Sheriff Apologizes For Deer Hunt Violations
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Minnesota sheriff is in trouble for what he did during the deer opener.
The Department of Natural Resources cited Wabasha County Sheriff Rodney Bartsh and family members for tagging a deer using someone else's license, and for not registering the deer.
The DNR keeps a close watch on the deer population, tracking how many are in the state and how many have been harvested. They do this so wildlife biologists can manage the population.
"We use those numbers to come up with a plan for the next year's goal setting," DNR Enforcement Capt. Jason Peterson said.
The DNR Incident Report details what happened over the firearms deer opener. It says Sheriff Bartsh's dad shot a buck and used his daughter-in-law's tag. Bartsh also shot a doe and used another tag.
"A tag was borrowed from somebody else and put on that deer not by the person that harvested it," Peterson said. "So when that happens that becomes a violation, so that deer is no longer legal anymore."
The deer were also never registered. Hunters are required to register deer within 48 hours, and in this case, in person. Bartsh told the DNR "If anybody gets a ticket it's me, I'm the one who did it."
"Words can't describe how terrible I feel about the embarrassment I've caused my family, my staff and my citizens," Bartsh said in a statement to WCCO. "They expect and deserve better from me and I let them down."
Peterson says people make mistakes.
"They're human, we're all human and sometimes folks make mistakes and we have to move on and we have to apply the same principles that we'd apply to anybody else, you know, whether it's a sheriff or an ordinary citizen of our state," Peterson said.
The deer meat and the deer head, which was going to be mounted, were seized. DNR officials tell WCCO ths is the most common type of violation.