My opinion: If any deer is worth a $5000 fine, every deer is worth a $5000 fine. Poaching is poaching, and fining someone a replacement cost of $163 dollars for a deer is ridiculous.
Poachers are getting away with illegally taking animals
By SHANNON TOMPKINS
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
June 5, 2004
Poachers owe the people of Texas more than $3.5 million in civil penalties assessed as restitution for the wildlife or fish they were convicted of illegally taking.
But other than sending dunning letters to the poachers and refusing to sell them hunting or fishing licenses or other licenses and permits issued by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, there's nothing the agency can do to collect that money from those who refuse to pay.
"Only the attorney general's office can pursue civil penalties," Col. Jim Stinebaugh told the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission's regulations committee during a briefing in late May. "Parks and Wildlife does not have authority to collect civil penalties; we can't go out and arrest someone because they owe us money."
TPWD attempts to collect the money by sending letters to persons convicted of illegally taking public wildlife or fish. But if after the agency has sent five letters requesting payment of the fine no payment has been sent, the agency turns the issue over to the Texas attorney general's office.
But the attorney general's office, faced with a heavy work load and forced to prioritize, has not pursued the scofflaws, most of whom owe relatively small amounts.
"I don't know if we've ever had a civil penalty collected by the AG's office," Stinebaugh told the commission when asked how many restitution cases the attorney general's office has pursued.
Law in effect since '85
The issue of uncollected civil penalties surfaced during discussion of a TPWD law enforcement division proposal to increase the fees assessed those convicted of illegally taking wildlife resources.
Texas in 1985 began assessing civil penalties against convicted poachers and others who illegally cause the death of wildlife resources. The 1985 session of the Texas Legislature passed a bill authorizing the agency to impose the civil penalties in addition to any criminal penalties associated with the illegal taking of wildlife or fisheries resources.
The civil penalties were justified as a way to recover the cost of wildlife lost through illegal actions.
Under state law, wildlife are public resources owned by all the people of the state. A person illegally taking those resources has stolen something of value from the state, and the civil restitution is aimed at recovering that value.
To implement the new law, TPWD in 1985 established a method of determining the value of individual terrestrial and aquatic life. Using a system that includes scoring a particular species on criteria including recreation, aesthetic, education, scarcity, economic and environmental tolerance values plus the relative abundance of the species, TPWD came up with a monetary "replacement" cost.
Under the 1985 civil restitution valuation, a bobwhite quail's replacement value was set at $15.50 per bird. A bald eagle, a much less abundant bird than bobwhite, was assigned a replacement value of $7,150.
Under the 1985 valuation criteria, female white-tailed deer were assigned a replacement value of $163 and buck whitetails were assigned a value of $525.50.
Bigger deer, bigger fine
But some commissioners and TPWD staff saw the one-size-fits-all buck deer replacement cost as not reflecting the worth of some animals. A poacher who took a "trophy" whitetail buck was hit with the same civil penalty as one who illegally took a spike buck. This was seen as an inequity in the system.
In 1996, TPWD created recovery values for what the agency termed "trophy" big game, including whitetails, mule deer, pronghorn antelope and desert bighorn sheep.
Under the TPW Commission-approved change, recovery value of "trophy" deer is determined by taking the gross score of the antlers (using the Boone and Crockett scoring system), subtracting 100 points, squaring that number, then adding the $525.50 "base" cost of a buck deer.
Under this system, a person convicted of illegally taking a whitetail buck with antlers measuring 100 gross B&C points or less would pay only the $525.50 civil restitution.
But a person convicted of taking a buck wearing antlers scoring 160 B&C gross -- an unusually heavy-antlered buck -- would be sent a bill for $4,737.50.
No changes have been made to the basic replacement value tables since they were created nearly two decades ago, and no changes have been made to the "trophy" wildlife values since 1996.
TPWD's law enforcement division is proposing revising those civil restitution fees, increasing the values to keep them in line with inflation and other economic factors.
Increased for inflation
Kris Bishop, assistant chief of fisheries law enforcement, told the commission the agency would like to increase the restitution values to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, a U.S. Department of Labor index of changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative group of goods and services.
TPWD research indicates the CPI has increased 1.667 percent since 1986 and 1.17 percent since 1996.
Under the proposal, replacement values for each species would increase by those factors. The value of a bobwhite, for example, would go to $26 from its current $15.50; an eastern wild turkey's value would increase to $881.50 from its current $525.50; and a whitetail doe would be valued at $273.50, up from the current $163.
Members of the TPW Commission questioned whether the civil penalties for illegal take of "trophy" big game were high enough.
"I believe these are inadequate penalties," Commissioner Donato Ramos of Laredo said of the civil restitution values set for "trophy" deer.
A legal hunter paying for an opportunity to take a deer wearing 160-class antlers typically pays as much as $5,000 or more.
Commissioner Ned Holmes of Houston suggested the agency tie civil restitution penalties for "trophy" game more closely to its "market value."
Like many of the other nine TPW commissioners, Holmes also voiced surprise and concern about the $3.5 million in outstanding civil fines and probed staff on options to increase collection of that money.
He suggested the agency might try to get the Texas Legislature to authorize denial of the issuance of a driver's licence to those who have outstanding civil judgments owed to TPWD.
Over the past five years, TPWD has averaged annually collecting about $112,000 in civil restitution for wildlife and trophy game.
