A couple of weeks ago a prominent wild game ranch in Union County Kentucky along with it’s manager were fined in U.S. District Court for violations of the Lacey Act.
The club in question was Game Trails Lodge located located in Union County. They were charged and convicted on misdemenor charges for harvesting over the legal limit of does and shipping the parts of the animals to Atlanta. Game Trails and employees of Game Trails used Social Security numbers of clients at the ranch without their knowledge to report the deer being legally harvested to the Kentucky Fish & Wildlife Telecheck program. The violations in question were between June 1, 2006 and November 30, 2007 according to a report in the Courier Press
The court ordered Game Trails Ranch owner Gregg Ritz to pay a fine of $35,000 and the Lodge Manager at the time was William D. Mc Tavish Jr. who was ordered to pay a fine of $15,000. No one received any jail time for the violations.
I did a little research due to a fellow outdoor contact tipping me off to the fact that this ranch might be connected to Thompson Center, which is one of the leading producers of muzzleloading equipment. The list of who’s who that hunt this ranch is a mile long with well known names in the hunting industry. Needless to say this isn’t your average run of the mill game ranch in the middle of nowhere. My research led me to contact Thompson Center about three weeks ago to give an official statement about the incident. Today I recieved an offical statement from them concerning this issue.
Thompson/Center Arms Announcement on
Game Trails, LLC
Thompson/Center Arms wishes to clarify the Company’s relationship with Game Trails, LLC. At no time in the history of Thompson/Center Arms, including the present, has the Company had any form of ownership of or control over the Kentucky hunting property that was operated by Game Trails, LLC. The Company’s relationship with Game Trails, LLC has been limited to that of a customer, paying for use of the property when hosting various events.
In a completely separate matter, Thompson/Center Arms has been a paying sponsor of the Game Trails television show. It is the Company’s understanding that the Kentucky property operated by Game Trails, LLC, which has sometimes been referred to as “Game Trails,” is distinct and unrelated to the Game Trails television show.
We at Thompson/Center Arms remain steadfast in our commitment to the hunting heritage, a heritage which embraces the highest level of ethics among participants in the sport. In that commitment, we bear no tolerance for the violation of state or federal game laws. We continue to support national programs that nurture the sport of hunting while educating youth about the responsibilities and privileges of enjoying the outdoors.
In a follow up email from Craig Cushman the Director of Marketing for Thompson Center, stated that former owner of Thompson Center Gregg Ritz sold the company to Smith & Wesson in Jan of 2007 and remained at the company until April 2008. His ownership of Game Trails LLC had nothing to do with T/C . This has led to Thompson Center’s press release on the issue, since some were linking Thompson Center to the Game Trails Ranch. In a press release from the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources this week, named Ritz as the onwer of Game Trails Ranch as well as being the CEO of Thompson Center during part of the time the violations occured.
Dept. of Kentucky Fish & Wildlife Resources Press Release
Game Trails LLC, McTavish Fined
$50,000 for Illegal Deer KillsApril 3, 2009
Frankfort, Ky. – A Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources deer biologist who noticed discrepancies while analyzing 2006 hunter deer harvest data triggered an 18-month long state and federal law enforcement investigation that produced one of the largest wildlife penalties in state history last month in United States District Court, Owensboro.
Game Trails, a more than 12,000-acre Limited Liability Corporation commercial hunting preserve in Union and Crittenden counties, controlled by sole proprietor owner and then Thompson/Center Arms President and CEO Gregg Ritz, and its site manager, William Dirk McTavish, Jr., 43, of Paducah, paid $50,000 in fines after pleading guilty to numerous misdemeanor violations of the Lacey Act of taking wildlife unlawfully, and for making false statements to Kentucky officers about the takings and interstate transporting of wildlife.
United States Magistrate Judge E. Robert Goebel ordered that Game Trails LLC, pay a $35,000 fine and McTavish pay a $15,000 fine.
Robert Christopher Helms, 40, of Booneville, Indiana, and a former Game Trails guide, faces up to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a felony count of threatening a federal witness. His sentencing is scheduled for June 11.
Department wildlife and deer biologist David Yancy, in August 2007, noticed numerous inconsistencies while comparing and analyzing 2006 Telecheck deer harvest data with data that Game Trails LLC supplied to Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) in Georgia.
Yancy and department Private Lands Wildlife Biologist Phillip Sharp raised these irregularities with Union County conservation officer Lt. Greg Noel. Noel, already familiar with Game Trails and the property, enlisted the help of Crittenden County officer Randy Conway. They began the lengthy process of reconciling the Telechecked deer harvest reports of Game Trails clients with information from QDMA.
Their investigation turned up numerous instances of Game Trails employees, their friends and family chronically taking over-limits of deer, outside hunting season parameters, supplying false information to Kentucky Fish and Wildlife and using social security numbers of Game Trails clients without their permission to Telecheck their deer harvests.
State and federal officers seized hundreds of deer jawbones and documentation tying them to Game Trails from QDMA headquarters in Atlanta during the investigation. By sending the jawbones to another state, Game Trails was guilty of transporting illegally taken deer out of state and triggered the Lacey Act violations.
Noel said that the property, bordered by about 4½ miles of Ohio River, was owned by Kimball International and leased to Ritz and sharecroppers. He said that the previous owner had used local draw hunting to manage the deer herd, but that Game Trails eliminated that practice because it interfered with its filming and big buck hunting routines. As a result, the herd grew quickly and Game Trails contacted QDMA to evaluate and make recommendations about improving the deer herd.
Game Trails then supplied QDMA with completed data sheets and jawbones of harvested deer. It was this data, discovered during Noel’s and Barham’s investigation, which conflicted with Telecheck data.
Noel says Game Trails has recently vacated the property and is moving its operations to Ohio.
Since Ritz owned Thompson Center and Game Trails both at the time of the violations, people are connecting Thompson to the story. This isn’t the case, Thompson is now owned by Smith & Wesson as of January 2007 with Ritz on board until April of 2008 as Mr. Cushman stated in his email to me. Mr. Ritz along with the others named in the case are to be held responsible and them alone for those game law violations.
With all of the negative press that we receive about poaching, unethical hunting, people who deliberately violate game laws, etc… we should be steamed about the leaders in the outdoor industry doing some of these same things? I hear on the hunting forums weekly about some idiot doing something stupid to hurt the hunting image and we all agree that the court should throw the book at them. I feel that the court should throw the book at this lodge as well as the people involved in the violations. Just because they are big hitters in the industry they shouldn’t get off with a slap on the wrist and continue with their business by moving out of state to set up shop again.
Antler envy is going to be the down fall of our great sport if we continue to turn our heads the other way to situations like this. We as outdoorsmen and women need to stand up and let our elected officials and judges know that we will not tolerate these acts against our outdoor heritage. Greed, and envy are leading us down a dangerous path if we don’t voice our opinions to those that have the power to make changes. Thanks to Thompson Center for clearing up any misunderstandings of involvment in the issue, and helping us as outdoorsmen place the blame directly on those that deserve it!
