MIXED BAG Long Poaching, Wastage Case Leads To Citations

Following “a lengthy investigation,” a 21-year-old Coos Bay-area man has been charged with killing and wasting three young blacktail bucks in early 2021. Oregon State Police Fish and Wildlife Division troopers say that Macen M. West, 21, of North Bend was behind the shootings of the deer on Coos Bay’s North Spit, and after a December 2022 interview they cited him with three counts of take of a game mammal during a closed season, three counts of wastage and a single count of hunting with an artificial light.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says it wants to see Macen pay $3,000 in restitution and lose his hunting privileges for a minimum of three years, as well as forfeit his .17-caliber Savage 93R17.

WORD ABOUT THE case first emerged in late March 2021 after local resident Joseph Metzler saw a congregation of crows while riding his ATV on a sand road and then, upon rounding a bend, spotted the carcasses.

“As soon as I came around the corner, there they were, and if it had been dark, they would have been standing right in front of my headlights on the hillside,” Metzler told ODFW.

Troopers reported that the animals had all been “shot in the head from relatively close range and were likely taken using artificial light at night” some two to four days beforehand.

“It was a crime of opportunity,” said OSP Sergeant Levi Harris in a press release. “We believe the shooter drove around a corner, saw the deer in the headlights and made a poor, shocking, impromptu decision to hop out and shoot those deer.”

Metzler was pleased to learn OSP solved the case, even if it took over 20 months.

“It goes to show you that if you turn in poachers, it might be a while, but they can find them,” Metzler said, adding, “We know what’s right and what’s wrong. And it’s too bad that [West’s] friends didn’t turn him in. They took this hunting resource from everyone in the local hunting community. Each one of those bucks this year would have filled a freezer and made people proud of how we manage deer in Oregon.”

Call (800) 452-7888, text *OSP (*677) or email TIP@osp.oregon.gov to report poaching. Preference points or cash rewards are on offer for tips leading to citations.

Jackass Of The Month

Deer don’t really belong in our neighborhoods, but then again, jackasses shouldn’t be allowed in them either.

But such is the case in Louisiana, where “known heroin distributor and thief” Chad Blythe, 51, allegedly stepped out of his house with his .22 rifle and shot “Butterbean,” a tame whitetail doe as it walked down the street – all while kids, other neighbors and a state game warden were watching, according to an outdoorlife .com report filed in late December.

Making it even more traumatic, Blythe’s shot – which hit a woman’s house – didn’t kill the deer, so the officer had to put it

By Andy Walgamott

down. It had a parent answering all sorts of awkward questions from his kids as the officer wrote Blythe three citations – hunting without a license, hunting without a tag and shooting across a road. According to OL, between charges, fines and restitution, Blythe could end up paying nearly $3,200.

Before the shooting, the officer had been awaiting for the arrival of a biologist to help capture Butterbean to take it to a facility for tame animals.