Bird dumping under investigation
Thirty dead ducks, geese left on roadside
Texas wildlife officials are offering a reward for information in the illegal waste and dumping of dozens of dead game birds this month in Bowie County northwest of Texarkana.
Game wardens want to know who shot 30 ducks and eight geese to death and left their carcasses on the side of County Road 2203, aka Silverlake Road, west of County Road 559, aka Richmond Road. The dumping was reported Dec. 10 and probably occurred sometime Dec. 8 or Dec. 9.
Operation Game Thief, Texas’ wildlife crime-stoppers program, is offering $1,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.
Dumping the carcasses is illegal, as would be dumping any sort of waste or garbage on the side of the road, said Bowie County Game Warden Daniel Kessler. It is also illegal to waste the meat of animals categorized as game by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, including ducks and geese. Once harvested, game must be kept “in edible condition.”
“Some of the ducks appeared to have been cleaned, but many of them were not. Many of
them were just whole carcasses that didn’t appear to have any meat removed from them at all,” Kessler said. “That’s a lot of meat that went to waste that could have been put to good use if somebody had just donated it to a needy family or what have you.”
The birds may have been harvested legally. Ducks and geese are in season, and enough people could have shot that many without exceeding the per-person, per-day limit. But finding so many shot game birds is unusual.
“Around here, generally speaking, when we check duck hunters, they don’t have that many ducks. You may be talking to a group of four or five guys, and they may have four or five ducks,” Kessler said.
Investigators ask anyone with information in the case to call Operation Game Thief at 800-7924263.