Wanted: Deer poachers

Five deer were killed, beheaded and dumped north of Clovis recently, spurring an investigation by state wildlife officials.

Gary Starbuck said he discovered four mule deer and one whitetail deer shot and sliced at the neck Friday on his property about 10 miles north of Clovis on County Road 22 in Ranchvale.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish announced a $1,000 reward Tuesday for information leading to an arrest of those responsible, according to a press release.

“I just looked at that shaking my head for 15 minutes before I could think of what to do,” he said. “What made me angry about it is we are just now beginning to get some deer started in this area — and for someone to mow them down like that.”

Wes Robertson, a Game and Fish game warden based in Clovis, said he has no leads in the incident. He believes the deer were not killed where they were found.

Robertson suspects it would have taken more than one person to load the carcasses — each weighing more than 250 pounds — into a truck before dumping them.

“People have the belief that wild animals don’t belong to anybody. Game animals belong to the people of New Mexico.” Robertson said. “There is so much waste — five grown animals dumped and allowed to spoil.”

Robertson estimates three-to-five deer poaching incidents per year occur in the area. They are usually killed for the meat or for a mount.

The deer found last week were intact except for their heads. Robertson said if a person wanted to mount the deer, they should have been cut near the shoulders.

But Mark Madsen, Southeast area public information officer for Game and Fish, said “trophy hunters” have become more common in the area.

“We get reports every year of deer and elk that have been shot and nothing removed but the head,” Madsen said.

Madsen said hunters often sell or collect antlers.

Madsen said the discovery of five slaughtered deer in one location is unusual; one or two is more common.

It was also unusual to a whitetail deer in the area, he said. Whitetails have historically roamed West Texas, but Madsen said they have become more common north of Clovis.

Robertson said killing deer out of season is a misdemeanor, which could result in jail time. Deer-hunting season was from Nov. 18 to Nov. 21.

If the deer are found to have been killed in Texas, the case would fall under the Lacey Act, a federal law protecting wildlife from being killed improperly and shipped across state lines, which carries a fourth-degree felony charge, Robertson said.

The public has helped solve many similar cases, Madsen said.

“Somebody will kill a big animal and they will brag about it,” Madsen said, “and they will brag about it to the wrong person.”