December 12, 2011
By Tim Unruh, Salina.com
TIPTON -- Some of the hunters ticketed Dec. 1 for using pickup trucks
and radios to illegally take four deer said they did it out of concern
for public safety.
"The guys were making the argument that 'We gotta get these deer off
the road,' " said Mark Noah, Mitchell County attorney.
Collisions with deer are a problem in north-central Kansas, he said,
but male deer aren't the primary culprits.
"If you look at the statistics, it's not the bucks. It's the does,"
Noah said.
A number of those ticketed -- mostly from the Hunter and Tipton
communities -- have visited with the prosecutor since they were cited.
One ticket was issued in Osborne County.
"The arguments were not good as to why they were doing it," Noah
said. "They also complained about deer eating the farmers' milo."
He released the names of 10 of the 16 hunters who have been notified
to appear Jan. 10 in Mitchell County District Court in Beloit. They are
Tarry Fischer, Braden Hake, Leonard Pacey, Travis Brummer, Kenneth
Brummer, Mathew Murrow, Lucas Murrow, Francis Becker, Todd Brummer and
Phillip Murrow.
Noah said he's awaiting paperwork for six other citations. For the
ticket issued in Osborne County, he said the prosecutor in Osborne
County would have to release that information.
Osborne County Attorney Paul Gregory could not be reached Sunday.
Noah said each hunter faces a minimum fine of $500 for each count,
and a maximum of $1,000 and six months in the county jail, also for each
count.
Noah said the four deer that were found field-dressed and hanging in
garages and other buildings, were seized, along with firearms and
radios. He said the deer were taken between Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.
Game wardens taped more than eight hours of radio traffic of the
hunters chasing deer with pickup trucks and moving to gain the best
positions, Noah said.
State law prohibits using radios or vehicles to hunt.
