August 6, 2011
By Natalie O'Neill, BrooklynPaper.com
Cops have busted a group of oddball poachers in Prospect Park — a
band of vagrants that was trapping and eating ducks, squirrels and
pigeons.
Parks officers wrote four tickets — two for killing wildlife and two
for illegal fishing — totaling $2,100 in fines during a two-day period
last week.
The city would not immediately release details of the incidents,
which occurred on July 17 and 18 — just days after park-goers told
rangers about a “Beverly Hillbillies”-like scene on the southeast side
of the lake, near the ice skating rink.
“This is a dodgy group,” said park-goer Peter Colon, who spotted one
of the men catching a pigeon while his friend started a fire. “They are
the most threatening people in the park.”
The disheveled — and possibly homeless — tribe in question uses
“makeshift”
fishing poles and traps to catch the critters, then grills them over the
fire, according to park watchdogs.
“One woman uses a net to bag the ducks,” said wildlife advocate
Johanna Clearfield.
Wildlife advocates have long pushed the Parks Department to crackdown
on illegal hunting and fishing in Prospect Park — especially after a
stunning array of cases in which geese and cygnets were injured by
illegal barbed fishhooks and lure.
In the most-dramatic case, a plucky little goose who lost the top
half of his beak to a fishhook earned him endless sympathy and the
nickname, “Beaky.”
The fishing and hunting ticket blitz comes while park-goers collect
and document large mounds of fishing wire, claiming waterfowl are
frequently get tangled.
And it’s not the first time that poachers have been busted. Last
year, park-goers confronted a man after spotting him catching fish and
secreting them into a bag — a violation of the city’s
“catch-and-release” rules.
After being confronted, the man dumped the dead fish back into the
lake.
The new poaching busts bring to mind last year’s wave of animal
murders by the so-called “Butcher of Prospect Park,” whose death toll
included waterfowl, chickens, turtles and a goat.
For now, wildlife advocates were hailing this month’s busts.
“The fact that they’re ticketing is great — it’s so badly needed,”
said goose lover Mary Beth Artz. “I hope they keep it up.”
