Montana game warden's citation in front of videographer angers Two Harbors elk hunters 
The first thing Jim Latvala did when he reached the bull elk he had shot was to say a prayer over it. The Two Harbors hunter does that over all the big-game animals he shoots, he said.
But a game warden with the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department later told Latvala that the first thing he should have done was place his tag on the elk.
Latvala, 65, a Lake Superior charter fishing captain, was hunting with his brother, Warren Latvala, 71, at sunrise on Oct. 25 near Clyde Park, Mont., on land near Warren Latvala's home. Clyde Park is near Bozeman. It was opening day of Montana's elk season. The two brothers had been hoping to hunt together for many years, Jim Latvala said.
"It was a euphoric feeling, getting this bull right away," he said.
The two brothers talked about how they should go about field-dressing the elk, whose back legs were submerged in a marsh. After about 20 minutes, during which they took photos of the elk, Latvala tagged the animal. Warren Latvala returned to his home to get a tractor so they could drag the elk back to his ranch.
But the euphoria quickly faded when Jim Latvala was approached by game warden with Montana FWP. The officer, Drew Scott, had been watching the Latvalas' hunt unfold through binoculars from his truck, where he was being videotaped by a videographer with the TV show "Wardens."
Scott approached Jim Latvala, who was field-dressing the elk, and told him he had a good chance of losing the animal, Latvala said. The warden told Latvala he hadn't tagged the elk immediately, as required by Montana law.
The elk had not been moved from where it died, and Latvala assumed he had tagged the animal legally. In Minnesota, where he hunts white-tailed deer, a deer tag must be validated at the kill site. But the tag doesn't have to be attached to the animal if it is being dragged across the ground. The tag must be attached before the deer is placed on a motor vehicle or ATV or brought to a place of habitation.
After the elk was dragged by a tractor to Warren Latvala's ranch, the warden seized the elk and wrote Jim Latvala a $135 citation for not tagging the elk "immediately." In the citation, Scott wrote that Latvala had reached the dead elk at 7:55 a.m. but did not attach the tag until 8:21 a.m.
"My brother and I had been talking about hunting together for many, many years," Jim Latvala said. "This was going to be a happy family time together. Everything was just destroyed. We sat there staring at each other with blank faces trying to figure out what had happened."
As it turned out, the case against Latvala was dismissed on Nov. 5 by Linda Budeski, justice of the peace in Park County, Mont. Latvala had appeared in court Oct. 28 and later consulted with William Nels Swandal, acting Park County attorney, who moved for the dismissal after reviewing the Latvalas' statement about how the events unfolded.
Latvala was allowed to bring the antlers of the six-by-six elk home with him, but the meat had already been donated to a Montana food shelf.
"Of course, I wanted the meat," Latvala said in an interview at his Two Harbors home on Monday. "I didn't spend $2,000 to go out there and bring back a set of horns. That meat would have lasted us two years."
In seeking the dismissal of the case, Swandal pointed out that "the reason for the rule at issue (requiring an animal to be tagged immediately) is so a hunter cannot harvest an animal and then decide he does not want to tag the animal and instead use the tag on a different animal."
Swandal noted that Latvala had tagged the animal before being approached by the conservation officer and that Minnesota has different rules regarding how quickly a tag must be placed.
"There was no intent to evade or violate the law," Swandal wrote in his motion to dismiss.
Joe Knarr, FWP's Region 3 warden sergeant, said he was in contact with Scott, the warden, as the situation played out, so he was aware of the circumstances "as soon as the elk hit the ground." Knarr called the time between when Jim Latvala shot and when the elk was tagged "substantial" - about 20 to 25 minutes.
"If you read the statute it says you must immediately validate the tag," Knarr said.
Knarr said Scott was justified in issuing the citation because there was a violation. Once that citation was issued, it was up to the county attorney to decide whether to prosecute.
"Given the answers (Latvala) gave and the circumstances, this was the best course of action under these circumstances," Knarr said. "There were violations. They did occur. The officer was within his rights to do what he did, but the county attorney wanted to give the head back to the fella but not the meat based on the fact that a violation did occur."
Latvala has since written to the director of the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department to express his displeasure with what happened.
"At this point, we want some attention drawn to how some of the wardens are acting, and we want the law changed to have the word 'immediately' defined so it stands out separately in the rule book," he said. "And we don't want the TV people with them (game wardens). That gives them incentive to be on TV and be a star."
Both Jim and Warren Latvala said they believe the presence of the TV videographer played a role in Jim Latvala receiving a citation from Scott.
"Damn it, the people who work (for FWP) should be out looking for poachers, not someone who took 21 minutes to fill out their tag," Warren Latvala said.
Mitch Petrie, executive producer of "Wardens," said the Latvalas' accusation is understandable but wrong.
"Our videographers are trained to be a fly on the wall and stay out of the way," Petrie said. "There's no pressure to produce anything."
Jim Latvala's elk tag cost $998, and he spent another $1,000 in travel expenses for the trip, he said. He is making a European mount of the antlers to display in his home.
The Billings (Mont.) Gazette contributed to this report.
[attachment deleted by admin]
Check Out Our Forum Tab!
Topic: angry 2 Harbors elk hunters (Read 3414 times)
