Whooping Crane

SDJIM

SDJIM

New member
Glad to see this guy not get off for this fowl crime.

From the Sioux Falls Argus Leader:

A South Dakota man has been sentenced to two years of probation and ordered to pay $85,000 for killing an endangered whooping crane.

Jeff Blachford, of Miller, pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to one count of violating the Federal Endangered Species Act.

Authorities say the 26-year-old Blachford shot and killed an adult male whooping crane in April 2012 about 17 miles southwest of Miller.

Whooping cranes are 1 of the rarest birds in the world with a total population of about 600.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Moreno ordered Blachford to forfeit the rifle he used to kill the whooping crane and stripped him of hunting, fishing and trapping privileges in the United States for two years.
 
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I don't condone what he did but a $85,000 fine is a bit obscene. When a game violation surpasses far worse crimes in penalties. It might be time to adjust our priories in this country. Child molesters get less.

I find it ironic that some cheer this kind of thing on. Then condone plowing, tiling and burning 100's of 1,000's of acres, destroying the habitat that would support such a animal and not batting a eye twice.
 
One thing is he used a rifle, not a shotgun. The intent is obvious, since you cannot shoot geese, swans,cranes or ducks with a rifle legally. He knew he was wrong. He deliberately when out to do harm. As far as a fine? We probably spent more than $85000.00 per each bird annually. Only got a 2 year suspended hunting lisence sentence, no jail time. Lots of other crimes go un-noticed, and unprosicuted. If you a big fish who do great damage it is easier, If you a single individual who gets caught, Katy bar the door! I have little sympathy for this guy.
 
But it was more than just a "game violation"--he shot with a Rifle a bird on the endangered spieces list and one that has had so much time and effort put into trying to keep them alive. What is OK a $100 or a $1000--I think he got off lucky with just losing is hunting and trapping rights for just 2 years-- we DO NOT need this guy hunting in South Dakota or anywhere else --forever.:mad:

In the 90's when I lived in Kansas someone did the same thing--maybe if word gets around just maybe it will keep someone else from doing this again, yes $85000 is really steep but what he did was really beyond compare--Just what kind of a person would do such a thing. I have encountered whooping cranes while pond jumping for ducks in the 80's--it is just such an awsome sight--and he for whatever twisted reason kills one--:confused:
 
Here's the thing. I see so many eager to hang a person like this but when some group aims to stop the logging of a area or development where one of these endangered species lives. I find some of the same people that are calling for the hanging of such a person(a single individual). Then swinging to the notion...just a bunch of tree hugger PETA loving SOB's trying to stop progress and capitalism. They find one person with gun guilty enough with no trouble but a big company with bull dozers, tractor's, poison run off(feed lots), Etc. They are all against any restrictions or stoppage of them.

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/lo...cle_7971e1f0-4f43-11e0-b626-001cc4c002e0.html

Here's a prime example above. 8000 ducks die from a feed lot operation dumping moldy corn out. This happened a stones throw from where this 26 year old shot this crane. Yet not a single fine for anybody. Pretty pathetic IMO. I wonder myself if the guy even knew the difference between a Whooping Crane and a Sand Hill Crane. He may have intended to shoot a Crane but had no idea just what he was shooting. Most would not even know the difference. It's not like say a Bald Eagle that is unmistakable what it is. You have to show me some intent that he knowingly targeted a Whooping Crane. I want to see evidence that he said to himself. I'm going to go kill a endangered species today. He may be a dip $--t for even doing it but you can't fine him that kind of money when there was only intent to shoot a Sand Hill. People best watch what they wish for in these fines. In Minnesota they have flippin lost their minds on this fining people BS. You now get a $200 or more dollar fine for weeds on your boat trailer/boat/prop. $500 fine for a invasive species found in/on your boat/trailer/live well/bulge. It's illegal to have water in your live well or on your minnows when you leave the lake. You can't have water on your fish if there's enough to sustain life. You can't transport live Bull Heads..it goes on and on. Many have elected to just stop fishing. Many landings are manned constantly for inspections and now have hours limiting their use. Your boat has to be inspected before it is lunched and after pulling your boat out. Some landings even have high pressure sprayers and you must wash your boat, live well, Etc and then be inspected before being allowed to leave the landing. They are writing fines left and right. Many have said they will leave their boats parked. They will not risk such a cost just to enjoy a little time on the water. Some have gotten several fines over and over. If you fish or hunt a lot. The more at risk you are.

