Robotic Deer to Fight Illegal Hunting 325
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."
Business model (Score:4, Funny)
But I prefer parking fines since it requires a lower investment and less skilled personnel.
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More importantly, they are away and are not carrying a high power loaded weapon.
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It's no more entrapment than a cashier opening their drawer and walking away while you steal their money.
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Beautiful idea. I love it.
Just like a real deer. (Score:5, Funny)
Then you watch as it gets hit by a car.
Re:Just like a real deer. (Score:5, Funny)
Now, if we could only make a robo-whitetail-suicide bomber.
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Re:Just like a real deer. (Score:5, Funny)
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Put in a photocell that makes the robotic deer raise its head, and turn toward the light... that'd be pure gold.
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Um...the whole point of having laws wrapped around hunting, is to control where, which, and how many deer should be removed from the herd. Some random poacher shooting the first deer they see, doesn't help to _manage_ the population. Poachers (notice I didn't say "hunters", who are by large a honorable and careful group) aren't helping, and they're breaking sev
Re:Just like a real deer. (Score:4, Insightful)
A large portion of the problem is just lack of natural predators.
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Yes, silly nature. Needs us to keep things under control.
Don't be a fucking tool. In nature the deer population is normally kept down by predation. Humans have killed all the wolves, however, so nature reverts to the old favorite, starvation. In an effort to mitigate our past stupidity, we manage the population by hunting, taking the place of the wolves. You think it's better for all deer to starve rather than some deer to be hunted by humans? If so, you're a moron.
Re:Just like a real deer. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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Re:Just like a real deer. (Score:5, Informative)
One of the shitty things that poachers do, is shoot a deer then run it over with their truck.
By doing this, they can claim that the deer was hit by a car & they were only putting it out of its misery... an act which is perfectly legal.
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Not in my state. Usually you call the Sherrif, who then may contact state or federal fish and wildlife depending on jurisdiction for permission to euthanize the animal.
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Sounds reasonable. Venison definately requires tenderization.
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That's easy. When you see a deer, there's always at least one more. Its always the other one that will get you.
"That's why I swerved off the road. And hit another one. And I had to shoot it. It was not my day!"
This is why remote motion sensing cameras are VERY popular. They sell them at hunting stores, not only for hunting, but to protect property from other hunters.
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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!
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I remember reading an amusing freak accident case where a driver was killed due to the deer flying throught the windshield and impaling him!
That's not a particularly freakish accident.They can jump pretty high (I've heard of them clearing 12 foot hight fences before) easily clearling the hood of the car or truck and going through the windshield. Those deer have game.Re: (Score:2)
Can you network the robodeer so that a herd jumps across the road in front of you?
How many jumps per second does a beowulf cluster of deer produce? :p
In related news, the forthcoming RoboDeer v2.0 ... (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory Dr. Evil quote (Score:4, Funny)
All I asked for was sharks with frikin' laser beams attached to their heads! Deers? Oh, that's a start.
Re:In related news, the forthcoming RoboDeer v2.0 (Score:2)
http://www.newlaunches.com/archives/samsung_devel
entrapment (Score:2)
Re:entrapment (Score:5, Informative)
entrapment, in law, the instigation of a crime in the attempt to obtain cause for a criminal prosecution. Situations in which a government operative merely provides the occasion for the commission of a criminal act (e.g., when an undercover agent posing as a narcotics dealer is approached by a would-be customer) do not constitute entrapment. Only when the crime was not initially contemplated by the target is entrapment said to occur: thus, for example, an undercover agent may not recruit a previously law-abiding individual into a drug distribution ring in order to prosecute. Many police operations, especially in the areas of drugs and gambling, raise questions of entrapment, which is available as a defense in a trial.
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I can drive less than four miles from home and shoot whenever I like without breaking any laws, any time of year, day or night.
The law you're referring to
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No, I'm not American, and don't really get this whole 'gun thing'.
Max.
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Easier than real police work (Score:2)
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"I don't know - but I'm too lazy to look it up, so I'll just say 'yes' and blame it on lazy cops".
