Prison time for outfitter selling 'canned' lion hunts in Utah 🐈

If you’re still with us, that means you’ve made it to the middle of yet another week. We’ve added a few more sections to the newsletter as we continue to grow and keep all of you entertained for the best 5 minutes of your Wednesday and Friday mornings.

I hope y’all continue to enjoy what we put out there for you - be sure to let us know by participating in our surveys at the bottom of the email.

With that in mind, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get another mid-week dispatch out the door.

Here's what's worth reading about so far this week:

• Prison time for ‘canned’ cougars - A long-time offender has finally been nailed 🧑‍⚖️

• “Texas-sized” celebration - Texas has officially stocked its one billionth game fish 🎉

• Headless deer lead to charges - Three PA men have been implicated in poaching incident 🚔

• Pellet gun poachers on the loose - And Oregon officials want answers 🔫

• Montana judge rules against landowners - No, it’s not the state’s problem to manage elk on your ranch 🫡

• How do you move a 600-pound moose? - It ain’t easy 🫎

• Plus we’ve got a new pod - and you should most definitely subscribe 🎙️

JUSTICE FINALLY SERVED
PRISON TIME HANDED DOWN TO UTAH OUTFITTER FOR SELLING CANNED MOUNTAIN LION HUNTS

After several previous investigations, Wade Lemon of Wade Lemon Outfitters has finally been charged and sentenced to prison time after an investigation revealed he knowingly sold and led ‘canned’ mountain lion hunts on a few different occasions.

“A canned hunt means that a cougar is treed, cornered, held at bay or its ability to escape is otherwise restricted to allow a person who was not a member of the initial hunting party to arrive and take the cougar,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a release.

Kacey Alan Yardley, who worked alongside Lemon as a guide and houndsman, was also sentenced in Federal Court for his role in one of the canned hunts. Yardley was handed down six months probation, during which he is banned from operating commercially on public lands.

According to the release, both men admitted to their involvement in two separate hunts that took place in 2020 and 2021 on BLM and US Forest Service land…

While I hate to concede with everyone in my life that’s told me that I have a face for radio, I am now accepting the allegations in lending my voice talents to a new arm of The Venatic brand - The Venatic Podcast.

Yes, the new program (which is still heavily under development) will be two-pronged in nature. First, in the event that you happen to miss our newsletters, or simply want them while you’re on the go, I’ll be publishing Weekly Review episodes every Friday. For the moment, you’ll enjoy my voice recounting the best stories of the week in a quick and succinct manner, but the plan is to incorporate guests in the very near future.

Secondly, I’ll be releasing our Stories from the Field episodes once a month in which I’ll summarize a compelling biography from interesting figures from the outdoor world, both past and present. I’m most excited about these stories and my first episode about a man by the name of Vince “Trapper” Nelson will be available on August 5th, so stay tuned for that.

I will forever put the newsletter first, but trust many of you will learn to appreciate my vocal talents in both summarization and audio-based storytelling.

I invite you to subscribe and if you like what you hear, leave us a review.

Thank you to each and every one of you who continue to support the newsletter and (hopefully) the show.

-Ryan

🤠 “Texas-sized” milestone as the Lone Star State stocks its one billionth game fish this week. After 40 years of stocking saltwater fish into Texas bays, the state’s Parks and Wildlife Department is set to celebrate an incredible milestone later today. Happening down at Christmas Bay between Freeport and Galveston, the Department is set to release the billionth hatchery-produced fingerling (one-to-two-inch fish). 

Putting up numbers like this, Texas dwarfs the efforts of any other state by stocking more marine game fish fingerlings than any other state. According to reports, approximately 80 percent of fish they stock are the infamous red drum  - an effort that has helped bolster Gulf populations after commercialized fishing decimated stock in the late 60s and early 70s.

🚔 Three headless deer lead to dozens of charges for three Pennsylvania men. After uncovering seven dead deer, of which three had their heads lopped off, the State Game Commission has handed down dozens of charges for a trio of Pennsylvania men. After the gruesome discovery was made last fall, state officials launched a full-scale investigation that included alcohol-fueled night hunting, Snapchat exchanges, European mounts and some inter-state poaching and license fraud.

In the end, Edward Ilgenfritz, 27, Kai Bardell, 22, and Harlan Group, 21, now face felony and misdemeanor charges of taking big game out of season, along with dozens of summary charges related to the unlawful shootings. According to online court documents, the three men are awaiting preliminary hearings.