Poachers are getting away with illegally taking animals
By SHANNON TOMPKINS
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
June 5, 2004
Poachers owe the people of Texas more than $3.5 million in civil penalties assessed as restitution for the wildlife or fish they were convicted of illegally taking.
But other than sending dunning letters to the poachers and refusing to sell them hunting or fishing licenses or other licenses and permits issued by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, there's nothing the agency can do to collect that money from those who refuse to pay.
"Only the attorney general's office can pursue civil penalties," Col. Jim Stinebaugh told the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission's regulations committee during a briefing in late May. "Parks and Wildlife does not have authority to collect civil penalties; we can't go out and arrest someone because they owe us money."
TPWD attempts to collect the money by sending letters to persons convicted of illegally taking public wildlife or fish. But if after the agency has sent five letters requesting payment of the fine no payment has been sent, the agency turns the issue over to the Texas attorney general's office.
But the attorney general's office, faced with a heavy work load and forced to prioritize, has not pursued the scofflaws, most of whom owe relatively small amounts.
"I don't know if we've ever had a civil penalty collected by the AG's office," Stinebaugh told the commission when asked how many restitution cases the attorney general's office has pursued.
Law in effect since '85
The issue of uncollected civil penalties surfaced during discussion of a TPWD law enforcement division proposal to increase the fees assessed those convicted of illegally taking wildlife resources.
Texas in 1985 began assessing civil penalties against convicted poachers and others who illegally cause the death of wildlife resources. The 1985 session of the Texas Legislature passed a bill authorizing the agency to impose the civil penalties in addition to any criminal penalties associated with the illegal taking of wildlife or fisheries resources.
The civil penalties were justified as a way to recover the cost of wildlife lost through illegal actions.
Under state law, wildlife are public resources owned by all the people of the state. A person illegally taking those resources has stolen something of value from the state, and the civil restitution is aimed at recovering that value.
To implement the new law, TPWD in 1985 established a method of determining the value of individual terrestrial and aquatic life. Using a system that includes scoring a particular species on criteria including recreation, aesthetic, education, scarcity, economic and environmental tolerance values plus the relative abundance of the species, TPWD came up with a monetary "replacement" cost.
Under the 1985 civil restitution valuation, a bobwhite quail's replacement value was set at $15.50 per bird. A bald eagle, a much less abundant bird than bobwhite, was assigned a replacement value of $7,150.
Under the 1985 valuation criteria, female white-tailed deer were assigned a replacement value of $163 and buck whitetails were assigned a value of $525.50.
Bigger deer, bigger fine
But some commissioners and TPWD staff saw the one-size-fits-all buck deer replacement cost as not reflecting the worth of some animals. A poacher who took a "trophy" whitetail buck was hit with the same civil penalty as one who illegally took a spike buck. This was seen as an inequity in the system.
In 1996, TPWD created recovery values for what the agency termed "trophy" big game, including whitetails, mule deer, pronghorn antelope and desert bighorn sheep.
Under the TPW Commission-approved change, recovery value of "trophy" deer is determined by taking the gross score of the antlers (using the Boone and Crockett scoring system), subtracting 100 points, squaring that number, then adding the $525.50 "base" cost of a buck deer.
Under this system, a person convicted of illegally taking a whitetail buck with antlers measuring 100 gross B&C points or less would pay only the $525.50 civil restitution.
But a person convicted of taking a buck wearing antlers scoring 160 B&C gross -- an unusually heavy-antlered buck -- would be sent a bill for $4,737.50.
No changes have been made to the basic replacement value tables since they were created nearly two decades ago, and no changes have been made to the "trophy" wildlife values since 1996.
TPWD's law enforcement division is proposing revising those civil restitution fees, increasing the values to keep them in line with inflation and other economic factors.
Increased for inflation
Kris Bishop, assistant chief of fisheries law enforcement, told the commission the agency would like to increase the restitution values to reflect changes in the Consumer Price Index, or CPI, a U.S. Department of Labor index of changes in the prices paid by urban consumers for a representative group of goods and services.
TPWD research indicates the CPI has increased 1.667 percent since 1986 and 1.17 percent since 1996.
Under the proposal, replacement values for each species would increase by those factors. The value of a bobwhite, for example, would go to $26 from its current $15.50; an eastern wild turkey's value would increase to $881.50 from its current $525.50; and a whitetail doe would be valued at $273.50, up from the current $163.
Members of the TPW Commission questioned whether the civil penalties for illegal take of "trophy" big game were high enough.
"I believe these are inadequate penalties," Commissioner Donato Ramos of Laredo said of the civil restitution values set for "trophy" deer.
A legal hunter paying for an opportunity to take a deer wearing 160-class antlers typically pays as much as $5,000 or more.
Commissioner Ned Holmes of Houston suggested the agency tie civil restitution penalties for "trophy" game more closely to its "market value."
Like many of the other nine TPW commissioners, Holmes also voiced surprise and concern about the $3.5 million in outstanding civil fines and probed staff on options to increase collection of that money.
He suggested the agency might try to get the Texas Legislature to authorize denial of the issuance of a driver's licence to those who have outstanding civil judgments owed to TPWD.
Over the past five years, TPWD has averaged annually collecting about $112,000 in civil restitution for wildlife and trophy game.
