Assembly Bill 1162 – Wildlife Poaching
Angered by a surge in illegal poaching in California, outraged that poaching violations were mostly misdemeanors with maximum penalties of six-months in jail and/or a $1,000 fine, and frustrated that the courts rarely sentenced convicted poachers to jail terms and had little authority to assess a greater penalty for the more severe poaching violations, CDA helped to introduce AB 1162.
Authored by Assembly Member Wesley Chesbro (D/1-North Coast) and signed into law in 2012 by Governor Jerry Brown, AB 1162 increased the fines for poaching a “trophy” deer, elk, antelope or bighorn sheep to a minimum of $5,000 and maximum of $40,000, and for poaching a “trophy” wild turkey to a minimum of $2,000 and maximum of $5,000. Further, AB 1162 required all revenue from fines imposed be deposited in the BGMA or the UPGA, depending on the violation. The bill required that half of the fine monies go to the county in which the offense was committed to reimburse costs incurred for investigating and prosecuting the violation, and for any excess revenues to be placed in the county fish and wildlife propagation fund to be used for the protection, conservation, propagation, and preservation of fish and wildlife. Among other things, the bill also authorized the department to suspend or permanently revoke a person’s hunting license for poaching wildlife for profit or personal gain, or for illegally taking or possessing in the field more than three times the daily bag limit.
Tasked by the legislation with defining “trophy” characteristics, the California Fish and Game Commission worked with the department, CDA and other conservation organizations to develop the “trophy” criteria – with final adoption of those regulations taking place in late 2016 and the new law going into effect on July 1, 2017. It didn’t take long for AB 1162 to begin to pay dividends.
On July 5, 2017, a resident of Yuba City was sentenced to two years’ probation and ordered to pay $5,150 in fines and penalties for poaching a trophy class buck without a tag and while illegally trespassing on private property in Colusa County.
AB 1162 came into play again just a few months later in another high-profile case with the poaching of a record blacktail in Sacramento County. In that case, among other penalties, the poacher was fined $5,000, sentenced to two days in jail, and prohibited from hunting or accompanying anyone else who is hunting for three years.
In both instances, department leadership was quick to laud the new law, stating that the newly enhanced penalties will ensure that the punishment will more closely match the severity of these types of poaching crimes, and would help deter others from the same poaching behavior.
The above are just a few examples of CDA teaming with our partners in conservation – on the toughest of political playing fields – to drive policy change which positively impacts our ability to improve the health of California’s deer herds and other wildlife.
The increasingly urban makeup of California not only makes it the Nation’s most difficult state for securing pro-wildlife/pro-hunting policy change, it also makes it the most favorable arena for those who fight for animal rights. Must we also play defense to protect science-based wildlife management and our ability to hunt? You bet we do – 365 days a year. Yet, regardless of the challenges we must face, CDA believes California’s wildlife and a strong future for hunting is well worth fighting for. With your continued support, we will continue to do so for California’s deer and those who pursue them in the field.