CITIZENS HELP CURTAIL POACHING

JEFFERSON CITY -- There may be a few places in Missouri where illegal hunting and fishing still are entrenched traditions and no one thinks much of it. But judging by the number of calls to Missouri's Operation Game Thief (OGT) hot line last year, those benighted spots are becoming fewer and farther between.

Dave Beffa, Protection Division programs supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), said 786 persons picked up their telephones and dialed 1-800-392-1111 last year. They did it to turn in poachers. Eighty-five percent of them chose to remain anonymous, but their information was valuable all the same. OGT tips led to 148 arrests.

The Conservation Federation of Missouri and other groups provide money to pay rewards to OGT tipsters, but only one in four OGT callers was interested in a reward. Those who did accept money for their help got a total of $11,200 in 1993. Since OGT began in 1982, callers have provided information that led to 2,141 arrests and have received $153,875 in rewards through the program.

Poaching also has taken it on the chin from the deer decoy program, which began in 1989. That year conservation agents began placing stuffed deer beside roadways, offering an opportunity for unethical shooters to show their true colors. The program experienced an initial boom, with 147 arrests in 1989 and 316 arrests in 1990. Since then, however, the number of deer-decoy arrests has declined.

The number of arrests for shooting at decoys fell to 184 in 1992. Figures for 1993 are not complete, but agents arrested 124 persons for shooting at deer decoys during the nine-day deer hunting season - - when most violations occur.

Gregg Hitchings, east-central region staff specialist for MDC's Protection Division, attributes the decline in arrests made with deer decoys to two factors. One is fear of arrest.

"We still have a problem with road hunting," he said, "but word has gotten out that it is chancy to road hunt. Besides that, our using deer decoys has gotten lots of people talking about road hunting. I think that after thinking about it, quite a few people decide they don't like it."

Hitchings said problems associated with road hunting include loss of game for legitimate hunters, danger to people and property where road hunting occurs and negative effects on hunters' public image.