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Useless in other coutries (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
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What a great idea! Goading hunters to shoot at a target just a few feet/meters of the road where cars pass.
Ironically enough, one of the fine they (hunter) would incur would be shooting too close to the road. The wardens here are little better than the shooters IMO.
Re:Useless in other coutries (Score:5, Insightful)
You seem to miss the entire point. This isn't about hunters, it's about poachers. Poachers are people who illegally kill animals, either in the wrong place, at the wrong time of year, the wrong sex, or without having paid their license fee to do so. A hunter doesn't just drive along and suddenly decide "Oh, I think today I shall break the law, since there is a deer standing right over there." The only people shooting at these robodeer, are the people who aren't following the laws. I am having a hard time understanding why so many people in this thread are seeming to confuse hunting with poaching, this isn't a subtle distinction. Hunters follow laws and manage the deer population in the proportions determined by people who know what, where, and how many deer should be removed from the population. Poachers, don't give a shit about the laws or management, they just want free meat without paying their fair share, and without regard for the laws.
If you get the impression that hunters get annoyed at being associated with poachers, then you're perceptive. Two different groups of people.
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You might be able to--if it actually resulted in you getting shot. You can't sue people because you might have been injured.
What a great idea! Goading hunters to shoot at a target just a few feet/meters of the road where cars pass.
I don't see the "goading".
Re:Useless in other coutries (Score:4, Funny)
Like you said, goading or pushing someone into committing a crime they would otherwise not is unlawful.
What is perfectly lawful is presenting them with an opportunity to commit a crime, and then punishing them for it. There is a significant difference.
Further, 'knowing' that a deer was fake would not permit you to shoot it, as you're still discharging your firearm near/on a road.
You could maybe get away with attacking it if you got out of your vehicle and bum rushed it.
Re:Useless in other coutries (Score:4, Funny)
They had the fake deer out on the edge of the trees near the road, it didn't have all the motion stuff just a stuffed dear. An old guy in a pick-up truck saw it, pulled over, put on his hunting vest(orange safety) got out of the truck, got his rifle, moved the minimum distance from the road and vehicle, and proceeded to take a bead on it. He shot it and was surprised that it didn't fall down or run away, before he could take a second shot all the rangers busted out laughing and then he realized what was up.
They didn't fine the old man because he did everything he was supposed and had a license to hunt the deer, they just wanted to see if he could figure out whether or not he'd fall for a completely still fake deer (This was some 30 years ago.).
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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.
The game wardens aren't going up to hunters and saying "Hey, I'll give you $50 if you shoot that deer over there." That would be entrapment. Since we all love analogies, it's like putting a realistic looking person on a park bench at night. If someone comes up to that "person" and repeatedly stabs them over and over just because they saw it and had the urge, that's not entrapment... that's the murderous tendencies of a criminal coming to light and that person should find their ass in jail sooner rather
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In the first part, provoking someone to break the law, in the US it is also illegal to entice someone to break the law, provided they wouldn't have broken said law under normal circumstances. So - going up to a random house and offering to sell them a bag of weed, then arresting them when they buy it - that's illegal. Going up to a specific house, one where drug activity has been reported and observed, offering to sell them a bag of weed, then arresting them when they buy it - that's legal.
This is an
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Re:Useless in other coutries (Score:5, Funny)
What, because the mere sight of a deer drives people into such a state of lustful desire that they can't control themselves?
"Yer honor, the deer was asking for it! His lips said no, but his antlers were saying yes, yes, yes!"
No deer involved (Score:4, Interesting)
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I'll leave that to you to prove. Or will I ? . . . You tell me what I'm thinking.
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And his actions were to shoot a fake deer.
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Robo-this, robo-that (Score:3)
Poachers are in the clear... (Score:3, Funny)
police as revenue collectors (Score:3, Insightful)
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Hardly news (Score:5, Informative)
I've seen a few on the side of highways.
