It’s clear from the group photo that they consider themselves master hunters — four guys, all from Maine, crouched in the snow with one, two, three, four, five gutted deer hanging behind them and, for good measure, a dead doe lying at their feet.

But down in Pennsylvania, where the photo was taken, nobody’s impressed.

“The reaction has been one of disgust and support,” said Jerry Feaser, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Game Commission, in an interview last week. “Disgust at the actions of these individuals and support for our agency cracking down on it and for the partnership between Maine and Pennsylvania officials.”

Hunters? These guys? Not even close.

Rather, as Feaser put it last week, they’re the alleged perpetrators of “one of the largest wildlife crime sprees ever detected in Commonwealth (of Pennsylvania) history.”

We’re talking up to 32 deer, many gunned down in the dead of night from vehicles equipped with hypnotizing spotlights.

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We’re talking 250 felony and misdemeanor charges leveled Wednesday against the four Mainers in the photo, along with multiple charges against a 17-year-old from Greene.

We’re talking the strong possibility of prison time in a state that recently decided to get tough on those who long have considered Pennsylvania, according to Feaser, a “poacher’s paradise.”

“It used to be if you came to Pennsylvania, you could have killed every deer, bear, elk and turkey and not faced one day in jail,” Feaser said.

That changed in 2009, when the state’s General Assembly decided to crack down on wildlife poaching not only with beefed-up fines, but also with newly defined felony violations punishable by up to three years behind bars.

In other words, as Feaser observed, the Mainers charged last week “picked the wrong time to start poaching in Pennsylvania.”

It all started last summer when the Maine Warden Service began getting tips through Maine Operation Game Thief (http://www.maineogt.org) about a deer-poaching ring operating out of the central Maine town of Turner.

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“It was a compilation of information local wardens received about this group,” said Capt. Dan Scott of the Maine Warden Service. “It drew attention to them and we started looking at them a little closer.”

Turns out there was plenty to see.

In addition to poaching eight deer here in Maine, investigators say, the group slaughtered four times that number during “party hunting” trips last October and December to a remote campground in northeast Pennsylvania’s Bradford County.

Last month, five search warrants executed in Maine by teams of investigators from both states netted deer meat in the hundreds of pounds, antlers, a mounted hawk, mounted owls, spotlights, firearms, bows and arrows, a computer and “other hunting-related equipment.”

Also found was that group photo, taken during one of the Pennsylvania trips.

Over there on the far left is Carlton Enos, 19, of Turner. He’s charged with 11 hunting violations here in Maine and 59 violations in Pennsylvania — including 11 felony counts of unlawful killing or taking of big game.

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Next to him is Everett H. “Lenny” Leonard, 59, of Turner. He faces six charges in Maine and 52 in Pennsylvania, including 14 big-game felony counts.

Then there’s Lenny’s son, Everett T. Leonard, 31, of Turner. He racked up four charges in Maine and 117 in Pennsylvania, 22 of which are felonies.

Finally, we have Lucien Clavet, 44, of Monmouth, who faces 22 charges in Pennsylvania, including five felonies.

(Also charged with 11 violations in Maine is Jason Clifford, 27, of Turner.)

For those who can stomach it, the gory details behind this photo-op-turned-state’s-evidence will play out in the coming months in courtrooms here and in Pennsylvania.

Harder to discern will be what was going on inside these “sportsmen’s” heads as they allegedly mowed down their helpless prey at night and then showed off their kill, in broad daylight, for all the world to see.

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“I think it’s mostly just greed,” said Scott of the Maine Warden Service. “And I think it obviously does something for their self-esteem.”

For Matt Dunlap, executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, the word “sociopath” comes to mind whenever he hears about those who, laws and licenses be damned, “just like to kill stuff and watch it drop.”

“I don’t get that,” Dunlap said. “I just don’t get it.”

Dunlap, you see, is an avid hunter — and a good one at that.

In fact, in the past three years alone, he’s bagged three deer, two bear and a moose. And lest there be any raised eyebrows, he added, “the only thing I’ve ever poached is an egg.”

Talk to Dunlap about what makes a good hunter and you’ll hear words like “sacred” and “our ancestors” and “respect” for the animal before, during and after the hunt.

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What you won’t hear is “greed.”

Down in the basement of Dunlap’s Old Town home sits a freezer still packed with butchered meat from his successful forays. Truth be told, it’s more than he and his family could ever consume. (“Who wants to eat venison stew every night?” he asked with a chuckle.)

Now some folks, particularly those among us who don’t hunt, might open that freezer and jump to the knee-jerk conclusion that Dunlap doesn’t know when to quit.

But they’d be wrong. And here’s why:

For years, a local game warden has had access to a key to Dunlap’s basement. Whenever someone approaches the warden to see if he’s come across any roadkill still fresh enough to eat — and yes, it does happen — the warden tells them to sit tight.

“Then he comes to my basement and gets some meat,” Dunlap said. “It’s all done legally — the (meat packages) all have registration numbers and there’s a sheet that he signs it out on.”

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Dunlap figures he’s shared his bounty, until now anonymously, with more than 50 families throughout northern Maine. And the more you hear him talk about it, the more you realize that preserving the meat and giving it away is as much a part of his hunt as scouting the woods and pulling the trigger.

It’s too soon to know what motivated Maine’s most infamous hunting party to head out from their Pennsylvania camp and kill … and kill … and then kill some more. Court dates are still being scheduled and none of those charged could be reached last week for comment.

But if you’re looking for remorse, don’t hold your breath. Last month, in a brief interview with the Lewiston Sun Journal, Everett “Lenny” Leonard said the case is “baloney” and has been “blown out of proportion.”

Baloney it clearly is not.

And if anything’s been “blown out of proportion,” it’s the deer in that photo.

Columnist Bill Nemitz can be contacted at 791-6323 or at:

bnemitz@mainetoday.com

 


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