August 29, 2012
From Fox8Live.com
Baton Rouge, La. - Louisiana's Department of Wildlife and
Fisheries says its enforcement division has seen a steady rise in
alligator violations over the last few years.
Agents have
issued 98 alligator-related violations so far this year. The
figure was 60 in 2007 and 2008, but rose to 69 in the two following
years and to 80 in 2011.
According to an LDWF press release
sent Wednesday, "The popularity in outdoor reality TV shows seems to
be one of the reasons why there have been more alligator violations
in the last couple of years."
Most of the violations are
classified as possession of an alligator during a closed season,
failing to possess a license and possession of an alligator without
a license. And most of the violations stem from a handful of
parishes, including St. James, St. John, LaFourche and Terrebonne.
"In some of our cases the subjects have admitted to watching a
reality TV show and then wanting to replicate what they watched,"
said Col. Vidrine.
"While these shows offer a high level of
entertainment, they do not offer a lot of information on how to
legally harvest an alligator."
Anyone wanting to report
alligator violations should anonymously call LDWF's 24-hour toll
free Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-800-442-2511 or utilize
LDWF's new tip411 program. To use the tip411 program, citizens
can anonymously text LADWF and their tip to 847411 or download the
"LADWF Tips" iPhone app from the Apple iTunes store free of charge.
CitizenObserver, the tip411 provider, uses technology that removes
all identifying information before LDWF receives the text so that
LDWF cannot identify the sender.
Fair Use Notice: This document may contain copyrighted material
whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. We believe
that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes
a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section
107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted
material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must
obtain permission from the copyright owner.
