Robotic Deer to Fight Illegal Hunting

Roland Piquepaille writes "If you were a law enforcement official searching for hunters who don't follow the rules, what would be a good gift for you? In 'Robot Deer Captures Poachers,' Brian Bull, reporting from Mosinee, Wisconsin, writes that you can buy robotic decoys for deer, elks, moose and even bears. These life-like creatures are made of animal hides or skins attached to polyurethane foam bodies and equipped with remotely controlled motors allowing the head and tail to move. After you pay about $2,000 for such a robo-deer, you put it on a side road. All you have to do is wait for an illegal hunter trying to shoot the fake deer and fine him. Many officers have reported collecting well over $30,000 in fines with a single robot. Not a bad deal."

Useless in other coutries

[foobang]

At least here in France it would not work.
In many cases (methinks this one included) French law states that pushing someone to commit an offence is a bigger offence than the original one.
A hounter could argue that he was provoqued and the fine would be probabely dropped.
What other countries have similar laws ?

Additionally a hounter could claim that he was aware of the trick an thus not guilty of shooting an animal but just damaging an artefact.

No deer involved

[piggydoggy]

The people who shoot them aren't actually shooting deer. They are shooting a robot. So how come those people charged for poaching, instead of just vandalism?

Re:Just like a real deer.

[flafish]

The deer problem is so bad in SE Ohio that the town has opened the city up to bow hunting of deer inside city limits.

Re:police as revenue collectors

[CETS]

Oh cry me a flippin river. The big bad government is at it again. GET A LIFE YOU MORON! Poaching deer is a problem. Unfortunately there are enough of these deer "hunters" out there taking ILLEGAL actions that efforts as such are needed. It is ILLEGAL to shoot a deer out of season and close to a road and depending where you're at and what permits you have, a doe.

These idiots deserve to be fined and have their guns taken away and it's not entrapment (see other threads).

I am a deer hunter that follows the laws, and I have witnessed such stupidity (that's why I avoid public hunting grounds).

Law for Profit?

[Stiletto]

Like another poster mentioned, this is just a blatant case of using the police as gangster-like money collectors. It's a big problem when you start measuring your laws and law-enforcement techniques in terms of how much PROFIT they generate.

It sounds like an all-too-common case of too many police, not enough crime.

If they're down to spending their time going after deer poachers, they're already scraping the bottom of the crime barrel. Perhaps they need to start making cuts in the police force rather than investing in a $2,000 money-making deer robot.

Re:Just like a real deer.

[SpinyNorman]

Driving what? A tank?

Have you ever seen what happens when a modern vehicle ( Mack truck) hits a deer head-on?

If you're unlucky it won't only be your car that suffers major damage.. I remember reading an amusing freak accident case where a driver was killed due to the deer flying throught the windshield and impaling him!

Re:Just like a real deer.

[fprintf]

Actually blame the ranchers and farmers. If they hadn't killed off predators to protect their livestock then there wouldn't be a deer problem.

But I think this is just a problem looking for a novel solution. I like the idea of hunters taking down game and then providing it to homeless shelters. There must be other ways of using this food source to benefit others.

nothing new

[DrDitto]

I was hunting with a friend 15 years ago in Wisconsin. We were driving down a road, saw a large buck standing about 100 yards away...its head had a slight movement. My friend got out and shot the thing about 10 times before getting back into the truck. 5 minutes later a DNR officer was writing a $1000+ ticket!

A link from 1993

[jsrjsr]

This link is to a story from 1993:

http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id =2584 [hcn.org]

And I remember first hearing of these "robodeer" in the 80's. Best rural legend I heard about them involved a guy who legally shot one to pieces (he spotted the robodeer out in the field, went and got permission to hunt on the land, snuck up on it and blasted away -- the story goes that the DNR agents had set it up to sting people shooting from the road and had put it far enough into the field that he didn't violate any laws).

'Course, maybe it takes the VOA a while to report things....