🔫 Oregon officials on the lookout for pellet gun poachers. After multiple blacktail deer were found dead in a Roseburg neighborhood, Oregon State Police fish and wildlife division determined one had been killed by a pellet lodged in one of its lungs.

“It was a nice, forked horn buck that ended up dying next to a resident’s barn,” said OSP Fish and Wildlife Senior Trooper Jason Stone. “The pellet broke a rib and clipped its lung, which caused it to hemorrhage. Both lungs then filled with blood.”

As OSP officers canvassed the neighborhood, they soon learned that a number of residents apparently use pellet guns to scare deer away from their lawns and gardens. Unfortunately for investigating agencies, four of the five carcasses were too badly decomposed to determine the cause of death. While Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) is common in the area, investigators are still looking for clues to determine if more than one of the deer was killed by a human rather than an EHD infection. Oregon Hunters Association is offering $2,000 cash or four ODFW hunter preference points for information that leads to an arrest or citation in any of the incidents.

ODNR: Ohio special deer hunts for 2024-25 season: The Ohio Department of Natural Resources is hosting special deer hunts at eight separate nature preserves across the state for the 2024-25 hunting season. Read more at Fox 8.

Nebraska’s 96-Year-Old Deer Hunter:  Ninety-six-year-old Dwayne “Shorty” Hahn sat on a couch in the family’s hunting lodge in Hordville, his eyes closed as I approached. Then he turned his head and smiled. “I was napping,” he said, urging me to sit beside him so we could talk about his life of hunting. Read more at NebraskaLand.

Rare 'albino' buck spotted in East Troy, WI.: Kelly Daniels and her husband experienced a rare wildlife sighting while driving near their home in East Troy, Wis., Friday evening. Read more at Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Wyoming Officials ask the public to report dead sage grouse during West Nile virus season: While there are no signs of an outbreak, Game and Fish asks the public annually for reports to help in the management of the state’s sage grouse populations. Read more at WGFD.

Idaho F&G Commission approves six-year elk plan to guide future elk hunting: The department and Commission retained the framework of Idaho’s elk hunting, which is 28 elk hunting zones with the A/B tag system, and a mix of general and controlled hunts.  Read more at IFG.

COMMON SENSE IS STILL COMMON
MONTANA JUDGE RULES IN FAVOR OF PUBLIC HUNTING OPPORTUNITIES IN CASE WHERE LANDOWNERS LOBBIED FOR ‘ABSOLUTE FREEDOM’ TO KILL ELK ON THEIR PROPERTY

An on-going court battle has finally been settled after a Montana judge ruled against a group of landowners seeking the removal of what they referred to as ‘excess elk’ on their land. Looking to skip the process of securing tags and allowing public hunters to chase those elk, the United Property Owners of Montana filed suit in April 2022 claiming that both the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks had failed to properly manage the state’s elk population.

According to the suit, the plaintiffs believed that both agencies ought to be responsible for removing upwards of 50,000 elk from the landscape due to extensive property damage. And while the MFWP does offer a number of programs intended to help landowners with wildlife deterrence in the form of hazing, repellants, fencing, supplemental hunting permits, and game-damage hunts, the landowners didn’t seem to like that it came with a catch…

VIDEO // ^{_{SOME THINGS JUST HAVE TO BE SEEN}}

🫎 How do you move a 600-pound moose? With a lot of manpower. That’s a lesson the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office learned last week when a team of deputies was called to help move a moose that was perusing neighborhood backyards.

🍣 Dude reels in a giant bluefin tuna solo in his 12’ John boat. You read that right, yes, a New Jersey man is making headlines after he hooked on to and got dragged for miles by a monster tuna before finally landing the fish in his small boat nicknamed ‘The Silver Bullet’.

I’m hoping my wife doesn’t see this or I’ll never be able to justify buying a bigger boat…

CAMP TALK // ^{_{BEFORE YOU GO}}

We get a lot of questions and comments on here, and we figure it’s time to repay the favor. As part of our new Camp Talk section, we’re going to ask you, the reader, your opinion on some serious (and not so serious) topics to close out each newsletter.

Last week I asked, what random article or object would you want on your person to help defend against a grizzly attack?

To which you unanimously (and you always are unanimous) responded with:

1. A Glock 10mm - Which is a great choice up for up-close-and-personal encounters with backcountry bruins.

Here’s today’s question…

Oh, and one more thing…