EPISODE 154 KILLING GROUND DISCOVERED
alan skeoch
Oct. 2020
What is this? Below
The back part of our farm is a forest…dense. We rarely go back that far
because the front ten acres keeps us busy. We also take comfort in
the fact that the 15 acres of dense bush and swamp are perfect places
for wildlife to thrive. So it came as quite a shock in October 2010 when
our boys said we better get back and take a look at what was happening.
We bashed our way through the bush. There are only deer trails here
and there. Someone or some group knew that. What we found
was a wood trough which turned out to be a deer feeding station.
But there was more.
The so called hunters had wired a ladder and platform to a tree
about ten feet from the trough. This was not a cheap thing.
Very well built shooting platform made of heavy aluminum with
rubber treads.
About 30 or 40 feet distant we found a night vision camera
strapped to a tree on what must have been a deer trail.
So that is what hunters do, I guess. They climb up into
the tree platform and sit there waiting for deer to come
to feed on the corn or food pellets on the wood trough
…and then they shoot them. And they call that hunting.
No guesswork involve since the night vision camera automatically
tells them the time the deer will arrive…their numbers. The
hunter can pick his kill at leisure at home then pick a nice
time to do the killing based on the camera information.
And all this was done on our land. No one asked permission. They would
have been refused. I have no respect for guns or for hunting. But the
nerve of these hunters to just assume they could set up their
killing spot in our forest. Trespassing. We had not littered our
land with NO Trespassing or No Hunting signs. Why would we have
to do that anyway?
What should we do? First, we tore down the shooting platform and
carried it to the road where we keep scrap metal. Then we unstrapped
the camera and took it to our neighbour. Told him the story.
He seemed interested:
“I figure they got to our bush from your back field.”
“Yes,I do allow a couple of hunters from the city to hunt…but No,
I did not know about the platform or the trespassing.”
“This must be their camera. I want you to give it back
to them. Do you see them often? “
“No.”
“Will you take the camera?”
“Yes, they might drop by.”
“Tell them we have contacted the police and have
put up NO TRESPASSING SIGNS…and one other thing.
Tell them I do not want to see them. We will never meet.”
“I will do that.”
This conversation was not what it seemed. I knew that my neighbour
must have known these hunters really well. They parked on his land.
I even suspected that the hunters were not from the “city” but may
well have been very local…nearby in other words. If I met them
personally there would be deep repercussions. Best not tp alienate
people with guns. I had raised enough hell anyway.
How did the police react? No help whatsoever.
alan skeoch
Oct. 2020
P.S> A few months later a neighbour asked if I still had the ladder and
shooting platform…started with friendly blather and eventually got to the
Point. “Sorry, the shooting platform has gone to the scrap yard” (where
it belonged).