190 for the whole state of California sounds pretty skimpy and after this story let’s hope the number increases dramatically.
Everyone benefits when the increase of law enforcement becomes sufficient to actually enforce the law.
Game poachers run wild
A TV show on illegal killing of bears helps illustrate how warden shortage is hurting wildlife in California.
By Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writer
Published 1:00 am PDT Sunday, March 11, 2007
When the Animal Planet TV network set out to film an episode on bear poaching, producers assumed their most horrifying images would come from remote and unregulated corners of Southeast Asia.
They never imagined some of the worst cases would be found in California.
But after spending a day and a half in October with California Department of Fish and Game wardens, the crew had film of three black bears illegally killed in the mountains of Plumas and Nevada counties. The crimes included a 3-month-old cub shot through the head while trying to escape poachers who had just killed its mother.
It was further evidence of a drastic game warden shortage in the Golden State that has become the subject of growing concern among the public and in the state Legislature. With only about 190 field wardens on the job for the entire state of California, vast areas of the state remain unprotected from poachers.
