Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire THE DUMBEST POACHER OF 2019

https://www.themeateater.com/hunt/w...tDU1o81JOcHNj42wFvuoQSoUh0ZBWLOV0aoKUqxI

Earlier this month, Dugan Traversie entered a plea deal with prosecutors for his role in a poaching case that dates back to last fall. Traversie was ordered to pay $9,000 in restitution to Timber Lake Elk Ranch, one-year probation, and one year without hunting. Since the judgement by the U.S. magistrate seems light, I’m tacking one more punishment onto his crime: I’m declaring Traversie the dumbest poacher of 2019.

Traversie is a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe in South Dakota. He held a buck tag for the reservation’s deer season, which started on November 2. But, five days before gun opener, on October 28, Traversie got a head start on the season by poaching a whitetail buck with his rifle. It wasn’t just any buck, though.

Traversie shot the deer on the Timber Lake Elk Ranch, a high-fence game farm within the boundaries of the reservation. The property offers 100% success hunts to wealthy clients for everything from pheasants to mule deer to bison.

high fence poacher

“Located on 8,000 acres of pristine western South Dakota prairie, the Timber Lake Elk Ranch has grown to be one of the largest privately-owned elk, buffalo and deer herds in the world with more than 700 head,” Timber Lake Elk Ranch’s website states.

From outside of the property, Traversie shot the 28-point buck through the ranch’s 8-foot fence. He then crawled through the fence, took a picture with the whitetail, cut its head off, tossed the head back over the fence, and left the carcass to rot. Traversie cached the rack under a bridge for a few days with intentions of retrieving it before deer season opened.

The buck was already “spoken for” by a client who paid $20,000-plus to hunt the deer. The ranch managers brought in the whitetail on October 18, but late that month they noticed it had gone missing. When they went on a scouting mission to locate the buck on November 1, all they found was its headless body.

south dakota poacher
A picture of the buck from Timber Lake Elk Ranch’s website. Since they didn’t acquire the buck until October, this was likely taken at the deer farm in North Dakota where it was purchased.
It didn’t take long for them to figure out who the poacher was, though.

On November 3, the day after the Cheyenne Sioux Tribe’s opener, Traversie posted a picture on Facebook of him proudly holding the buck, claiming to have shot it the day before. The image went viral and reached hundreds of thousands of people, with one post getting 1,900 likes, 1,100 shares, and 650 comments.

The image was immediately met with praise and skepticism. For every five people lauding this buck of a lifetime and congratulating Traversie on his harvest, someone would comment on the deer’s unnaturally white antlers and elk-like spread. Before law enforcement even got involved, the online hunting community was questioning the legitimacy of this would-be record book whitetail.

The debate was short, though. The same day Traversie posted a picture with the buck, photos started circulating of the deer’s headless body at Timber Lake Elk Ranch, along with older photos of the buck in velvet from the ranch’s website.

south dakota big buck poacher

According to the investigation carried out by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Cheyenne Sioux Tribe, Traversie fessed up when law enforcement reached out. Throughout the process he’s cooperated with prosecutors and shown remorse for his actions, which led to a lenient plea bargain—despite the potential for a $250,000 fine and five years in prison based on initial charges.

“I am very, truly, truly sorry for poaching the whitetail deer when it wasn’t deer season,” Traversie told U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Moreno. “I just ask for the opportunity to prove to this court that it will never, never happen again.”

The $9,000 restitution is the amount that Timber Lake Elk Ranch paid for the buck from a whitetail farm in North Dakota. The case has been filled with moral and legal conundrums, like how the Federal Lacey Act, wanton waste laws, and other game regulations are applied to wildlife that’s raised as livestock.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Traversie killed a whitetail out of season, trespassed, wasted a whole deer, and still felt compelled to post that grip-and-grin to social media. Now more than ever, Pat Durkin’s old Wisconsin proverb rings true: “Deer make people stupid.”

[img]https://i.postimg.cc/PqynXfjD/dugan-traversie-1.webp[/img]

Damages are all wrong.

When they sold a hunt for it for $20k+ a new value had been established.
$20k+ minus the costs of serving the Hunter.

Roger,
Don't know if you are familiar with our Elk program here or not.
A 50+ year program, long before they allowed hunting it had became
a tourist attraction. Free range, they have some huge bulls, and people
go to the fancy visitors center, watch remote broadcast cameras, and
hike all over to watch and photograph them.

A few years ago some idiot shot one of the best known bulls.
Of course you only do that to brag, or sell it to someone who will.
Didn't take long at all untill it was recognized.

I guess I was wrong in thinking those reservation Indians weren't under Federal jurisdiction when it comes to hunting. Although this wasn't exactly hunting. Big question is why would someone pay $20K to shoot a domestic animal?

Guess he thought no one would notice probably the most unique trophy in existence, huh.

Poaching is shooting a wild animal. He shot a farm raised animal. No idea what crime that is, but not poaching.
The [bleep] that pays $20k to go in and shoot that deer is no better IMO.

he looks pretty stupid. probably a paste eater

NA poacher at the rich white man paid petting zoo "hunt" preserve....


Classic....

Even if you didn't tell anyone but took it to get mounted you'd caught, they would have all the taxidermists looking out for it.

Right, I’m not convinced that’s poaching either.

Cattle rustling maybe?

That dude is really fugged up to do something like that, not his first time I'd bet, needs an azz kicking.

South Dakota Codified Laws
Title 40 ANIMALS AND LIVESTOCK
Chapter 01. Cruelty, Abuse And Injury To Animals
§40-1-21 Killing or injuring animal of another as misdemeanor--Authorized euthanasia excepted.

9 k restitution probably came outta tribal casino funds or .gov tribal funds anyways.
They more than likely took care of their mighty buck slayer backwater channel wise.

White man money justabout anyway you look at it.

Had a couple of white claws discussing the unfairness of the matter in the tribal govt office with the elders, when Dugan went their asking for help to pay it.

I was going to say exactly the same thing. He shot livestock, not game. This is the same as cattle rustling. At one time, in some areas, it was a hanging offense but now it's probably whatever penalty the state allows for the theft depending on it's value. Some cows are worth a lot more than others and this is one of the more expensive ones, more like a top breeding bull. I wonder if they collected a few quarts of semen before they offered him for shooting.

As a side note, I read how he did it. This is similar to a case years ago in one of the large eastern cities. They had a whitetail buck that was a phenomenal atypical. He was probably one of the most photographed deer of all time because everyone who visited the zoo took pictures of his unusual rack. Then one night someone 'poached' him. They shot him and dragged his body through a hole they cut in the fence.
The state fish & game figured that with a rack like that, it would be just a matter of time before it showed up at a big buck contest. They passed around a bunch of photos of him and had wardens start visiting every big buck contest there and in surrounding states. It took 3 years, but the guy finally figured that the heat was off and entered it in a contest. The heat wasn't off and they caught him.

Why are his antlers so white? They have little mescan velvet peelers on the payroll?

Last I knew you get ten yrs in the pen here.

They look sunbleached, like last year's sheds. Did he have a defect in that he retained them longer than 1 season?

No act is so private that it doesn’t want applause.

He should have had to pay the 20k$ client money, plus the 9k$ cost of purchasing the animal, plus significant jail time for criminal trespass.

He should have at least cut the back straps out.

Probably a lifetime of being fed grain and food and mineral supplements for antler growth till he was marketable at top dollar...
Who knows maybe the deer farm industry gives em shots of some sort for antler growth also???