Wrist-slap optional? I can't understand while this miserable excuse for a human didn't get prison time. I wonder how long he's been doing this?

Grrrr.

"A Gilroy man was given a hefty fine and probation for what wardens are calling one of the largest cases of poaching "since the market-poaching days of the early 1900s," California Department of Fish and Game officials said Monday.

Peter Ignatius Ciraulo, 42, pleaded no contest in Santa Clara County Superior Court on Nov. 3 to three poaching-related charges for killing and keeping about 335 waterfowl over the course of the 2007-08 hunting season, said Warden Patrick Foy, Department of Fish and Game spokesman in a press release.

As part of his sentence, Ciraulo will be fined $7,105, be placed on two years of probation and be forced to serve 100 hours of community service at a waterfowl conservation group, Foy said. He'll also be banned from hunting for one season, he said.

Ciraulo is believed to have shot the 335 birds across Northern California, Foy said, concentrating mostly in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. The birds were found frozen in a freezer at his Gilroy home, he said. All had not been plucked or dressed, Foy said.

"The dead birds included specimens of almost every waterfowl species that migrates into California," Foy said in a press release. The waterfowl found included several protected species such as the tundra swan and sandhill crane, he said.

The possession limit in California is 14 ducks and eight geese, Foy said, well under the 253 ducks and 58 geese Ciraulo had at the time of his arrest.

In addition, Ciraulo had in his possession seven live, wounded snow geese he'd shot, Foy said.

"There was no indication he was trying to sell them and no indication he was trying to eat them," Foy said. "There is no real rationale."

Foy said catching Ciraulo was one of the biggest arrests they'd made since the early 1900s, when poachers would shoot a hundred birds and sell them to local markets. These days, someone shooting twice their limit is considered a big deal, he said.

Foy said the consequences of such a grand-scale level of poaching can be devastating on a local ecosystem.

"If you kill that many birds, you'll see local population declines," he said.


--Sacramento Bee 11.17.08

I hope a metal health evaluation takes place before the sentence is given.

He does seem a little crazy. 'm a little crazy myself, just not in that way.

Of course back in the late 1800s everyone was as crazy as that fellow.
5 billion passenger pigeons didn't all just up and fly away.

Here is one of my absolute favourite books. Lots of practical information.Lot's of carnage too though. Lot's and lot's of carnage. Rather like the Germans in WWII he kept very good records.
http://www.prices4antiques.com/books/spo...954-A087236.asp


I suppose we are all still just as crazy, in the unsustainability sense, just in new ways. We are actually getting worse in many ways, such as energy, even though there is less and less to get worse with.

This sentence is ridiculous.The guy deserves a long prison sentence. This kind of light treatment will only encourage poachers, not deter them.

Like fighting global warming with speeding tickets.

335 waterfowl, including cranes and swans????? What kind of freezer does this guy have?? Sounds like some serious mental issues are behind this.

I think the guy is indeed a bit nuts, and the sentance should've banned him from hunting for life, not just one season. At his age, a hunter ought to have a much stronger sense of responsibility.

Yeah, who knows what species he might decide to start collecting in his freezer next...

Not just ridiculous, it's glutinous. I have seen duck hunters in the past kill a pickup load of birds only to show how many they have killed. I myself like duck prepaired with cherry sauce but I can only eat part of one. And I usually get is served at a resturant. A slap on the wrist is criminal in itself. An then to let him serve a function with the fish and game dept. even as a cleanup man is so wrong. Many volunteers would love the opprotunity to work as a volunteer in that capacity. He just may gain some more poching knowledge from the experience.

The most outrageous part is that he only gets a one year ban on hunting. I am not sure if jail time is appropriate but they could have given a stiffer hunting ban.

I think the Park/Wildlife Dept. and/or the prosecutor had an evidence problem. They probably could not prove that all the specimens were from a single year (even though they would have exceeded 8-10 years of maximum possession limits) and wanted to get this guy to plead out. Are the charges felonies? If the are, then he is paying a price.

And I agree, what kind of freezer does this guy have? Insanity.

That scumbag reminds me of an immigrant from eastern Europe that we have here in BC/AB who shot dozens of big game animals illegally in both provinces and got minor fines; I was employed with the Alberta Dept. of Environment during part of his rampage.

He is a Vietnam vet and has intimidated quite a number of people and lived as he wished to here in BC, although the Conservation Officers did everything they could. This is typical here as we have Russian and Vietnamese "refugees" poaching our few remaining Fraser River White Sturgeon and immature crabs by the boatload.

If I were in power here, there WOULD be ONE penalty for this type of behaviour and that is a short rope with a sudden stop at the end. I hate people who damage nature and am a stonehard conservationist, this creep is surplus population, IMO.

I also think we have to take a much harder line. Historically, poaching was treated very harshly, but unequally depending on what class you belonged to. Perhaps because of modern democracy we've done way with the class thing, which is good, but perhaps we've been way to lax in terms of crimes against the environment because of some misguided application of democratic principles. I say hang 'em all up by the nuts, or whatever the punishment was years ago, but apply it to all equally of course.

Alot of corporations and corporate executives and major shareholders getting off pretty lightly also. We treat corporations like they are real people, while real people and future generations suffer the consequences. In alot of ways corporations are a way of skirting around democracy. It's like we still have an elite ruling aristocracy. Their just a little more discrete than they used to be. Half the time they probably don't even know who they are themselves, and what damage they have done. The same could probably be said of any one of us.

We need privacy, but we also need more clarity and accountability.
This guys crimes are pretty obvious. Most of ours are not.

Agree..

Like the ahole auto exects that flew in private jets to try to get a 25 bil. bailout. What a bunch of pompas a ses.