DEER DECOYS A `STING' AGAINST POACHERS

JEFFERSON CITY -- "Lifestyles of the Infamous" has become a special interest in court rooms across Missouri.

"It's a video tape of people shooting at what they think is a deer," said Ron Glover, assistant chief of the Missouri Department of Conservation Protection Division. "And, all of the shooting is illegal."

The video tape makes a hard-to-refute piece of evidence in court, noted Glover, who explains the process.

Each protection region there are nine in the state developed a decoy deer last year, said Glover. The Styrofoam "deer," covered with real deer hides, were put in natural settings, usually screen slightly by brush, where they would be seen only by persons actually looking for deer.

The results were amazing.

"One many emptied his gun at the bogus deer, dropped his gun, grabbed his wife's gun and continued firing," said Glover. "Three men fired repeatedly at the decoy, but never realized it wasn't alive apparently they were used to not hitting their target.

The East Central Regional named its deer "Memorex." It suffered 33 bullet punctures in November of 1989 alone. Twenty-four would-be poachers were arrested and 23 were convicted. The other was a minor, and the charge was withdrawn.

Statewide in 1989, there were 147 arrests, but violations were prevalent everywhere.

"The tape is funny...but it's really sad, too," said Glover.

One not-so-funny statistic was that of 80 shots fired at the decoy in the North Central Region, only 43 hit the deer. It appears that the average poacher is not a very good shot.

"There's tapes of guys with their families in the car, dragging guns across the kids and coming out of the car shooting," said Glover. "It's obvious the guns were loaded and maybe with the safety off."

Decoys were not used for a time in the 1950s, when the U.S. Supreme Court took a hard line against entrapment.

"Now, the key is predisposition," says Glover. "If a guy really has to look to see a deer, then jumps out and starts shooting at it, he's predisposed to poaching. He isn't entrapped. "The use of decoy deer to deter violations was expanded during the 1990 deer season.

Early reports are 293 citations were issued, nearly double those of 1989. In addition, 113 charges of taking or attempting to take live deer from motor vehicles or roads have been filed. These combined offenses represent a total disregard for laws, unsafe hunting acts, and potential damage to landowners and Missouri citizens.

Here's how the deer decoy sting works:

A team of three or four conservation officers places a decoy in light cover with a safe background, 40 to 75 yards off a road on public or private land, with the landowner's consent.

The decoy deer is a small animal, "not attractive as a trophy or having trophy-size antlers," Glover said.

The officers then scatter to vehicles hidden nearby to watch for offenders. Often the violators are videotaped by wildlife officers.

Most of the state's 400,000-plus deer hunters obey game laws and wouldn't shoot from a road or vehicle, wildlife officials said.

Will the decoys continue to be used?

"You bet," says Glover. "What you see is not necessarily what you get."