The whole thing sours my love for the outdoors anymore. Constantly watched, checked, can''t have a beer well fishing..DWI just like in a car. You name it. If this is what our sport has come to. I'm not sure anybody can continue to hunt and fish without breaking some kind of rule. How many of you have party hunted for pheasants? How many of you have tagged a deer you didn't shoot but a hunting party member shot it?(legal in Minnesota but not some other states). There's lots of laws some choose to ignore but have no trouble with a person getting pinched like the one that's the subject of this thread. Just let them get caught for a violation and then see the bitching start how they were screwed by the system.

Simple fact is, I won't put myself at risk anymore. It's not worth $500 to go catch 5 Sunfish(yes that is the limit on many Minnesota lakes now). To unknowingly have some invasive species hitch hiked onto to my boat or trailer. I'm not going to go buy a chest cooler full of ice every time I go fishing. Because I can't keep water on my fish to take them home. Nor will I dump $10.00 worth of minnows onto the ground because I can't transport them with water on them when leaving the lake.

You that support this fine everybody and restrictions. You enjoy yourself. I'll just go down to the trap range shoot some clays and pick me up some fish at the grocery store on the way home. I fished and hunted virtually every day my whole adult life. Not anymore, I only fished a couple times this last year and stopped hunting deer three years ago. I only hunted this year to appease my youngest son. I told him this was my last year of doing so. I haven't pheasant hunted in 3 or more years. My health is playing a roll but there are other reasons as well. I only buy a fishing license because of a annual camping trip we do each year or I wouldn't even buy one. I still grouse hunt a little and a few duck hunts, only if they are where I can be left alone away from the constant being watched over or confrontation with other competition. The good old days are gone I'm afraid.

Carry on, I said my peace.
 
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The fine is apprpriate. As for lesser punishments for other crimes against both nature & man? Stiffen those up, too; that's part of the problem in America . . . laws aren't sufficiently enforced & punished.
 
koja48 said:
The fine is apprpriate. As for lesser punishments for other crimes against both nature & man? Stiffen those up, too; that's part of the problem in America . . . laws aren't sufficiently enforced & punished.
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Really? What's appropriate? the cost of a home? cut off your fingers? a hand? death penalty?

This country already incarcerates more people then anywhere in the world. Are we going to put everybody in jail? because that's where we are headed. You can't hold a populous to these standards. We make 1000's of new laws every year. We have a camera on every street corner, in every isle of stores, in every nook and cranny you can put one. We are under constant surveillance. Our phones are tracked, you car is tracker. The government can invade your e-mail, your U.S. mail, your bank account, they can incarcerate you with no cause now, keep you jailed in diffidently, do not have to give you access to legal council. Squad cars have computers that can read 1,000's of license plates per hour. They drive parking lots looking for and scanning every plate in the place. America the free, more like nazi Germany.

$85,000 for shooting a bird. I would have told the judge might as well make it $10 million because it has the same chance of being paid..
 
onpoint said:
I don't condone what he did but a $85,000 fine is a bit obscene. When a game violation surpasses far worse crimes in penalties. It might be time to adjust our priories in this country. Child molesters get less.

I find it ironic that some cheer this kind of thing on. Then condone plowing, tiling and burning 100's of 1,000's of acres, destroying the habitat that would support such a animal and not batting a eye twice.
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Amen - He should be punished for shooting an endagered species but that is a bit much.. also your point on habitat is SPOT on. well said! :10sign:
 
OP, as stated . . . IMHO the $85K was appropriate. Bet he doesn't shoot another one. Had the guy killed it unintentionally with a shotgun while thinking it was a game bird (now there's a stretch), I'd call it excessive. Using a rifle & killing an endangered species deliberately deserves more than a hand-slap.
 
onpoint said:
Here's a prime example above. 8000 ducks die from a feed lot operation dumping moldy corn out. This happened a stones throw from where this 26 year old shot this crane. Yet not a single fine for anybody. Pretty pathetic .
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Form reading the article it would appear the corn pile was own there own land. No negligent or criminal intent there at all.
 
moellermd said:
Form reading the article it would appear the corn pile was own there own land. No negligent or criminal intent there at all.
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As long as they were poisoned on private ground..no harm no foul..
 
onpoint said:
As long as they were poisoned on private ground..no harm no foul..
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Absolutely! We blow tops of mountains, drain lead into streams, Dump mine tailings on the sludge heaps or basin, flush nitrogen off feed lots to produce toxic algae bloom on lakes. All on private ground. If it's your property all enviormental issues visited upon somebody miles away is O.K., or the neighbors. I wonder if they are this callous? or unthinking. I scares me a lot to think about it. This is on our news, some crazy cat lady, had to many cats at her house, bear in mind that was HER property, she spayed them, and provided for them, but was over the limit, didn't take long for the police to arrest her, and a judge to impound the cats, and sentence her to 90 days in jail and a fine of $500.00. Wow, a crazy cat lady, but kill 8000 ducks, on their property.......
 
