Yelping dog caught in leg snare leads to poaching charges
11/27/2024
The “troubling discovery” of a dog caught in an illegal hunting snare earlier this month led to the arrest of a 28-year-old Hope Valley man on multiple illegal hunting charges, according to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management.
“Luckily, the dog was okay, but while walking the rest of the property two more sets of traps were discovered, one of which had caught a deer that had died as a result,” the DEM said in a Facebook post.
The dog’s owner and another man heard the dog “yelping” at about 11: 30 on the night of Nov. 15 and freed it. They discovered more snares the next day and contacted the DEM.
Investigating, environmental police officers tracked down the man who they say set the snares. The suspected poacher told the police he’d caught another buck a few weeks earlier, killed it with an air rifle and ate it, according to a police report.
The suspected poacher told environmental police officers he’d set the traps on the property off John Potter Road in West Greenwich to help the property owner, a co-worker who had complained about deer eating plants in his garden, according to a police report.
The property owner told the police he let the Hope Valley man trap deer on his property but didn’t know the suspected poacher was doing anything illegal. One snare was found on somebody else’s property.
To prevent poaching and enforce hunting laws, the DEM’s environmental police officers make regular patrols and “know what to look for,” according to Michael Schipritt, deputy chief of the DEM’s division of law enforcement. Environmental police officers also receive tips from other hunters or members of the public.
The West Greenwich case was unusual, Schipritt acknowledged, in its use of leg snares. Environmental police officers also found and seized evidence that the suspected poacher was using bait to attract deer, according to the police report.
The officers believe the 120-pound buck found in the trap died from exhaustion, Guise said in the report. “It did not have any apparent bullet holes and there was no blood in the area,” he wrote.
Returning to the area on Nov. 17, officers found a fourth snare.
The suspect was charged with 11 counts of violating a law that prohibits using a trap, salt lick or other device to take a deer. He was also charged with hunting without a license and deer hunting without landowner permission.
The DEM says its officers are “on high alert for poaching activity as the muzzleloader deer season continues.”