The hunter who shot a Missoula man’s dog on the assumption it was a wolf near Lee Creek campground on Sunday committed a tragedy but probably not a crime, according to county and state law enforcement officials.

“If we have any more information, if the guy comes forward, it will be investigated further,” Missoula County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Paige Pavalone said Monday. “This is an awful accident. But if it doesn’t fit into a state statute that we can enforce, it’s very difficult to investigate. We’re more than willing to help this person. We want to figure out what happened.”

But beyond taking the initial report from dog owner Layne Spence about the shooting, the sheriff’s office did not see evidence of a crime to be investigated, Pavalone said. The report was passed on to the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the U.S. Forest Service, whose law enforcement agents reached the same conclusion Monday.

That’s because, according to the statement Spence gave to law enforcement, the shooter tried to apologize after mistaking the brown-and-white malamute dog for a wolf. Spence told the deputy that he told the man to leave him alone and the man left.

That conversation, according to Pavalone, made it extremely difficult to show criminal intent on the part of the shooter. Without criminal intent, the accidental shooting of a domesticated dog is not a crime. It could trigger a civil lawsuit over the loss of personal property, but the sheriff’s office does not investigate civil disputes.

Spence reported the killing of his dog, Little Dave, to the sheriff’s office Sunday afternoon. Spence told a deputy he was cross-country skiing on a road above the Lee Creek campground with his three malamute dogs when a hunter shot one of them on the road. According to the deputy’s report, Spence said Little Dave was wearing a collar with a light when it was shot about 20 yards in front of him.

“The hunter resumed fire and shot approximately four more times, killing the dog,” Pavalone quoted from Spence’s statement. The deputy confirmed the dog was wearing a lighted collar and was shot at least twice, in the neck and rear leg.

Spence told the deputy the hunter approached him and said he thought the dog was a wolf, according to the report. He said the hunter asked if there was anything he could do, but Spence said he was so distraught he told the man to leave. Spence told the deputy the hunter did not make any threatening gestures toward

On Monday, FWP Warden Capt. Joe Jaquith said his agency is strictly limited to crimes involving game animals. Because the dog was a domesticated pet, it would not fall under a game warden’s jurisdiction. And even though it was allegedly shot while standing in a forest road, and hunters may not shoot game animals on a road, that law doesn’t apply to domesticated pets.

Spence told the deputy the man was wearing camouflage with a hunter orange vest, and was pulling an orange sled. He told the deputy the man had a black rifle that appeared to be semiautomatic, but “didn’t believe it was an assault rifle,” Pavalone said, quoting the report. Spence had earlier told the Missoulian the shooter was carrying “an assault weapon.”

Spence could not be reached for comment on Monday. A phone number he previously gave the Missoulian was reported out of service or disconnected.

Wolf hunting is legal in Montana for any qualified hunter with an over-the-counter license. There is no rule prohibiting the use of military-style rifles in hunting, as long as they are legal for civilian ownership.

The U.S. Forest Service maintains the Lee Creek campground for non-motorized winter use. Lolo National Forest recreation manager Al Hilshey said the area is popular with cross-country skiers who like to bring their dogs.

Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com

Gotta love this comment”crowe – 3 hours ago
“Let me see if I understand this correctly: It’s not criminal to “mis-shoot” something? Not even a fine or license suspension?

And, it is the responsibility of those NOT HUNTING to avoid getting shot, not the people who are licensed by the state to hunt? However, wouldn’t an expert hunter and outdoorsman be able to recognize what it is they are hunting? “Sorry ma’am, but your horse should’ve been wearing a vest. I thought you were riding an elk.”

So, to take this a step further, how are wolves supposed to recognize commercial livestock from say, wild animals open for hunting, if we, the superior species, can’t do it?”

