Why Are Game Wardens Our Enemy?

Do game wardens or wildlife officer, whichever you prefer to call them, get a bum rap from hunters? The answer really depends on whom you talk to.

I want to take a little closer look into this and see if I can find the truth. Are there bad game wardens? Absolutely! Just like there are bad cops and good cops, bad neighbors and good neighbors, friendly cashiers at the checkout counter and not so friendly cashiers.

So why are they our enemy? I think it is mostly our perception. This perception is derived from basically two sources, personal experience and hearsay.

For many, personal experience oversteps the boundaries of reality. Some would have us believe that because their best hunting buddy knew someone who was friends of the next door neighbor’s cousin, it was a personal experience. We have to be honest with ourselves.

A personal experience is one that happens directly to you and only you – not your buddy, a friend or a neighbor. How an individual perceives his encounter with a game warden is completely up to the individual. I can’t change that. As most of you probably have too, I’ve stood next to someone having an encounter with authority. After the fact, what I perceived and what they claim to have happened varied quite a bit. This is only the beginning or a story that gets badly skewed the more it is told.

Here’s a reality. I have hunted since I was 10 years old. If my math is still good enough to subtract, that leaves 44 years I have hunted. I have a clean record and during those 44 years I have met up with a wildlife official a total of two times, both asking to see my hunting license and both times I was treated professionally and courteously.

Usually when I hear of some guy who claims he is being harassed by the game wardens, I’m going to assume there is a reason and not because all wardens are #*&@% jerks. Some of us have a reputation that precedes us – good and bad.

Let’s say you belong to a hunting camp and that hunting camp has over the years carried a reputation as “game hogs”, the chances are pretty good that camps been checked on more than once by game officials. It works the other way too. If your camp has a great reputation, you may never see a wildlife officer.

From the hearsay perspective, I think I have heard just as many outlandish, ridiculous, over the top stories as the next guy. It makes for conversation at hunting camps and the local saloon but that’s about it.

Remember the childhood game we all used to play where one person whispered in the ear of another something? As the statement got passed from one ear to the next, the final receiver of the story had to repeat what they thought the other person told them. That was then compared with the person who started it. It was never close.

If you’ve been engaged in any of these “telephone” conversations, anytime somebody tries to support or justify the actions of a warden, the story gets bigger bringing in more “witnesses” which leads to more stories. Each successive story gets more “facts” added to it until finally it is nearly time for some vigilante justice.

But all of this doesn’t get the wildlife officials off the hook completely. There is more to this public perception than just the stories and personal experiences.

About two or three years ago, I was included in a gathering of game wardens and state police officers – names and identities to be withheld. It was a relaxed outing. We barbecued up some wild game – I wonder where that came from – had some great food and conversation and later found our way to the fire pit for an evening of relaxation, conversation and laughs.

During my time there, I overheard several conversations between officers about public perceptions. Most all of the lawmen present were young and it became clear to me that these people were genuinely concerned about why the people they served had a negative perspective of them.

Many different things were discussed in reference to this. The one thing that kept coming up was that each person when it was suggested that they had to be more personable when dealing with the public seemed confused. Evidently these officers were being taught that being “professional” didn’t necessarily mean being nice.

And herein lies one of the problems of public perception. The number one complaint that I hear from all people, whether about game wardens, state police, sheriffs or local yokels, is that the officers were not friendly and acted like they ruled the world.

Both parties are guilty of certain things that make for difficult times sometimes between cops and citizens. The cops don’t always present themselves as “Officer Friendly” and we don’t treat each officer as an individual. We lump them all together as bad.

As hunters we should let wardens do their job. Sometimes you will get stopped in what appears to be for no reason at all. Most of the time you won’t be told why you got stopped. Sometimes the reasons are legitimate and sometimes they’re not.

Treat each case as an individual one and assess it on its own merits. Don’t crucify all game wardens because you might have been stopped and were inconvenienced. Make sure you obey the laws and I’ll bet the number of times you get inconvenienced will diminish.