As God is my witness, I thought it was an elk!

[revwardoc]

http://www.billingsgazette.net/artic...e/55-llama.txt

Sorry, that llama sure looked like elk

A New York hunter may be feeling a bit sheepish after mistaking a feral llama in Paradise Valley for a Rocky Mountain elk, but he apparently did not violate any laws.

Rusty Saunders of Fort Edward, N.Y., called a Fish, Wildlife and Parks warden in Livingston in November to turn himself in after shooting the llama, according to Mel Frost, FWP information officer in Bozeman.

Since FWP does not deal with livestock shootings, they immediately turned the investigation over to the Montana Department of Livestock.

After investigating, the Livestock Department turned the matter over to Park County authorities without issuing any citations.

"We don't have any statute to prevent that kind of thing," said Steve Merritt, information officer for the Livestock Department in Helena.

A telephone call to the Park County sheriff was not immediately returned.

Photos that the Livestock Department took during its investigation showed the dark brown and black llama gutted and lying in the back of a red pickup truck. The photos included a shot of Saunders' notched 2008 elk tag, dated Nov. 18. Somehow, the photos ended up circulating through e-mails, trekking across the nation and even north of the border into Canada.

Under a subject heading of "hunting llamas in Big Sky Country," the e-mail parodied MasterCard's "priceless" advertising campaign"

".30-06 rifle with Leupold Scope - $650.

"Out of state license - $600.

"Gas to drive from New York - $700.

"Taking a trophy Montana llama - priceless."

The photos have ended up on blogs across the country, as well, generating derisive remarks from hunters.

It's not clear how Saunders realized his error, and it's not known what happened to the wild llama.

Messages left for Saunders on his home answering machine were not immediately returned.

Saunders is not the first person to mistake a llama for a game animal. On opening day of the 1999 hunting season, a 21-year-old Sun Prairie deer hunter shot a 300-pound llama on the Cascade Hutterite Colony near Fort Shaw, then gutted and tagged the animal. He didn't realize his mistake until he took it to a Great Falls meat processor, which turned him away.

The man turned himself in and the colony didn't press charges.

Montana's hunter safety education program emphasizes that hunters should always identify their target before pulling the trigger.

[phuloi]

Not a real shocker. There wAS A DUDE FROM sEATTLE that showed up at a game check at the Hood Canal bridge with a mule in the back of his pickup. Said he didn`t know there were mule deer on the Olympic Peninsula. Sheeeze

[82Rigger]

I never realized we had feral llamas running around here in the states.

I guess that's what I get for all the years of punching holes in paper instead of animals!

[eriksale]

My story is when I was at the University of Montana (1971 - 1976) I worked a check station for a biological survey. The agent told me stories of people coming through with mule deer and elk that had "shoes" on !

The saddest one was the guy that came through with a bear cub strapped across his hood that his 12 year old had shot (no age limit on bear at that time) and he was so proud.

Dave

[eriksale]

Another hunting story (true) from when I was at U of M, with a more relevant and sad ending for this forum.

While I was at U of M in AFROTC one of the seniors in approximately 1973 was from Montana and an avid hunter. He got his deer and elk tags no problem. Then he won the lottery for both his sheep and goat tags, he really hit the lottery!

Graduated in June and at that time as Vietnam was slowing down most did not go active duty for a year, sometimes more if you were pilot qualified so he felt no problem for hunting season. Wrong they called him up in late July so lost all his tags.

Now the rest of the story. I don’t know if any of you remember the 3 C-130’s, I believe that flew into the desert in I believe again in Saudi Arabia, (approx 1979, 80), but he was one of the pilots. From what I remember all were killed.

Dave

[Keith_Hixson]

I was a chaplain for the Thurston County Sheriff's department. One day the Fish and Game officer came in with a silly grin. He had been called by a farmer complaining that a hunter had shot a goat. When he arrived at the scene the farmer and the hunter were arguing about whether it was a goat or a deer. Chris (the deputy) told me asked the Farmer how much a goat would cost. The man said $150. So Chris went to the man and said, "You can pay the man for his goat or I'll write you a ticket for shooting livestock. That ticket will cost you $500 the loss of your rifle, the loss of your vehicle, and no hunting for three years." He said the man went to his pick-up and got his check book and wrote out a check for $150, put the goat in the back of his pick-up with his punched out tag hanging from the goat's horn.
The Farmer was happy and the hunter got off easy.

Keith

[QM3steve]

That must have been the albino deer the hunters were bragging about here. Until DEC got wind of it and found out it was a goat.

Mistakes generally come from the Citiots who've never hunted outside of their Brooklyn home.