Honor system disgraced in illegal Lincoln County kill

Merriam-Webster defines the term honor system as “a system whereby persons are trusted to abide by the regulations without supervision or surveillance.”

Though it didn’t always work out as planned, the honor system is what guided those pickup basketball games we played in our younger days. Perhaps it still does. Under the honor system, each player is duty bound to follow the rules because there is no referee present to blow the whistle. Because there is no referee — and no whistle, for that matter — players are responsible for calling their own fouls.

While the call-your-own-fouls thing doesn’t always work as planned, the honor system makes it possible to successfully play a game without referees, even in the event of an occasional disagreement. Players who habitually abuse the system, violate the rules and refuse to call their own fouls eventually will be excluded by those who will, and rightly so.

Outdoor pursuits such as hunting and fishing are much like a game of pickup basketball. While states employ game wardens to enforce the rules and regulations that govern hunting and fishing — referees, if you will — there are only so many officers to go around. In western states such as Nevada, Utah or Arizona, each game warden is responsible for patrolling thousands of square miles of public land, which means some hunters and anglers might go years without being contacted by a warden in the field. That is where the honor system comes into play.

Each time a hunter or fisherman goes afield under authority of their state-issued license, it is expected they will follow the honor system and abide by the regulations, even when a game warden is not visibly present. Unfortunately, some hunters and fishermen violate the rules without calling their own foul. When they do, whether the violation is accidental or flagrant, it gives each of us a black eye.

This is true regardless of our individual proximity to where the violation occurred, because there are many on the sidelines who lump all of us together and make no differentiation between a hunter and a poacher.

Perhaps you noticed the black ring that appeared around your eye during the first weekend in October, when six elk, four cows and two calves were illegally shot and left to rot in Lincoln County. Two cows and a calf were found along the west side of Mount Grafton and the other three closer to Patterson Pass. Though both groups of elk were in the same general area, game wardens do not believe the cases are related.

At this point, I don’t know whether the perpetrator — or perpetrators — even had the proper tag required to hunt antlerless elk in this area. But it doesn’t matter, as six animals were killed with no attempt made to recover the meat, a clear violation of the rules. It also is a choice that contradicts the purpose of hunting antlerless elk in the first place, which is to fill the freezer.

The whole thing leaves the legal hunter and the public asking why. Why shoot the elk if you aren’t willing to do the work necessary to take care of the animal as you should and make the best use of the meat? If the perpetrators had a tag but didn’t want to deal with an animal the size of an elk, why did they put in for the tag in the first place?

Those involved in these wildlife crimes have yet to call their own fouls. That leaves it to the rest of us to call their fouls for them if we can. It is the only way to protect the integrity of our “game.” Anyone who knows anything about these or other wildlife crimes can call the foul via the Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-800-992-3030.

Freelance writer Doug Nielsen is a conservation educator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. His “In the Outdoors” column, published Thursday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, is not affiliated with or endorsed by the NDOW. Any opinions he states in his column are his own. He can be reached at intheoutdoorslv@gmail.com.