Missoula man says wolf hunter shot, killed pet malamute

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

http://missoulian.com/news/local/missoula-man-says-wolf-hunter-shot-killed-pet-malamute/article_56b74a38-5003-11e3-9610-0019bb2963f4.html

by Betsey Cohen

A Missoula man is heartbroken and angry after a day of cross-country skiing with his malamute dogs near Lolo Pass turned into his worst nightmare Sunday afternoon.

Layne Spence was skiing with his three dogs on a quiet logging road in Lee Creek when, according to Spence, a rifle shot echoed through the air.

Then, Spence saw his 2-year-old brown and white dog, “Little Dave,” fall down with a shot to a leg.

About 15 yards away from him and his dogs, Spence saw a man in camouflage holding an assault weapon.

“I started screaming ‘Stop, stop,’ and the man kept shooting,” said Spence, 48, and who is often seen walking his dogs around Missoula’s river front. “And he kept shooting.”

“My dog is lying there, dead and I shouted ‘What are you doing?’ and the guy said, ‘I thought it was a wolf.’ ”

After the man allegedly shot Spence’s dog six times, he took off without another word, leaving Spence to deal with the tragedy of his dead dog.

Spence abandoned his skiing gear to carry Little Dave out, and to get his other two malamutes, Frank and Rex, to the safety of his truck.

When he got back to Missoula, Spence filed a report with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department.

“This doesn’t have to happen,” said an obviously distraught Spence. “Not every big dog is a wolf. These are pets, they all had their collars and lights on, they were all with me the entire time.

“People need to know what a wolf looks like before they start shooting,” he said. “And I was standing right there.

“What if I had a child on a sled, what would have happened if a bullet ricocheted?”

“There are other people who use the woods besides hunters this time of year.”

The incident remains under investigation by the Missoula Sheriff’s Department.

Anyone who has information about the shooting is asked to call Crimestoppers at721-4444.

Hunters drive off Lewis County cliff, woman dies

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

[That’s funny, I didn’t know there were any 2,000′ cliffs in Doty.]

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/11/hunters-drive-off-lewis-county-cliff-woman-dies/

by Nick Provenza

DOTY, Lewis County (AP) — The Pacific County sheriff’s office says a couple who were hunting drove their truck off a logging road and it fell about 2,000 feet down a cliff into a ravine.

Deputy Pat Matlock says the woman driving died at the scene Tuesday and a man in the passenger’s seat suffered critical injuries and was flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The Chronicle reports another couple hunting with the pair had to drive to a location with cell phone reception to call for help.

The accident occurred on Weyerhaeuser land near the western edge of Lewis County, so Pacific deputies responded along with the Washington State Patrol and Raymond Fire Department.

Deer-hunting season comes with self-inflicted hazards

Posted on November 17, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

By Michael Aubry ,Ottawa Sun

First posted: Saturday, November 16, 2013

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson

A viciously amputated finger.

A bullet-sized hole to the shoulder.

These potentially fatal accidents are just some of the examples that have already plagued this year’s deer-hunting season.

A peaceful romp through the woods can easily prove deadly — and punctuated by shrill cries for help — after just a moment of inattention.

“It’s important to have proper respect for a firearm, it’s a lethal force and a dangerous weapon,” said Steven Aubry, district enforcement supervisor with the Ministry of Natural Resources.

“Any incident can be deadly. Hunting should be a safe and enjoyable pastime.”

Ontario Provincial Police are probing six accidental shootings in southern and eastern Ontario this year so far.

A 75-year-old man shot himself while hunting in North Glengarry Township Thursday.

Later that same day, a 23-year-old was shot in a hunting accident in North Grenville.

Earlier last week, a 59-year-old man was shot in an accident just outside Smiths Falls. But they likely won’t be the last.

There have been an average of 10 serious hunting incidents every year for the past 20 years, including last year when 22-year-old Andrew Winnicki was killed in a freak accident bird hunting in Osgoode.

Aubry said these rare slip-ups are almost always linked to the four cardinal rules of hunting — and those who break them.

Every hunter should assume their gun is loaded at all times.

