00:00:02 Speaker 1: From Mediators World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is Cal's weekend review, presented by Steel. Steel products are available only at authorized dealers. For more, go to Steel Dealers dot com. Now here's your host, Ryan cal Callahan. 00:00:22 Speaker 2: Police evacuating a New Jersey neighborhood following a gas explosion last week made an unexpected discovery in one of the homes a six point whitetail buck being kept in a dog cage. You can imagine that this is not what the officers wanted to deal with during a gas leak, but probably better than some of the other things they could have found in a cage in New Jersey. Well bring out the gimp. But despite the looming danger, they called an environmental conservation officer to help get the deer out of the house. The deer was successfully removed and the homeowner was interviewed. The homeowner said the deer had been injured and they'd been taking care of it, but the animal had since recovered and they just decided to keep it as a pet. Here's PSA to all the well intentioned but ill informed folks out there. It's illegal in every state to keep wildlife as a pet. Yeah, there's kind of an asterisk there for like the game farm things and how those animals are treated, which can be very pet like. But anyway, if you think an animal might be hurt, give your wildlife agency a call. If they think it's necessary, they'll dispatch a professional who will handle the situation that's the best for the animal and for you. You're not snow white. Wild animals can't be domesticated like livestock or dogs and kiddies can. Those animals have had thousands of years of domestication bred into them, even if they don't act like it all the time. If you care at all about the upholstery on your couch, the state of your carpet, or your human neighbors, don't try to rehabilitate woodland creatures. Caging wild animal could also send you to the kind of cage made for people. In this case, the would be deer whisper. We'll be facing charges from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation. Thanks to listener Eric Streil for sending us that story. This week, we've got urban animals, wildlife crime, and killing contests. But first I'm going to tell you about my week. In my week Oh wow, Where to start? So, as you know, I took a couple of days to attempt to kill bluefin tuna with a spear, this time with the buddy mine, Greg Fontz. Greg and I dove together with our buddy Paul a few years ago. If you guys watched the Cow in the Field episode on the Mediator YouTube channel about Striper's and salmon, Paul and Greg, we're both in that episode and awesome people, super fun to be around, super pro. But to wrap up this adventure, make it as short and sweet as I can, it did not go well in my land base vernacular outfitted which before you lose your shirts. I've worked for many outfitters over the years, and I'll tell you that even the most well intentioned and hard working outfitters or in this case, captains, can still have shit weeks. Sometimes all the working knowledge gained through years of experience, still you know the sea or the elk, or the forest, or the conditions conspire against you, and despite all of that knowledge, things just keep going wrong. I'm not sure that's what happened during our week. In fact, i'd leaned towards the fact that this crew we attempted to fish with just had other shit going on, and the people paying for everything were not the priority, which led to a bunch of mishaps, a ton of lost time both on the water and off the water. As you know, I mean, it's September, right, There's a million other places a bunch of outdoor folks could be in September, but we chose to spend her time and money there. We did gain some time, however, but just with the California Department of Fishing and Wildlife, who were super pro It was a true cluster of a trip, and really none of it on the part of the clients, of which I was one of three, or you know, or four of us total awesome folks. Big shout out to firefighters in California. Every dude on the trip other than myself was a city fire person and got to meet a bunch of those folks on the tail end and literally the tail end. But that's a story for another time. Anyway, awesome folks, super cool and you folks who live in NorCal you got some super good dudes looking out for you, so feel good about that. I'll tell you this, if a destination trip booked through a reputable captain or outfitter can go south on me, it can go south on you two. And it's a tricky situation. Our failure as a group was kind of giving too much space or credit to this very reputable captain. Once things started going south, once it was like noticeable that the level of pro just was not there. Once that was like very noticeable. We could have, in hindsight and should have been a lot more upfront with stating the obvious. You know, this isn't working, so let's pivot to something that has a higher rate of success. And success at this point would just be like being in the water enjoying ourselves. But you know, I mean that's hindsight