkey, lost their hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for three years and their rifle was confiscated.
So, that’s roughly a $1300 fowl, which the men didn’t get to keep. (The turkey was confiscated by Hollenbeck.)
I’m thinking they’d have been better off with a Butterball.
Wow, so Agent Hollenbeck just happened to be walking by on that day?
I guess the lesson is to not be doing this on a thoroughfare.
Deborah, if I were just guessing, I’d say TWRA was monitoring the area because this wasn’t the first turkey bagged out-of-season.
I don’t have a problem with these gentlemen finding themselves in trouble with this, it wasn’t their land and they didn’t have permission from the owner to hunt. That’s what I see as the real crime.
Honestly, I do not agree with the legal precedent that stated that all wildlife in the state of tennessee is the property of the state government. That is outrageous, in my opinion. If a turkey lands on my porch and I catch it, it is mine to keep and eat and be off with those who say I didn’t do it on the right day.
I suppose I am influenced by history on this. In England, all wildlife belonged to the King and he would allow the Noblemen a ‘right’ to hunt ‘the king’s property. This law was used to oppress and abuse commoners who were trying to feed their families.
It is precisely this sort of attitude of government entitlement that George Washington and Thomas Jefferson took up arms to eliminate.
The wildlife on your property does NOT belong to the king and it is an devilish abomination to say so!