That means maintaining control of their muzzle, keeping their finger off the trigger until they’re ready to shoot, and never point at something they don’t intend to kill.

“Hunters have to understand that when you point a loaded firearm at something, you’re prepared to destroy it, so gun control is so important,” he said

More: http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/11/16/deer-hunting-season-comes-with-self-inflicted-hazards

Hunter Does a Commendable Thing: Chooses Death

Posted on November 15, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

By now you’ve probably heard about the hunter from Indiana who ended up permanently paralyzed and on a ventilator after falling from a tree. While it’s always good news to know there’s one less armed animal-killer out there trying to gun-down the innocent, this is a case of an injured hunter—rendered essentially harmless to anyone but himself and his caregivers—choosing to do the right thing.

The miracles of modern medicine include morphine and other drugs that can spare a person from the unbearable pain which often accompanies such an injury. Yet, just as not every illness can be cured, there is a limit to how much spinal damage can be reversed. At times, the most humane resolution is to allow a suffering individual to peacefully pass, or even gently hasten the passing.

Despite the national obsession with health care these days, people rarely hear a word about the choices available to patients, or the fact that one can always refuse life-prolonging treatment (as long as they’re still able to communicate, or have previously expressed your wishes in writing). Kudos to the family of the hunter who must have known his wishes well enough to ask to bring him out of it and allow him to tell the staff at the hospital that he was definitely not interested in marking time in a rehab facility, hooked up to a ventilator.

For all its marvels, modern medicine is in a big way responsible for the rapidly worsening human overpopulation crisis. I don’t know if his decision was based in part on selflessness, but if more people were to choose no to be when by all intents and purposes they really aren’t alive anymore, the human population might start to level off and eventually not be quite such a burden on the planet.

I had an unwelcome opportunity to end the suffering of a mortally wounded band-tailed pigeon (a wild, forest-dwelling bird, native to the Western North America) who showed up at my birdfeeder with her lower bill shot completely off (probably by a dumbass neighbor kid who liked to shoot at everything that moved with his 22). The pigeon was unable to ever feed herself again, so I’m not sure if she returned to this familiar territory to somehow assuage her nagging hunger, or if she was hoping I could do something to help.

Like the paralyzed hunter whose only hope of living was via a feeding tube, there was no way this poor pigeon had any real chance of long term survival without some kind of major heroics. Since medical science has yet to invent a bionic bill for lowly birds, all I could do was shoot the poor thing to instantly put an end to her misery.

Band-tailed pigeon photo©Jim Robertson

Teen dies in accidental shooting during hunting trip

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

By Associated Press Published: Nov 4, 2013

BURLEY, Idaho (AP) – A 16-year-old south-central Idaho boy has died after being accidentally shot while people cleaned their guns after a hunting trip.

Cassia County Sheriff Jay Heward says Ryan J. Willes of Burley died Saturday night after being struck in the neck by a shotgun blast.

Officials say a group of boys had gone hunting Saturday afternoon and were at a house in western Cassia County cleaning their weapons when one of them discharged.

[Maybe I don’t have the stomach for it, but I’m glad I wasn’t there to see this 16 year old take a fatal shotgun blast through the neck. Deserved or not, it had to have been an ugly, traumatic (preventable*) scene. *Needless to say, all hunting accidents are preventable by following this one simple guideline: Don’t go hunting!]

Woman wounded in apparent hunting accident

Posted on November 2, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

By Associated Press Nov 2, 2013

SCAPPOOSE, Ore. (AP) — A northwest Oregon sheriff says a 24-year-old St. Helens woman out hunting with a friend suffered a severe leg wound in an apparently accidental shooting.

Sheriff Jeff Dickerson said Lindsay Roub was wounded Friday afternoon when the rifle she had been carrying discharged as she was handing it to her hunting partner.

The sheriff says Roub and 39-year-old Raymond Ozias of St. Helens had been hunting in a rural area a few miles west of Scappoose.