for you. These situations may look plain as day from the outside looking in, but they're pretty murky when you're on the inside. A huge part of what you pay for on a guided trip is the local knowledge and the expertise. Man, when you travel, you can't, you know, bring your in my case, Montana to the ocean right. The timeline of waking up and hunting elk in September in Montana is not necessarily the same timeline as waking up and hunting tuna in San diego. You need to be able to go with the flow and have some trust that they know what's going on. And that is a lot easier with straightforward conversations which ideally are prompted by the professional guides and outfitters or captains and mates that you are paying, right, and if they do not prompt those conversations, you need to do it. It's really simple. It's not a confrontational thing. I mean, it's business as usual and they do it every single week. But you just got to be prepared for that stuff. You know, speaking to somebody who made my living as a guide for a lot of years growing up, it was never a negative thing to get like a bunch of questions or often as not, it was like, hey, when I booked this trip, they said it was going to be this way most of the time, very reasonable explanation as to why it is not that way, right, Like yeah, that trip or you know that sales pitch that you got is like when X, Y and Z happened, but today or this week, A, B and C are happening right like forest fires, crazy wins. You know, just elk aren't here yet, you know whatever, and you got to pivot and you just got to make it clear that pivoting is what you do right. It's wildlife and wild places, and you adjust and carry on and it'll be super fun. I do want to throw this out at you. I'm not using the captain's name or business name for a reason. I really don't think this dude is a bad person. I don't think he runs a bad business per usual. I just think we caught up to him at the end of a very long season and things hadn't been pro a little bit, and the end is near as far as the season end is near, and you know it's a taxing job, and we just got bit by sloppiness at the end. So confident that this this dude will get back on his feet and get back to being pro. So anyway, when I got home from my bust to tunea trip, I decided to save the weekend by going bird hunting, where I promptly lost my phone. Got out of Bozeman real eight, ran right into stop and go traffic, some wrack up on nine ninety, ended up pulling off on the side of the county road and going to bed at about midnight. Woke up the next day, I went on a nice long walk. Thought for sure we'd find birds right out of the gate, but that was not the case. But I did, like I say, lose my phone, and damn you on X for making me so reliable on that sweet, sweet mapping software. I love going new places, places where I haven't been, and man, what a bummer to have the confidence of going to those places because all the info you need is right on your phone. All you got to do is like download the map ahead of time. And yeah, I just didn't have it. And I'm not a guy who looks at the weather because I'm just going to go anyway. Tempts were hitting ninety degrees, so it was way too hot to run the dog during the day anyway, So I pivoted, as you do, and I headed to my mommy's. She's got a big old shop where I could do some wrenching on the old black series camper. I blew the hot water heater out, which I'm sure I told you guys last winter. But I had got a replacement water heater which I've had like partially installed for a little bit, and I just needed to kind of do the wiring and get her all plugged in and test it out, and so I was able to back it into the shop, had all the tools, got everything done, didn't have to sweat like crazy, and once I pumped water through the system, I found out that the new replacement, brand spanking new chunk of copper instant hot water coil from Fugati came pre installed with a pinhole leak in the copperwatercoil. Uh, she's just really kicking a guy when he's down. So if you have an ace in the whole way of patching, a pinhole leak on a copper line that cannot be wrapped, and when that copper line is operational, it's hot and under pressure. Right in to ask cl at the meat eater dot Com. 00:10:33 Speaker 1: Were the Morio Brothers and Plumbings again or not? 00:10:36 Speaker 2: Let the others get all the fame. 00:10:39 Speaker 1: You could call us on the Doubles professter than the others. 