The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is providing a $1,000 reward to anybody who may also help them determine who poached a large buck in Louisa County in early August. Iowa DNR conservation officer Joe Fourdyce says he’s ready for useful cellphone calls after a botched legislation enforcement response resulted within the buck’s carcass getting thrown away at a neighborhood switch station earlier than it may very well be entered into proof.
After waking up on the morning of Aug. 1 to search out the enormous deer useless by his driveway, a neighborhood landowner known as the sheriff’s division. Fourdyce and one other native conservation officer had been each out of city on the time, so a newly-hired sheriff’s deputy responded to the decision.
“The landowner saw some blood in the gravel road next to his house, so he thought the buck got hit by a car,” Fourdyce says. “But he tracked the blood back a ways and realized the buck had actually been shot. The deputy got there and also confirmed that it had been shot. But he was brand new, and didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to issue a salvage tag.”
The deputy mistakingly issued the landowner a salvage tag with out realizing the deer’s physique was truly proof, Fourdyce says. In the state of Iowa, sheriff’s deputies can solely subject salvage tags for roadkill, not animals that seem to have been poached.
Photo courtesy of Joe Fourdyce
The landowner then minimize the top off and introduced it to a close-by taxidermist, who identified that salvage tags don’t enable for taxidermy in Iowa. By that point, the sheriff’s deputy had introduced the remainder of the carcass to the native switch station, Fourdyce says.
The incident occurred a half-mile from Fourdyce’s personal home. He had seen the buck shopping by the highway in broad daylight on a number of events. He estimates the buck was roughly 4.5 years previous. Fourdyce thinks the buck, which the taxidermist green-scored at 214 inches, might need grown at the least one other 1.5 inches of antler final month earlier than shedding his velvet for the 12 months.
According to pictures of the deer Fourdyce is utilizing within the investigation, he suspects that it was shot within the hindquarter with a broadhead. Iowa’s archery season doesn’t open till Oct. 1.
Photo courtesy of Joe Fourdyce
Questions proceed to swirl across the case. The sheriff’s division confirmed they had been concerned in a deer poaching investigation however didn’t instantly supply any touch upon the state of affairs. The investigation stays open right now, though the dearth of a carcass will current a minor roadblock. Fourdyce was capable of recuperate the top from the taxidermist and at present has the antlers in his possession.
“Everything always happens during the worst times. That’s how things go for a game warden,” Fourdyce says. “I wish I had better news. But right now I’m just hoping someone will call.”
Folks with useful data can attain conservation officer Joe Fourdyce at 563-260-1225. They also can anonymously report data to Iowa’s poaching tip hotline at 800-532-2020.