They reportedly were walking down a steep hill in pursuit of a buck. The sheriff says the rifle discharged as Roub asked her friend to take her weapon so she could climb down.

Ozias called for help. Deputies found Roub barely conscious. After treatment by medics, she was carried out of the woods and taken to a Portland hospital.

[Sarah Palin–poster girl for a women’s right to be just as psychotic as any man–is shown here wearing a T-shirt reminding her adoring fans simply that “Women Hunt” (don’t ask me what the accompanying drawing is supposed to be). I guess it’s only fair women hunters have their share of hunting accidents too.]

Hunt the Hunters Hunting Licenses

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

Satire, by Jim Robertson (with a nod to the late Cleveland Amory, author of Mankind?: Our Incredible War on Wildlife and founder of the Hunt the Hunters Hunt Club):
In a comment on one of the many tragic hunting accidents I’ve blogged about lately, a gentle reader mentioned there should be a hunt the hunters hunting season, to which another compassionate soul replied, “I’d contribute to that.”

We’ve all heard (ad nauseam) hunters boast that their license fees pay for wildlife programs, implying that it entitles them to kill the subjects of their alleged generosity—of course hunters don’t contribute out of the kindness of their hearts or their profound love for living animals. This got me to thinking we need a non-hunter license and tag system that emulates hunter tags, to finally put to rest this notion that hunters alone pay for wildlife through their consumptive use licenses. There have been some good ideas out there about this; people have floated the notion of a non-hunters duck stamp, for instance, but those have yet to really take off.

Perhaps it’s because non-hunters wouldn’t get anything tangible for their money. Sure, they could bring back a photo or wonderful memories of the amazing wildlife they saw at a quiet slice of heaven preserved for the wild non-human species of the Earth. But how does that really compare to the kind of meaty trophy a hunter takes home with him? (Sorry, or her; I keep forgetting that women are now being lured into the blood sport.) Hunters can pet and fondle the bodies of their dead victims, and even ingest certain parts they don’t plan to mount on the wall.

The only way a non-hunter can have such a tactile experience is if they can actually bring their “harvests” home with them. Granted, a human carcass doesn’t have the popular appeal of say, a mounted deer, elk, moose, goose, sheep or bear, but to the one who made that good, clean kill shot, it’s a symbol of their prowess and their mighty-yet-selfless effort to thin the hunter herd.

Fortunately, state game departments have given us a model to go by. State residents’ licenses would be kept at an affordable price, while out of state hunter hunters would have to contribute more to the coffers. Logically, someone would have to be hired to insure there were plenty of hunters out there to harvest; and who better for that job than the experienced wildlife “managers.” After all, they’ve been doing their darnedest to recruit more hunters for years now.

Tags for different breeds of hunters could emulate hunting tags for specific non-human animal species. (For those unsure of which sub-species of hunter they’re aiming at, watch for the post, “A Field Guide to North American Hunters” coming soon.) Obviously a tag for the average Elmer would cost less than a tag for a globe-trotting trophy hunter.

Since they’re among the most sadistic, and are the least likely to lay down their weapons and make peace with the animals willingly, out-of-state hunting licenses to hunt wolf hunters will hereby be reduced from $250 to $50. And wolf hunter tags for residents will be similarly underpriced at around $15, since the goal is ultimately to eliminate that breed altogether.

Devastated hunter kills himself moments after accidentally shooting his friend dead

Posted on October 30, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

[Now this is a twofer. It’s from a couple of years back; too bad it doesn’t happen more often, but then a guilty conscience isn’t often a hunter’s strong suit. If only they’d feel some kind of guilt about the deer and bears they killed.]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066891/Hunter-kills-accidentally-shooting-friend-dead.html#ixzz2iupP1oyI

By Daily Mail Reporter
UPDATED: 17:59 EST, 27 November 2011

A hunter who accidentally shot and killed his friend was so devastated he turned his rifle on himself, police believe.

Benjamin Birch, 39, Timothy Bolognani, 49, and Mark Colford were hunting near Readsboro, Vermont, on Saturday afternoon when Birch shot a deer.