00:10:42 Speaker 2: You'll on the brothers moving on to the Urban Animal's desk. Snitches get stitches, as they say, and some British Columbia residents are applying that mob logic to their town's black bear problem. Black bears are being spotted all across the town of Prince George or PG, and conservation officers are struggling to keep up. The CBC reports that there were two two hundred and forty one complaints about bears in the month of August, and thirty six bears have been put down. That's a market rise from last August, when zero bears were killed in the city. Residents report that they see bears in their yards almost every day, and bears are regularly spotted in the middle of town. They're fattening up for winter and are attracted to the usual suspects of trash, unpicked apples, pet food, and dirty barbecues. The public is supposed to report all aggressive bears, but some residents are refusing. One woman told the CBC that she's effectively adopted a no snitching policy. I don't fault people for calling conservation officers, she said, but I've never called the conservation officer, and I have difficulty imagining a situation in which I would, rather than calling, to ask the bears to be put down or removed. She and her neighbors warn each other when pets and children need to be brought inside. In my neighborhood, we don't say hi to each other anymore. We just say, did you see the bear in the driveway around the corner. Wildlife professionals should be made aware of aggressive bears, but this no snitching policy is having some positive effects. The CBC reports that other towns have Facebook groups in which people are called out for bad bear behavior, things like leaving trash cans unlocked or leaving out pet food. Their hope is that rather than rely on conservation officers to come in and deal with the problem, people will change their behavior so that bears aren't attracted to towns and cities in the first place. Big thanks to listener Jeff Graham and his sons for sending us that story. Good luck to Alex as he starts a guy in moose hunts and BC tons of fun up there. And I just got to say, this social consciousness that's going on up there, you know where it's not the conservation officer's fault for not keeping track of their bears, but it's actually the people in the neighborhood's fault for leaving attractants out. My god, it's like we've entered into a new era. Send those Facebook group invites down to all the neighborhoods down here in the Lower forty eight police speaking of Moose and staying in Canada. A moose that wandered into a Calgary neighborhood this month died because of the crowds of people trying to get a good picture of it. Thanks to listener Jeffrey Chang for sending us that story. Alberta Fishing Wildlife Enforcement Services said in a statement that the adult cow moose was reportedly breaking through fences and trying to jump a six foot concrete retaining wall. One police officer told the CBC that even though law enforcement tried to keep the crowds away, people were climbing fences, sneaking around trees, and crawling through bushes to get the perfect photo. The moose eventually bedded down between two houses and wildlife officials and police corned off the area to give the animal space to rest, but when they tried to move the moose after a few hours, it died from something called capture myopathy. Capture myopathy is a fatal condition that causes serious m damage resulting from extreme exertion, struggle, or stress. In this case, the stress came not from the wildlife biologists, but from Calgarians hoping to snap a photo for the gram. If you ever see a wild animal wandering through a city, you know, just leave it alone. You guys have seen coyotes in that town. I sure have tweet out that social responsibility and your you know, your media followers will forgive you. Moving on to the crime desk, a Washington man is facing up to a decade in prison for unlawfully hunting bears, elk, and deer in twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, and he might still be poaching animals if not for his penchant to brag about his kills on social media. Jason Smith of North Bend, Washington is facing two felonies, twenty seven gross misdemeanors, and three misdemeanors for his alleged crimes. We don't have time on this thirty minute podcast to cover each of these charges, but I'll hit the highlights. One of Smith's hunting strategies was to set out a pile of apples near his house and try to shoot the bears that came sniffing around. It is illegal to bait bears in Washington, but that didn't stop Smith from snapping a photo of a bear eating from that pile of apples or bait as you'd call it. On September twenty ninth, twenty twenty one, he took that photo at eleven PM, and then the next morning took another photo of a dead bear located about thirty eight but yards from his bait pile. He posted a photo on Instagram of himself with that bear, along with what may be the most hilarious caption of all time quote, I wanted this bear bad, especially after my failed attempt a week prior. Persistence in the mountains pays. If you quit, the hunt is over. I love that there are no participation trophies in the mountains. You get what you earn, nothing more, nothing less end quote. Smith is right about one thing. He'll get what he earns if he's found guilty. At least we all hope so. Another of Smith's brilliant strategies appeared to be purchasing tags only after killing the animals. On October twenty ninth, twenty twenty one, Smith posted a photo of a dead buck on Instagram. He also texted four people quote big buck down, and the first of those tags went out at nine to twenty nine am, but records showed that he did not purchase a deer