HUNTING & ETHICS = OIL & WATER

The stories keep rolling in of hunters who feel they're above the rules - and why not? Their concept of "sportsmanship" is a one-to-one combat in which only their side gets a weapon or advance notice. I usually ignore them, but sometimes there are clusters of stories or particularly egregious examples. Here's a collection of poaching convictions and investigations in Utah, for example, and here's a couple guys who don't know when to stop cheating: "Gary Roger Motarie, 40, is charged with possession of unlawfully taken wildlife, a felony, and 16 misdemeanors: five counts of hunting without a license, five of improperly transferring a license and five of hunting while revoked, and one count of possession of an unlawfully taken black bear." But wait, there's more: "At the time of this alleged incident, Motarie's game privileges already had been suspended for 20 years for game violations in Lewis and Clark County, where he had illegally shot a trophy elk -- then had his hometown newspaper, the Western Breeze, run a photo of him with the animal... He also is serving two six-year suspended sentences, levied in January in Glacier County, for intimidating and tampering with a witness in that case." What a guy, what a scholar of Nugentism. Another hunting genius, Paul A. Garrison, of St. Xavier (MT), pleaded guilty to hunting coyote from an aircraft without a permit. He was found out when the plane he was hunting from crashed, leaving him with broken bones, and the plane's pilot dead.