The wounded animal managed to escape, and the men began tracking it through the woods.

Bolognani fired at what he thought was the deer, but instead heard Birch scream in pain.

Bolognani and Colford ran to discover their friend bleeding on the ground, where he died.

Overwhelmed with grief, Bolognani then committed suicide with his own rifle, police believe. Vermont State Police were called just after noon on Saturday.

Benjamin Birch was a keen hunter and uploaded photos of his various catches, including black bears, to Facebook.

He also expressed his discontent that the deer hunting season was not as long as that in other states. He wrote: ‘Vermont is the only state where they worry about the deer getting a rest between seasons!’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066891/Hunter-kills-accidentally-shooting-friend-dead.html#ixzz2jBYjUyqf
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Local officials face deadline over enacting rifle hunting restrictions

Posted on October 29, 2013 by Exposing the Big Game

[You can expect a lot more hunting accidents when this season starts up…]

Towns and villages in 18 counties across eastern and western

Wisconsin have only a few weeks to decide if there are public safety reasons to prohibit rifle hunting for deer.

Local governments are scrambling to get the issue on meeting agendas before the Nov. 23 start of the annual nine-day deer gun season.

The state Department of Natural Resources declared in late September rifles will be allowed statewide for the traditional deer gun hunt and the December antlerless deer hunt, except where municipalities enact local restrictions.

Most counties in southern and central Wisconsin in the past were designated as shotgun-only for deer hunting, primarily in response to a public perception that shotguns were safer for hunting in open farm fields.

While shotgun slugs are not as accurate or powerful as rifle bullets over long distances, the DNR says a study of hunting accidents shows a switch to rifle hunting did not boost the number of injuries and other incidents.

DNR officials in the past few years could not confirm any safety advantages to hunting deer with shotguns rather than rifles so the change was made, according to Conservation Warden Todd Schaller, chief of the DNR’s recreational enforcement section.

The department set off the dash for a local decision by announcing the end of shotgun-only counties for deer hunting in Wisconsin as of Nov. 1.

The decision followed votes in favor of the change at Conservation Congress spring meetings in 2011 and 2013, said Matt O’Brien, a DNR administrative warden in Madison.

And the number of counties prohibiting rifle hunting for deer had steadily declined before this year.

As of January 2013, the DNR listed 19 counties with shotgun-only zones for deer hunting. In one, Milwaukee County, all communities had enacted separate regulations to prohibit rifle hunting in any season.

The other 53 counties permitted rifle hunting for deer before the recent rule change.

Any new local regulation of rifle hunting should balance public safety issues with the state’s responsibility to regulate hunting and manage wildlife populations, Schaller and O’Brien said.

One complication for hunters is that the DNR’s declaration came after the 2013 deer regulations were printed, so a state map in the pamphlet still shows the 19 counties as shotgun-only zones.

One other complication: the DNR will not track local ordinances and provide a central database. It is the hunter’s responsibility to determine if there are municipal restrictions on rifle use.

Patchwork of rules

The Village of Germantown in Washington County last week enacted a year-round ban on rifle hunting with an exception for low-powered .22-caliber and .17-caliber models using rimfire cartridges.

“It was a difficult decision, but it came down to topography and density of population,” Police Chief Peter Hoell said.

Large flat fields of corn and soybeans north of Freistadt Road are his primary concern. High-powered rifle bullets could carry long distances across those fields, which are sandwiched between rural homes, subdivisions and crossroad hamlets, he said.

When the dust settles in a few weeks in the other 18 counties, the result likely will be a checkerboard quilt of ordinances with some municipalities imposing year-round prohibitions on rifle hunting, others restricting rifles only in the deer season, and the remainder taking no action.

But maneuvering through dozens of differing local regulations would be at odds with one of the main reasons for eliminating the shotgun-only counties, DNR officials said.

