WGXC-90.7 FM
Bad duck hunting habits along the Hudson
Jan 06, 2011 6:52 am
[caption id="attachment_6806" align="alignleft" width="350" caption="Found along the Hudson River in Malden January 1."]
[/caption]On New Year’s Day, a woman took her dogs out for a walk. Close to home, she let them off their leash and one bolted for the banks of the Hudson River, where something seemed to agitate him. The woman followed. The next morning she contacted the press about what she found.
“This is hunting?,” was the label of the e-mail. “This morning on my walk along River Rd in Malden I came upon over 35 duck, pheasant and quail, along with 2 deer carcasses dumped at the river bank. Some of the birds were still intact. Who would do such a thing? It is bad enough they shoot these beautiful creatures, but then to dump them in a heap along the bank is too much.”
The image on this page was attached to the e-mail.
By Monday we were in direct contact with the woman, who wished to remain unnamed because of her fears that what she unveiled to the public would force repercussions.
“It was appalling. I knocked on my neighbor's door whose house overlooks this empty lot and he came over to investigate this with his friend, who happens to be a hunter. Even the hunter said that something like this gives hunters a bad name,” she said on January 3. “Some of the birds were tagged. All I could think was these hunters have been shooting at these animals since the end of October and I tried to imagine how many have been murdered if just one hunter shot this many birds. And to dump them along the shore like this was disgusting. Some of them had not even been used for their meat, so what was the point? I watched these guys these past few months out on the river behind a blind with decoys around them, making their duck calls, luring their prey. They were fanatical. The hunter who spoke to me said he knew some guys who stayed out there over night and would go out for days. Who monitors what these hunters do (or don't do)?”
The woman added that she had contacted a Department of Environmental Conservation officer in Saugerties, who said he’d get back to her within the week. She said that she’d later heard from neighbors that the DEC had apparently come out on Sunday and looked around.
According to the DEC’s hunting websites, waterfowl season for ducks and the other birds seen the riverside cache was October 9 through 17, then November 6 through December 26. Moreover, there were daily kill and dead bird possession limits listed, of 6 ducks maximum for our region’s “take,” and a dozen for “possession” limits.
“The daily bag limit is the maximum number of birds of each species that any person may take or possess in the field during any one day,” reads the exact terminology. “The possession limit is twice the daily bag limit for all waterfowl species except snow geese. The possession limit is the maximum number of birds that any person may possess in total in the field, at home, in transit or in storage.
On this past Tuesday, I made my own way to the corner of First and Water Streets in Malden to see what was up. The scene was truly grisly… with an accompanying detail not mentioned before. There was a bag on hand, either for cement or feed of some sort, stuffed to ripping with bird carcasses. And the deer were ravaged, disemboweled…
To make matters particularly eerie, the Hudson was flowing North when I was there… a sign of the exceptional tides of the moment. Ice flows bounced off each other as flurries of seagulls darted at open water, cackling loudly. A lone duck flew low over the same scene I was witnessing, then circled back and flew over it again.
“There is probably no way for them to find out who did this,” the woman who originally contacted me wrote in an e-mail after I let her know what I, too, had seen in Malden. “The hunter who spoke to me said the duck hunters are a like a clan. He told me the word would get out and they would find out who did it. I can only hope so.”
Later, the woman talked about how there had seemed to be no break in the duck hunting all fall, daybreak to sunset from the blinds out on the river. She also noted how her neighbor had pointed out how some of the breasts had been cut out of ducks, but most were just dead, un-messed with. Stashed, as it were.
Wendy Rosenbach, spokesperson for DEC Region 3, called in just before press time and said that the officer who had been contacted, Mules Schillinger, was still investigating what had happened. She described the scene as having 30 to 40 dead ducks and pheasants and one dismembered deer carcass. Beyond that, there wasn’t much she could say.
“If they do find something,” Rosenbach said, “the charges will be for illegal disposal of solid waste.”
She suggested that anyone with further information call 845-256-3013.
[/caption]On New Year’s Day, a woman took her dogs out for a walk. Close to home, she let them off their leash and one bolted for the banks of the Hudson River, where something seemed to agitate him. The woman followed. The next morning she contacted the press about what she found.“This is hunting?,” was the label of the e-mail. “This morning on my walk along River Rd in Malden I came upon over 35 duck, pheasant and quail, along with 2 deer carcasses dumped at the river bank. Some of the birds were still intact. Who would do such a thing? It is bad enough they shoot these beautiful creatures, but then to dump them in a heap along the bank is too much.”
The image on this page was attached to the e-mail.
By Monday we were in direct contact with the woman, who wished to remain unnamed because of her fears that what she unveiled to the public would force repercussions.
“It was appalling. I knocked on my neighbor's door whose house overlooks this empty lot and he came over to investigate this with his friend, who happens to be a hunter. Even the hunter said that something like this gives hunters a bad name,” she said on January 3. “Some of the birds were tagged. All I could think was these hunters have been shooting at these animals since the end of October and I tried to imagine how many have been murdered if just one hunter shot this many birds. And to dump them along the shore like this was disgusting. Some of them had not even been used for their meat, so what was the point? I watched these guys these past few months out on the river behind a blind with decoys around them, making their duck calls, luring their prey. They were fanatical. The hunter who spoke to me said he knew some guys who stayed out there over night and would go out for days. Who monitors what these hunters do (or don't do)?”
The woman added that she had contacted a Department of Environmental Conservation officer in Saugerties, who said he’d get back to her within the week. She said that she’d later heard from neighbors that the DEC had apparently come out on Sunday and looked around.
According to the DEC’s hunting websites, waterfowl season for ducks and the other birds seen the riverside cache was October 9 through 17, then November 6 through December 26. Moreover, there were daily kill and dead bird possession limits listed, of 6 ducks maximum for our region’s “take,” and a dozen for “possession” limits.
“The daily bag limit is the maximum number of birds of each species that any person may take or possess in the field during any one day,” reads the exact terminology. “The possession limit is twice the daily bag limit for all waterfowl species except snow geese. The possession limit is the maximum number of birds that any person may possess in total in the field, at home, in transit or in storage.
On this past Tuesday, I made my own way to the corner of First and Water Streets in Malden to see what was up. The scene was truly grisly… with an accompanying detail not mentioned before. There was a bag on hand, either for cement or feed of some sort, stuffed to ripping with bird carcasses. And the deer were ravaged, disemboweled…
To make matters particularly eerie, the Hudson was flowing North when I was there… a sign of the exceptional tides of the moment. Ice flows bounced off each other as flurries of seagulls darted at open water, cackling loudly. A lone duck flew low over the same scene I was witnessing, then circled back and flew over it again.
“There is probably no way for them to find out who did this,” the woman who originally contacted me wrote in an e-mail after I let her know what I, too, had seen in Malden. “The hunter who spoke to me said the duck hunters are a like a clan. He told me the word would get out and they would find out who did it. I can only hope so.”
Later, the woman talked about how there had seemed to be no break in the duck hunting all fall, daybreak to sunset from the blinds out on the river. She also noted how her neighbor had pointed out how some of the breasts had been cut out of ducks, but most were just dead, un-messed with. Stashed, as it were.
Wendy Rosenbach, spokesperson for DEC Region 3, called in just before press time and said that the officer who had been contacted, Mules Schillinger, was still investigating what had happened. She described the scene as having 30 to 40 dead ducks and pheasants and one dismembered deer carcass. Beyond that, there wasn’t much she could say.
“If they do find something,” Rosenbach said, “the charges will be for illegal disposal of solid waste.”
She suggested that anyone with further information call 845-256-3013.