Darren Tubb and incriminating photo
The three Tasmanian hunters arrested in Idaho had brought shame upon the state.
Audio is available here:
http://bob-brown.greensmps.org.au/content/greencast/bob-brown-comments-arrest-three-tasmanian-hunters-us-and-gun-control
JUDGE George Hicks was clear: you are not welcome back in Idaho.
Anton Kapeller, 58, Darren Tubb, 43, and Samuel Henley, 18, all from Tasmania, pleaded guilty yesterday in the Elmore County Court in Mountain Home, Idaho, for killing a bull elk out of hunting season and for illegally transferring tags on a dead wolf.
The three refused to comment after their hearing but Judge Hicks left them with their ears ringing, their wallets significantly lighter and their valuable rifles confiscated, along with orders that the two older men, Tubb and Kapeller, never hunt in Idaho again.
The court heard Kapeller had been going to Idaho to hunt for 20 years and had long been suspected by Idaho Game and Fish officers of taking elk in the closed season.
Tubb and his nephew, Henley, joined Kapeller a neighbour from Blackwood Creek in northern Tasmania on an expedition in the Sawtooth National Forest. On October 28, four days before elk hunting season was open, Tubb and Henley spotted a large bull elk.
They made radio contact with their guide, Kapeller, who was at a nearby camp, saying they had a bull elk with six-point antlers in their sights. Asking his advice, Kapeller replied: “Do what you feel comfortable with”.
All men admitted knowing they were hunting in closed season.
It was Tubb’s and Henley’s first trip to Idaho, but neither they nor Kapeller realised that the whole hunt was under observation by Idaho wildlife officers.
Henley took three shots at the bull elk and missed. His uncle took over and killed the elk. The officers saw the whole thing.
The hunters left the elk where it died and went back to their camp. Over following days, while still under observation, the men returned to the elk and started skinning it, but leaving most of the meat to rot.
On November 2, after they went near the carcass to retrieve the antlers they had stashed, Tubb and Henley saw two wolves that had been attracted to the carcass. Henley shot both.
Read the rest on Mercury…
When hunters became the hunted …
DRESSED in camouflage, three officers from Idaho Fish and Game were deep undercover in the mountains.
They were living on rations, camping rough and for nine days intently watching their quarry: a group of Australian hunters, The Daily Telegraph reported.
The game wardens were aware that Anton Kapeller, 58, from central Tasmania, had for 20 years been bringing other Australians and New Zealanders to Idaho to hunt elk, deer and wolves.
They had long suspected Kapeller was hunting out of season – highly illegal.
But what really motivated them to catch Kapeller was that he left his camp hiding holes, high in the remote and beautiful mountains, littered with rubbish.
There was also a suspicion that Kapeller was committing the ultimate sin in the eyes of Idahoans: going only for the antlers and leaving the meat to rot.
Game officers Marshall Haynes, Brian Flatter and Brian Marek were focused on two people: Kapeller and his good mate and fellow Tasmanian, detective inspector Scott Flude, who routinely travelled to Idaho with Kapeller.
Idaho state records show Flude was picked up in Idaho in 1999 for drink driving while on the way to a hunting camp. He spent four days in jail. The officers were expecting Flude to come with Kapeller this year, but he hadn’t turned up.
Which is lucky for him.
Kapeller instead brought longtime friend and neighbour Darren Tubb, 43, and Tubb’s nephew, Samuel Henley, 18, both first-time guests on Kapeller’s hunt.
By the time they flew home to Australia this week, they must have wished they’d never heard of Idaho.
All three were convicted this week in the Elmore County Court with killing a mature bull elk four days before the hunting season opened and for illegally transferring tags on wolves they had shot.
Over the years, the game wardens noticed Kapeller and Flude would turn up with large elk trophies but never much meat, suggesting they had left the animals to rot. Or they’d come out of the woods in early November, just as the season opened, with their quota already filled. The officers thought this unusual because killing a large elk can take days of stalking.
This year they were determined. With the help of various agencies, they knew all Kapeller’s travel movements well in advance.
Tubb and Henley bought tags that allowed them each to shoot one elk, one deer and one wolf. But Kapeller was taking them to a place so wild and remote that he told them they could do as they pleased.
The officers positioned themselves in Kapeller’s favourite spot, the Black Warrior drainage, high in the Sawtooth National Forest.
“We were dressed like hunters, in full camo, carrying rifles,” officer Flatter said. “So if we were seen, it wouldn’t be too surprising. But we worked extra hard not to be detected. We were hiking in the dark and by day we were watching them.”
Elk don’t appear much during the day. But Kapeller knew a spot where …
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world/when-hunters-became-the-hunted-anton-kapeller-caught-shooting-elk-out-of-season/story-e6frfkyi-1226199636816#ixzz1e8dhCAgl