The change was intended to simplify hunting rules so that hunters would not need to check the deer regulation pamphlet, and switch weapons, each time they crossed a county line, according to O’Brien.

The checkerboard design is a work in progress:

From Germantown, a group of hunters walking north across Pioneer Road into the Town of Jackson will need to call ahead for information on rifle use.

Town staff and board members are studying the issue but no meeting has been scheduled.

Hunters walking south from Germantown into Menomonee Falls will have to put away their rifles and check where they can discharge a shotgun.

The village in Waukesha County had established a prohibition on rifle hunting several years ago and requires a municipal permit for hunting with shotguns or bows. Shotgun hunting is only allowed on designated properties that are 5 acres or larger.

West of Germantown, the Richfield Village Board is planning a special meeting Nov. 7 to discuss the need for restricting rifle use, Village Administrator Josh Schoemann said.

Hunters entering Richfield from Germantown should call ahead to determine which firearms are allowed.

Rifles are welcome for deer hunting in the Town of Cedarburg in Ozaukee County, a former shotgun-only county. The Town Board in October decided not to impose restrictions on rifle hunting.

The town posted a link on its website to a Pennsylvania study of the need for rifle hunting restrictions. The study concluded shotguns with rifled barrels could pose a greater public safety risk than rifles on level terrain, and there was a greater risk of ricochet with shotgun slugs than rifle bullets.

The Waukesha Town Board will discuss the issue of rifle hunting at its Nov. 14 meeting, Town Chairman John Marek said.

One additional consideration for local officials is that the old shotgun-only regulation applied only to deer seasons. There was a flip side of the rule: use of rifles for legal hunting of coyote, fox and bear during open seasons was permitted unless local restrictions were established.

In Mequon, the city had designated zones of 10 acres or more generally west of the Milwaukee River for hunting. Rifle hunting is prohibited throughout Mequon under an existing ordinance.

The Town of Addison in Washington County decided to re-establish a shotgun-only deer hunting zone within its town boundaries.

On Oct. 17, the Town Board adopted an ordinance prohibiting use of rifles in any gun deer hunting season. The board cited population density in enacting the limited restriction.

Even so, hunters can use rifles in other open seasons.

The Town of Hartford in Washington County took no action. The Hartford Town Board on Thursday could not reach consensus on either a year-round prohibition on rifles or a rifle ban only during the deer gun season.

On a 2-1 vote, the board decided to step back and monitor complaints in the upcoming season.

“There’s not a lot of open area left in this town,” Clerk Marvin Justman said. There are 22 rural subdivisions crisscrossing the municipality with the historic St. Lawrence hamlet on the north.

Enforcement difficult

Shotgun-only deer hunting regulations will be difficult to enforce and vulnerable to challenge now that the DNR has decided there is no safety advantage in hunting with shotguns, the Wisconsin Towns Association advises local governments.

Adding to the challenge: Conservation wardens do not have the authority to enforce local regulations.

This is one situation where the DNR recommends town officials either go big — impose year-round rifle hunting restrictions for public safety reasons — or do nothing.

A deer season-only restriction on rifles would be viewed by the department as a hunting regulation, rather than a public safety rule, and municipalities do not have authority to regulate wildlife hunting seasons, O’Brien said.

Why would a community restrict rifle use only during a deer gun season? he asked.

“If there is a public safety risk in hunting deer with rifles, then the risk exists 365 days a year” in hunting other wildlife with rifles, O’Brien said.

For that reason, the DNR has distributed its preferred model town ordinance with a year-round ban on rifle hunting.

“Although the department does not feel any local ordinances are required, and in fact emphasizes minimal local regulation, certain localities may not share this position,” O’Brien said in discussing the need for a model ordinance.

Exposing the Big Game

Forget Hunters' Feeble Rationalizations and Trust Your Gut Feelings: Making Sport of Killing Is Not Healthy Human Behavior

Tag Archives: hunting accidents

Update: Sheriff’s office: Shooting of dog near Lolo Pass wasn’t criminal