GAME LAW ENFORCEMENT 2 2l 



located with a winter's supply of food at advantageous 

 spots. In the spring, as soon as the ice melts in the lakes, 

 they are picked up again via airplane with their winter's 

 catch. Because of the difficulty of travelling through the 

 wilderness in the winter it is a fairly safe undertaking and 

 the profits from a successful winter's catch will bring a 

 trapper several hundred dollars. 



However, it is the fur trader who makes the real money. 

 He will pay the trapper from five to eight dollars a skin 

 for his fur where the ordinary value of a beaver pelt in 

 prime condition ranges from $25 to $50. Eight or nine 

 pelts will make a coat which will sell for about $800. It is 

 estimated that the trade in illegal pelts totals $20,000 in a 

 single year in one northern Minnesota city. 



The Minnesota Game and Fish Department believes that 

 the fur poachers and traders have a definite organization 

 which employs a skilled attorney to defend any of its mem- 

 bers who may run afoul of the law. This much is certain 

 the same attorney appears for all of the fur poachers or 

 traders who happen to be arrested. 



Prosecution of Fur Poachers: The first problem raised, 

 of course, is that of catching the poachers, but the second 

 and more important is that of punishing them after they 

 are caught. Here is a case that came to the writer's atten- 

 tion in the Minnesota beaver country that illustrates the 

 problems involved in prosecution. 



A chap by the name of Spicer, a well-known poacher 

 and fur trader, was arrested by a state warden and charged 

 with buying illegal furs. He was taken to the nearest 

 county-seat, a town having a population of six hundred, for 

 trial in the district court. His two companions turned 

 state's evidence and swore out affidavits stating that they 

 saw Spicer buying the furs, and giving the details of the 