tag until nine thirty nine am, or at least ten minutes after he killed the deer. In addition to illegally baiting animals and hunting without proper tag, Smith is being charged with hunting during close seasons, hunting over the bag limit, failing to submit bare premolars which her teeth, retrieving animals from private property without permission, and wasting wildlife. For all the details, check out the article at themeateater dot com. Moving across the pond to Jolliola, England, would be angler has been sentenced to two hundred hours of community service for threatening, among other things, to put a donkey head in the bed of a local landowner. That's a Godfather reference for all of you kids out there. Race horses and donkeys are interchangeable. Thirty six year old Paul Darlington, which you know can't be an easy name to have in prison, had trespassed on the property of Thomas Canning to try to steal trout from Canning's pond. Canning called the police when he spotted Darlington, but that situation escalated when the two men confronted one another. Darlington had been previously convicted of assault and something called antisocial behavior, which is totally unsurprising given what happened next. Darlington told Canning that he knew the layout of the farm and would come back and kill his children. We know that you have got donkeys. We will come back in the night and kill them. Have you ever woken up with the donkey's head in your bed? Darlington was arrested without following through on any of his threats, and he eventually pled guilty in exchange for many of his charges to be dropped. Along with his community service, he was forced to pay three hundred pounds in fines, which equals about three hundred and seventy five dollars. Speaking of antisocial behavior, to Connecticut teams were charged recently with maiming and possibly killing an egret at Ocean Beach. The two eighteen year olds were reported to police after they were spotted throwing rocks at the bird and then tackling it and holding it by the neck. A good smaritan at the scene chased away the hooligans and supplied the police with photos of the men, which led to their arrest. Benjamin M. Pavano and Parker Wallace were charged with Class D cruelty to animals, which is a felony and released on a five thousand dollars bond. Their cases are still working their way through the Connecticut courts. Both the great egret and snowy egret are listed as threatened species by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and protected under the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act. No word yet on whether the pair will face federal charges. Boy, all that, and they didn't even threaten to kill anybody's kids. Your chop off donkey heads getting soft over there in Ocean Beach. Three South Carolina man are facing federal wildlife charges for bringing a CWD positive deerhead from Kansas to the Palm Meadow State. Caldwell Seymour faces two federal counts of unlawfully transporting wildlife, while Sean Pashaw and Justin Lamaster each face one. If convicted, the men face up to five years in prison. If a hunter takes a deer or elkin estate where CWD has been detected, South Carolina law prohibits them from importing whole carcasses or parts that contain nervous system tissue. Hunters can bring back meat as long as the spinal column is not attached, and they can bring back skulls as long as they have been cleaned. But these men allegedly brought infected parts back to South Carolina because it was cheaper to process those parts in South Carolina than Kansas. Breaking a state wildlife law and then transporting that animal across state lines constitutes a federal offense under the Lacy Act, which is why the penalties are so serious. One of the men's lawyers told South Carolina media that they didn't know about the rules against importing deer from CWD states. It's unclear how wildlife officials found out about the violation, but the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources says that they confirm the deer head imported all the way back in twenty nineteen tested positive for CWD. This is the first and only time the disease has been verified in a deer transported into South Carolina. Last one from the crime desk. Three Nevada men will have to pay a fifteen thousand dollars fine and won't be able to hunt for five years after using a drone to kill a mule deer buck. The Nevada Department of Wildlife said the men spied the buck on private land and use the drone to harass it onto public land. But they didn't even shoot it in the right unit. One of the men had a mule deer tag, but it wasn't for the unit where they shot the buck. Quote. I'm not quite sure what these men were thinking, game Ward and Captain Jake Kramer said in a statement, I can answer that question. They probably weren't thinking at all. As Meat Eater contributor Pat Dirkin famously said, big bucks make people stupid. I think that applies in this case. Moving on to the sharp desk, regular listeners will remember a few episodes back when we had Representative Rob Whitman on the show to