Best of all (Score:3, Funny)
I for one welcome our new robotic-deer overlords.
Only one problem with that scheme... (Score:2)
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ie: ``But it's not a real deer, and I knew it wasn't a real deer when I shot it'' argument would be met with ``Fine, then you're liable to replace this damanged property that you knowing damaged, along with a 30k fine.''
But Deer need to be culled (Score:3, Insightful)
They should be paying them, not fining them. There's way too many deer in the US and not enough predators to keep them in check. Most get killed by vehicle collisions anyway. Deer hunting should be encouraged.
robohookers (Score:4, Funny)
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Will nobody think of the tourists? (Score:2, Funny)
One question ... (Score:2)
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Not really robots (Score:3, Informative)
Nor do they have any "servo" function. That is where they would sense something in their environment, perform some analysis of that information, and respond according to the analysis.
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I keep telling my kid that her uncle has a robot leg. (Actually, it's a high-tech version of Terry Fox's)
Just wait'll she sees 'im again, I wonder what she'll say to him.
hehehehe
He'll probably tell her to bite his shiny metal ass.
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That may be true, but it would make a lousy headline.
I didn't design the robot (sorry, animatronic) de
Law for Profit? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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I'd welcome less laws. The problem is that if most laws aren't enforced, then you're not exactly sure whether you're in violation of any at any given time---and thus can be arrested/fined for `no reason' (well, any reason) at any time without having much of a ground to complain on ('cause ignorance of the `law' that isn't usually enforced, except right then and th
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It's a big problem when you start measuring your laws and law-enforcement techniques in terms of how much PROFIT they generate.
This I totally agree with. Law enforcement isn't a business. The current trend towards looking at everything as something that generates money is destructive to the society. The problem here is there it's the article submitter that's measuring law enforcement through profit, not the actual article or the police.
If they're down to spending their time going after deer poachers, the
How much cooler would Bambi have been... (Score:2)
"Hasta la vista, POACHER!"
_That_ would have been a movie.
Made with real deer skin and fur (Score:3, Funny)
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They most likely get the hides from a local processor and use them instead of letting them go to waste. This is a good thing. The more of the animal that is used, the better.
Fine them? (Score:2)
nothing new (Score:3, Interesting)
The test (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:But what about (Score:5, Insightful)
But to answer your question "why would you even bother?". Well, as a deer-hunter in an area where these 'robots' have been in use for years already, it is often a matter of hunter's safety. The DNR/Conservation Officer will put a decoy in a position where it will be shot at from the road. It is illegal to hunt within 50 yards of a public road's median. Quite a hefty fine. Also, if a hunter is willing to break that regulation, who knows what other rules they are breaking.
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Well you won't have to wait in Alaska .... (Score:2)
Re:But what about (Score:5, Informative)
Yes. I also "just happen" to have some dead ones right at hand (No, I'm not just a weirdo; I'm a weirdo who ties his own trout flies).
They're fur is very high quality
If by "high quality fur" you mean thick, course, stiff and hollow hair, then yes, you're right. These properties make it an excellent insulator, and it floats, but it isn't what most people are looking for in fur; which would be something more along the lines of thin, flexible, shiney and silky smooth to the touch; like weasel (only be sure to call it something else for marketing reasons).
But you're right, these are the properties generally made in fake furs; which don't in the least resemble deer hair. I presume, however, most jackers operate at night; since a)that's when the deer are out and about and b)it makes the whole light in the eyes thing work a lot better.
KFG
Re:But what about (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree, but hide is not hair.
I think you'd be surprised at how bold some poachers are, especially in sparsely populated areas.
My cousin was killed in his own suburban backyard by deer poachers.
KFG
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Re:But what about (Score:4, Funny)
How quickly can fill this order?
As soon as we can shoot and skin many members of Congress.
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Well, they're not necessarily my favorite people in the world, but I think someone intent on taking pot shots at a lodge deserves getting into a bit of trouble over it.
KFG
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Destruction of Government Property. Its a felony too, so you just lost your right to vote, pal.
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