Drive-by poachers still putting people at risk in Lyon County

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By Bobbi Mlynar (Contact)

Originally published 02:16 p.m., May 27, 2008
Updated 02:16 p.m., May 27, 2008

People firing guns from the road into wooded areas and pastures narrowly missed striking seven people in recent weeks in northern Lyon County.

“Please refer to these people as poachers,” Brandon Houk, regional biologist for the National Wild Turkey Federation, said of the shooters. “As far as I’m concerned, when they’re shooting from the road, they’re poachers. ...

“People haven’t learned from Beau Arndt’s tragedy, unfortunately,” he said.

Houk referred to 18-year-old Beau Arndt of Americus, who was shot and killed in a road-shooting incident on Dec. 15, 2007. A Topeka man, Theron Thomas Kent, 57, has been charged with a felony count of involuntary manslaughter and three misdemeanors: attempted unlawful methods of taking wildlife, criminal hunting, and criminal discharge of a firearm.

Arndt was hunting geese with two friends the day of the fatal shooting. Decoys had been placed in the farm field, and each hunter was hidden in a personal blind when a pickup truck slowly drove by and a rifle shot was fired at the field.

The shot struck Arndt, who was pronounced dead at the scene.

Last month, in an area not far from the Arndt shooting, a couple and their two children inadvertently placed themselves in danger as they hunted mushrooms on the family’s property in northwest Lyon County.

A man in a vehicle fired indiscriminately into the area where the family was searching. They took down the license plate number and description of the vehicle and called law enforcement immediately. The case was turned over to the Department of Wildlife and Parks.

Within days of that incident, Houk was turkey-hunting with friends near the Wabaunsee-Lyon county line when shots coming from the road whizzed past them.

The men in the vehicle were shooting at a turkey, and Houk managed to talk to them before they left the area.

“We had a pretty good confrontation,” Houk said. “This guy actually had his son with him. ... I said, ‘Is this what you want to teach your son about hunting? You’re setting the worst possible example.’”

Houk said the shooter also lied to him by saying he had the landowner’s permission to hunt on the property. Even with permission, though, shooting at turkeys from the road is illegal and is dangerous to others who may be hunting or trekking through the outdoors for enjoyment. Their vehicles may not be visible to hunters, and if they live on the property there would be no vehicle to alert others to their presence.

“They may think it’s a casual thing, they can go out and hunt and nobody will care,” Houk said. “They don’t realize how dangerous that can be.”

Kansas Wildlife and Parks conservation officer Dave Adams was investigating the shooting incident involving the mushroom-hunting family.

Adams was critical of people who ignore hunter-safety education, especially those who drive around the countryside, holding loaded guns in their laps or within arm’s reach.

“It’s something we stress in hunter education. You just don’t transport a firearm that way,” Adams said. “It’s unethical, it’s unsafe. It’s not illegal; maybe it should be. ... They make a decision before they ever get in that vehicle that they’re going to take advantage of an opportunity if it presents itself.”

Adams said that discussions are ongoing about gun laws and changes that may be needed. He wants the legislature to enact a law that would make it a felony to shoot from a vehicle when that act involves injury or death. Laws that require guns to be carried in cases or out of the vehicle’s interior also need to be enacted, he said.

“When they get ready to hunt, they load ’em up,” he said. “That’s the ethical thing to do.”

Current laws set certain prohibitions about hunting and shooting from the roadside or on property without consent of the landowner.

“There’s a loophole in one of them,” Adams said.

If, for example, someone has shot a deer and it does not fall, the hunter can pursue the animal to find it.

“We hear that story occasionally,” he said, mentioning one alibi used by roadside poachers.

Another familiar refrain involves coyotes, which can be shot from the road.

“Coyotes are not a game animal. It’s kind of a loophole, I think personally,” Adams said. “We hear this story all the time, ‘Oh, I was shooting at a coyote,’ because somehow they think it’s going to make them look less bad.”

As a result of those exceptions in current laws, it often is difficult to press charges against people believed to be shooting from the roadside.

The rash of poaching upsets both Adams and Houk because of the way it reflects on hunters who do obey the laws.

“I represent the good hunters, the honest hunters, the sportsmen who are trying to teach the kids,” Houk said. “It takes one poacher to really tarnish the hunters.”

Adams is hoping that an outgrowth of Beau Arndt’s death will be that more attention will be focused hunter safety and on the safety of people who are not hunting, as well.

Arndt recently was made an honorary member of the Kansas Wildlife Officers Association, primarily because of what Adams learned about him during the investigation and while meeting with Arndt’s family.

Adams took the information to the KWOA board of directors for consideration, and the result was more than an honorary membership; it became a show of support for Arndt’s family and a way to recognize what Adams called a “special individual.”

A video including Arndt is being made to educate hunters about safety and hunting laws.

“His death may have some benefit to a lot of people in helping promote hunting safety,” Adams said. “I think when that’s completed, Beau’s life will have the opportunity to help maybe slow some of this down, (or) at least educate people about the consequences of what can happen when people don’t do the right thing. ...

“He tried really hard to do things the right way,” Adams said. “Beau is an example of a fine young sportsman.”