talk about the Shark Act. The legislation would form a working group to investigate ways to decrease shark angler interaction and reduce the tax bill for saltwater anglers. Quote paying the tax man is what fishermen call it. When a shark eats part of their catch. That's just a little ocean slying for you. You know, the next time you find yourself in a bar with a you know, salty crew of scurvy pirates. Anyway, when I hear decrease shark angler interactions. I assume that means killing more sharks, but that's not the only way to keep sharks away from recreational fishing boats. The students at the University of New England are investigating ways that low level electrical impulses might be used to repel sharks. They've invented a cylindrical device that attaches to a fishing line about eight inches away from baited hooks. The device emits a random pattern of weak electric impulses that are designed to disorient sharks. It works because sharks have special receptors in their snouts called ampulize of Lorenzini. These receptors allow them to detect electrical fields, which usually helps them find and capture prey, but random electrical currents in the water have the opposite effect and theoretically keep them away from an angler's line. It shouldn't affect most fish, since they don't have those electrical receptors. The results so far sound, promising the students tole the Portland Herald Press that the emitters appear to lower shark bycatch by about a half during a two hour fishing lab on a recent weekday in the Gulf of Maine. The emitters warded off all but the youngest dogfish, which is a type of shark. The students believe young sharks might be less affected because their receptors aren't fully developed. Yeah, makes sense. It's worth noting that if these and other similar devices prove successful, recreational anglers aren't the only ones that will benefit. If sharks could understand the situation, they'd also appreciate the warnings stay away from angler's hooks. Shark bycatch can be both frustrating for anglers and deadly for sharks, especially when fishing with pelagical onlines. These lines can extend for miles behind a boat and suspend thousands of baited hooks. Keeping sharks clear of these long lines would benefit the shark populations just as much as it would relieve anglers. Big thanks to listener Christy Holmes for sending us that story. Moving on to the hunting desk, the body of a ten year old West Virginia boy was found recently after he went missing on a hunting trip with his grandfather. Wyatt. Eves and Ibert went missing on a Saturday morning earlier this month in Mason County. Officials first responded to the area because the grandfather called to report that he'd been in an ATV accident. He said his grandson was missing, that he'd been using the ATV to find him. Wyatt's mother told local media that Wyatt and his grandfather had been eating lunch when Wyatt went to take a walk to look for squirrels. When his grandfather finished and started looking for the boy, he said he couldn't find him. Law enforcement searched the woods through the night and found Wyatt's body the next morning with a single gunshot wound, which was determined to be the cause of death. As of this recording, officials have not said whether it was an accident or suspective foul play. It's unclear how far away the boy had walked or why the grandfather did not hear the shot. The boy's mother told local media that why it had been trained on gun safety. He knew to carry the gun on his back with it pointed in the air. He had very good trigger discipline. Whatever happened, this is a tragedy. Wyatt's family says he enjoyed hunting, fishing, wrestling, heavy metal music, and anything to do with the military. His mother told local media that he wanted to be a marine when he grew up. Hunting is safer than it's ever been, thanks in large part to mandatory hunter education and increased awareness of firearm in tree stand safety. Even though we don't know the details of this latest tragedy in West Virginia, it should remind us that even an afternoon in the squirrel woods can turn deadly fast. In fact, squirrel hunting presents safety concerns you don't have in other kinds of hunting scenarios. Squirrel hunting is often done in groups, but it's easy to lose track of your buddies with your eyes trained in the branches of the trees. Squirrels can also be found on the ground, so it's crucial to know exactly where everyone is before taking a shot. Even if you hit the squirrel, a twenty two bullet can pass through and hit something beyond it. If you shoot at a squirrel high up in a tree, you have to be sure you're not shooting in the direction of people or homes. Small game cartridges like the twenty two long rifle don't travel as far as big game calibers, but they can still be deadly as squirrel seasons open up this fall. Remember to stay vigilant. Moving on to the coyote desk, Oregon joined eight other states last week when it's Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to ban coyote hunting contests. Five of the commissioners voted for the