Posted on 07/30/2011 6:37:18 PM PDT by Renfield
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. BoroDeal
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.”
Americans will be doing the same around the country just to survive in another decade.
Wait... That's not allowed? The squirrels here are rejoicing. We haven't had pigeons around here for a while. Mmmm. Squab.
/johnny
Central Park will soon be renamed as the Baraq Hussein Obama Hunting Preserve. It will be a legacy of his destruction of the US economy, and when unemployment payments run out.
Next come the soup lines.
I’ve seen some nice, fat raccoons in my neighborhood.
Ironic in that only recently the city caused a public uproar over its plans to thin the overpopulated herd of geese making its home in the park.
I disagree. It will be next year.
I didn’t want to start a panic and let all the fat squirrels get eaten before christmas.
Thanks, but I like squirrel and duck just fine.
/johnny
Is it legal to cook them//?????
I read a few years ago about Muzzies killing and barbecuing swans in Windsor Park. Of course THEY practically had immunity.
I guess these people were neither Muzzies nor Meskins.
Do they last like chicken are more like possum.!!
I know, I was there three weeks ago visiting a friend who was in town for a few days from Japan.The schools have Muslim names.
I wonder how many “Coney Island whitefish”, as Law and Order’s Lenny Briscoe Jerry Orbach) called them, these poachers caught.
Imagine how the left would spin this during a Republican administration...
‘said goose lover Mary Beth Artz. “I hope they keep it up.”’
Well, it struck my funny bone...
Bush`s fault.
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