Hunting or Hunted? 

Hunters beware!  The next time you go out to hunt you better make sure you have the correct license, and you are hunting in legal territory during a legal hunting season for legal animals.  The Humane Society is now providing remote-controlled animal decoys to law enforcement officers in an effort to catch poachers . 

In Maryland two men were banned from hunting on a temporary basis after using crossbows to shoot a deer on state land.  The two men became victims of a state-owned robotic deer.  This, and other robotically controlled decoys are being used to stop illegal hunting. 

How It Works 

Law enforcement officers transport a robot-controlled animal by truck and stage it out in an area where they receive tips about poaching activity.  The officers sit in area out of sight like in a nearby truck or in an area of bushes and they use the remote control to move the robot’s head, tail or limbs.  When hunters shoot the animal the officers come out of hiding to arrest them for illegal hunting. 

The decoys look real because they are created from real animals. The hides for the robots come from legally acquired animals from hunters, game wardens and online from legal taxidermists. The most popular robot animal is the whitetail deer. Over 100 of these robots are purchased every year. 

There is a high demand for the donated decoys because game wardens are notoriously underfunded and the robot animals are pricey running between $2,000 for a deer and $5000 for a bear. Given the fact that hunters kill as many animals illegally as they do legally the problem is pervasive and the need for the robot animals is great in order to catch the illegal poachers. 

A benefit of the robo animals is that they are quite robust and difficult to kill. Even if a bullet hits the motor and tears it up it is replaceable. Since most of the animals have a Styrofoam core rifle shots pass through the robots causing minimal damage.  

The robo animals are left out to “season” since typical forest deer are not well-groomed. Most have a little mud stuck to their backs and hairs ruffled by the wind.  They are so realistic that some have been shot at more than 100 times. 

So, next time you are out hunting make sure you are playing by the rules of you may be in for big surprise when you go to check out your kill.  If may be you who has been hunted and caught!