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I think I would have to know the context of his actions before I could pass judgement on the fairness of the fine. Did the dip sh!t run around bragging about killing a whooping crane? Or did he simply think he was killing a bird. Who knows. I think the chances of getting 85k out of this crap for brains is pretty slim. I would prefer idiots like this get sentenced to a couple thousand hrs of community service or something like that. Make people return something good to the universe when they take something out.
 
a couple thousand hrs of community service
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That would work, too & likely could be enforced, realized, & beneficial.
 
oldandnew said:
Absolutely! We blow tops of mountains, drain lead into streams, Dump mine tailings on the sludge heaps or basin, flush nitrogen off feed lots to produce toxic algae bloom on lakes. All on private ground. If it's your property all enviormental issues visited upon somebody miles away is O.K., or the neighbors. I wonder if they are this callous? or unthinking. I scares me a lot to think about it. This is on our news, some crazy cat lady, had to many cats at her house, bear in mind that was HER property, she spayed them, and provided for them, but was over the limit, didn't take long for the police to arrest her, and a judge to impound the cats, and sentence her to 90 days in jail and a fine of $500.00. Wow, a crazy cat lady, but kill 8000 ducks, on their property.......
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So what did you expect the rancher to do? Who doesn't have moldy corn silage at a feed lot? I am sure he did not know that it was poisoning the ducks. I fail to see how this guy was negligent.
 
moellermd said:
So what did you expect the rancher to do? Who doesn't have moldy corn silage at a feed lot? I am sure he did not know that it was poisoning the ducks. I fail to see how this guy was negligent.
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Well it he didn't feed it to his livestock did he?
 
oldandnew said:
Well it he didn't feed it to his livestock did he?
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I sure you have been around enough feedlots to know what's goes on. Tell me what recommendation do you have for all the rotten corn silage or high moisture corn that guys have. Evidentially it is no longer acceptable to just spread it out on the fields.
 
moellermd said:
I sure you have been around enough feedlots to know what's goes on. Tell me what recommendation do you have for all the rotten corn silage or high moisture corn that guys have. Evidentially it is no longer acceptable to just spread it out on the fields.
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Do we know he "spread it on the field", or did he dump it the shallow end of an untiled waterway? How bout bury it with those new fangled bobcats or dozers you have? That might take an hour, and it would sure smell better, and be safer. So if you create a "hazard" and you don't do anything to elimininate it, is that benign neglect, wanton negligence, stupidity, or just don't care? i doubt he had a conscience effort to poison ducks, drunks don't have a desire to kill somebody behind the wheel either. Reminds me of the off the old Prairie states legal action, where a farmer enraged by breakin at his uninhabitated farm house, rigged a shotgun to shoot the first person to pull on the knob. Personal property defense?, manslaughter, or wanton disregard of life and murder one. Really didn't matter, somebody dead, I am sure the ducks who died of botulism, don't care if he was vindictive or not!
 
You have to wonder if the Judges political views or ties had anything to do with the severity of the fine.

When a Wisconsin judge over turned Wisconsin law on banning state workers rights on bargaining their wages and benefits. The political mud slinging was in full swing. a "Liberal" judge with a agenda...Gun control being led by Liberal's...a judge fines a "HUNTER" with a "GUN" an obscene amount of money..not a single soul mentioned a thing about the possibility that this judge might not like the killing of "ANY" animal or that he possibly could be "Liberal".

Just a little back ground on the judge

He was appointed magistrate judge in 1993. Who was president then? Bill Clinton. That would have been who appointed him to this position.

He is from Chicago Illinois(Liberal state).

Much of his career was in Obama's home state.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois on May 10, 1958. He received his B.A. degree from the University of Illinois.

Judge Moreno began his career in 1983 as an Assistant Attorney General in Illinois. Then he became a Special Assistant Attorney General in 1986 and he worked in this position until 2000

Don't you like a guy from Liberal Chicago ruling on things in the conservative west?

I think we now know how he arrived at the $85,000 figure

Hey, look at the good side of this. He could rule on some of you Ag peoples environmental issues. I hope I'm there to see your response. :D:D
 
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