ban, while one abstaind. The commission made the decision after a meeting on September fifteen, and I'm told that they made little attempt to notify hunters. Over forty people testified at the meeting in ben and it sounds like most of them voiced support for the ban. The animal rights group Project Coyote celebrated the decision in an article on their website. As per usual, they put their thesaurus to good use. In the short four hundred and twenty seven word press release, they described coyote hunting contests as Barbara grew some cruel, wasteful, ethically indefensible, ecologically reckless, and abhorrent. I actually think they missed out on a few five dollars words that would have taken the press or to the next level, you know, classed it up a little bit. Any of you who have ever played scrabble with my Grandma know what I'm talking about, Like words like heinous, repugnant, reprehensible, repulsive, abominable, loathsome contemptible or nauseating, an opportunity squandered. I'd say if Project Coyote wants help write in press releases, they know where to find me. Anyway, the iconic thing about this breathless description of coyote hunting contests is that this ban may not end up banning the contests. After all, coyotes are categorized in two ways in Oregon, as unprotected mammals and as predatory animals. The new rule bans contests for unprotected mammals, but the Commission has no authority to ban the take of predatory animals. Coyotes are considered predatory when they are causing agricultural damage on private land. In other words, if coyotes are killing caves, which is why many contests are held in the first place, a landowner can still hold the coyote hunting contest under this rule. Oregon landowners will want to double check with the Department of Fish and Wildlife, but that's my understanding of how this new rule works. Little commentary on animal contests right, So oftentimes at least in my personal experience, these contests result in great social connectivity in small communities and not a lot of impact on coyote populations. Be that as it may, should wildlife be used in contests of any sort. You know, I personally just don't even like the way people behave in any sort of contest. You know, look at the way that we behave on the darn meat eat or trivia contests every single week. Right, Spencer Newhart is going to be up for sainthood by the time I'm done with it. Anyway, there is an interesting argument here, and you know, it really depends on how far you want to take it. Right, But we know that when prey populations drop, it takes a season or two for the predator population to drop. When prey populations rise, the predator population typically takes a season or two to catch up to those prey population booms. So at times it can be very necessary to knock down these predator populations. That doesn't mean all the time anywhere. There's some great studies that have been done that show that keeping coyotes on the landscape knock down nest predators. It's more beneficial to have coyotes on the landscape than like skunks or foxes, which coyotes can kill raccoons as well, things that are, you know, slinking around in the night rating nests of our upland game birds. But we also know that coyote populations when they get big, can raise hell on calves, can raise hell on lambs sheep in particular. So even though I think the word balance has really no place in wildlife management, there are times when it is absolutely like necessary, needed and warranted to knock down wildlife populations. And it's going to get done, whether it's in a coyote killing contest or every single taxpayer, be you a vegan or not, is going to pay for it when Aphis goes and flies their helicopters. So tangled web we weave, isn't it? Hey from the desk of Col's wee can review here. Hope your September is kicking ass. You're all gonna have down weeks maybe similar to mine, maybe not, but you're gonna have big up weeks too. So the key is to keep on grinding away and take advantage of all those little times in the woods, right time on the water time in the water time, in the woods, be it in ten or fifteen minute increments, running out after work, running out before work, just looking and watching and listening all adds up to success, stuff that cannot be replicated by buying stuff or watching stuff online. So spend your time out there, get some exercise, and I'll talk to you next week. Thanks a much for listening. Right in to ask c Al that's Asscal at themeateater dot com. Remember if you're in a conundrum right now, you have a big, old, sloppy lawn backyard, wood lot. What have you need to clear that stuff up before the better half lets you out on the road for hunting season. Go to www dot steel Dealers dot com to find a local, knowledgeable steel dealer near you. They're awesome. They're gonna get you set up with what you need. They're not gonna try to send you home with what you don't, and you're gonna look like a pro when you're out there hacking stuff down and cleaning stuff up, taking everybody happy. Thanks again, We'll talk to you next week.