Got a call a couple days ago. The lady has coyotes in her back yard and her dog was attacked.

I called her back and she says, "Never mind. It's been taken care of." Then she volunteers the information that her neighbors kids set some traps for them.

Hmmm. Trapping season doesn't start for another week. There has been no depredation permit issued and the neighbor kids are trapping property other than their own. I also wonder, do they have trapping license? Are their traps properly tagged? And what type trap might they be using?

I can see several regulations being violated here. Do I have a right or a duty to report this?

I DO know that if she calls me back saying "It didn't work" and she still needs my help, the price just went up!

If it was me (and I get similar calls all the time for a variety of species) I let the customer know exactly what laws are being broken and let her know she will be held responsible and let her decide.

Yeah, many times I do just that but this lady was short with me and didn't give me the chance to tell her anything before hanging up. In fact as I was trying to ask her questions, I wound up talking to myself as she had already hung up.

Still too many unknowns to open a can of worms.

Did she say they were gonna start right away or wait the week for season to open?
Does she live in the city or have a country spread?
How proactive is your enforcement department?

All things considered I would let it go. But I am more laid back and like to worry about myself and let others worry about themselves. Someone who is wired more "by the book" would view this differently.

Being one of the "by the book" people, I'd still let this one go as I didn't witness anything personally and by reporting it I could inadvertently be hurting myself instead of helping.

Keep in mind that on the phone you are only getting her understanding/explanation of the situation. Here is a similar type of situation that happen to me this year.

My neighbor and his friend fired an AK-47 from his property where the bullets crossed over my farm and hit several houses about 600 yards away. I was home at the time of the incident and heard the gun shots; however, I was never interviewed by the police nor asked to testify which now I think is a good thing based on how the case went.

His attorney stated that there was no way to know if the bullets that hit the house were fired by his client as they could not be matched to the gun. My testimony could have proved that no one else was shooting on my property that day but again I could not say he was the one pulling the trigger. The police claimed when he was arrested he was shooting the gun from his hip but again his attorney countered the police statements by claiming that while his client admitted to shooting the gun, it was impossible for the police to prove that his client was the one firing the gun when the bullets hit the homes.

If he would have been convicted (he got a hung jury) I'm sure my involvement would have created a negative issue with him, his wife and family that could do nothing but escalate. We have a history of issues with him shooting without a backdrop and hunting without permission so I would have added much more to my testimony that probably would have gotten him found guilty. His friend was found guilty and instead of the maximum 3 year jail sentence the prosecution wanted, received time served and 3 years of probation so I'm sure my neighbor would have gotten the same.

Now image this legal process with your scenario. I don't think there enough evidence of violations to have tickets written or have them taken to court. But if there was, ask yourself how many people would that woman, her family and people in the neighborhood give bad references about you? Especially since it was "kids" that were to do it for free whereas you wanted to charge her for the same service. I can't see anything good coming out of this for you.

If you witnessed the kids going this and you told them it was wrong and they continued to do it, then I'm all for reporting it. But since it is just a phone conversation and you have no idea if she is even telling you the truth just let it go.

Bad references??? I'd be more worried about that dipwad KILLING someone!

Are you that tore up about loosing the job? Or are you the guy who is into everyone else s business? If its a matter of public safety.....like most say it is, then maybe you can do ride along s with the local P.D. They think that stuff is adorable!

Let her find out the hard way. While I abolutely despise that type of call if they are willing to at least listen I do try to explain the rules we all have to live by, heck I even tell them where to go to get the FREE 30 day license Georgia offers homeowners, at the end of the day it's her butt that will be in the sling and not mine. Besides there ain't enough time in the day to sit on hold and get bounced from desk to desk just to be told the DNR is to short handed to even be interested.

Good on her for sorting the matter out..and on the kids for helping.

More likely, some girlfriend of hers told her she got a job done 30yrs ago and it didn't cost anywhwere near what your charging.

When in doubt about what to do nothing and 90% of the time you will be right. You know when you need to do something. Most of time when things go wrong its when someone felt they had to do something.
That was the advice an old trooper gave me when I first got out of the state police academy in 1975 and the % has held true in nearly everything in life. Things usually work out the way they should if you let it alone.
I think this is a case of let it be

I'm fighting behind because we have far too few Wildlife Officers to begin with. Most of them have to cover multiple counties as it is.

But after a while you get tired and even a bit angry over the lack of knowledge by the general public. Then sometimes it's just a don't care attitude.

I had a call from a realtor back in August for two bat jobs. I told them that I could not exclude them until September. Then when I called them back to schedule them, I had lost one because the guy who lived there was a handy man and had screened them out back in August. Another lady called early in September wanting me to catch the raccoons which had torn into her screened in back porch. After scheduling a time to meet with her she called back to tell me "Never mind." Her son-in-law was gonna set some traps for them. You can't hunt or trap fox in this county at all. I had a guy who wanted me to catch the fox he saw walking across his back yard. When learning that it had done no damage I told him that I couldn't legally trap it and that just it walking across the property didn't give us any cause to take it. He told me, "No problem. I'll just shoot it." and hung up.

These are just a few of the calls I've gotten just this year. Then, there is the city dog catcher who routinely catches coons all around town, hauls them outside the city limits and turns them loose. We have a law that requires us to euthanize all animals caught in the order carnivora. After a while, you get fed up with that kind of thing and want to see something done.

muddawg in north carolina isnt it up to landowner and a open season on coyotes or is that just beaver

There is an open season for shooting coyotes but not for trapping. For beaver, they have relaxed that rule a bit and made it legal to trap as well, WITH a trapping license.

We had a year round trapping bill to be voted on until this mess with the conibears on dry land. Now it's been pushed back to wait out the conibear issue along with a state wide fox trapping bill.

As long as YOU play by the rules, YOU have nothing to worry about Muddawg. I wouldn't waste any time calling the law on anyone. They will get whats coming there way sooner or later.

It may have been a quick excuse. Customers sometimes would rather say that I let family or neihbors do the trapping, than tell you that your pricing is too high and they hired another company! If they tell you they hired someone else, then you will ask them 20 more questions. If they hired a kid, what questions can you ask?
Although I think my knowledge is worth the price I am asking, not everyone agrees! LOL

I have noticed that when you report someone to our DNR, the guy that lands on their radar is usually you.

Let it go. Thank your lucky stars when this happens.