http://www.wmicentral.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18658900&BRD=2264&PAG=461&dept_id=505965&rfi=6
Porter Mountain residents angry over recent elk hunt
By: Sean Dieterich, The Independent
08/03/2007
Area residents are upset after this large bull elk was shot by a hunter July 26 in their Mountain View Ranch neighborhood. The problem, according to Game and Fish and residents, is that the hunter shot too close to homes. Game and Fish has issued a citation to the hunter, Mike Malik of Michigan, for violating an Arizona law.
Area residents are upset after this large bull elk was shot by a hunter July 26 in their Mountain View Ranch neighborhood. The problem, according to Game and Fish and residents, is that the hunter shot too close to homes. Game and Fish has issued a citation to the hunter, Mike Malik of Michigan, for violating an Arizona law.
LAKESIDE - Some residents near Mountain View Ranch on Porter Mountain Road are distraught and angry after an elk hunt reportedly took place very close to their homes July 26.
Residents in the area awakened that morning to the sound of gunshots. After all was said and done, a large bull elk was killed and the Arizona Game and Fish Department has left to sort things out.
Game and Fish has issued a citation to the hunter, Mike Malik of Michigan. Malik is the owner of Paradice Hunt Club in Davison, a 1,000-acre whitetail deer-hunting region and resort.
Curt Farrier, a resident near the area where the hunt took place, said it all unfolded a quarter-mile from his home. He said he woke up around 5:15 a.m. to the sound of a gunshot. Thinking it was a drive-by shooting at first, he went back to sleep but got out of bed when he decided something wasn't right.
Neighbor Krissie Almour said a phone call woke her up at 5:30 a.m. The call came from neighbor John Babbitt, telling her not to go outside because hunters had shot an elk near her home.
"I was thinking, 'What hunters? Where are the hunters?'" she said.
Around 5:35 a.m., Almour reportedly called Farrier's house to relay the news. Farrier said while his wife talked with her, he heard more gunshots and yelled at the hunters to stop shooting because of other animals in the area. He said the elk finally went down at 6 a.m.
Farrier said during the hunt, the hunter and his outfitter were on private property.
"(The hunter is) supposed to be 440 yards away from a dwelling," he said. "Every place they took a shot was in private land."
Farrier said the first shot happened near a fence separating Mountain View Ranch from the rest of the properties in the area. Since the elk did not go down with the first shot, he said the hunter stalked it as it tried to get away. He said the hunter took the last shots near two houses.
"They got between the houses and shot," he said.
Soon afterwards, Malik, outfitter John McClendon from Cottonwood, Arizona Game and Fish and the area residents converged on the spot where the elk fell and tried to figure out how it all happened. Farrier said many of the residents on scene were those who witnessed the act with no idea of what was going on.
"These people are all watching, freaking out," he said.
Farrier said the outfitter was asked by Game and Fish if they had written permission from the residents to hunt there or if they had informed the residents beforehand and they both replied "no." Game and Fish, having reason to believe the elk was not taken lawfully, confiscated it. Farrier said the head of the elk will be sold at an auction while the meat will be given to a food bank.
Game and Fish said Malik had a special permit to hunt. Public information officer Bruce Sitko said special permits were introduced in the mid-1980s, with two initially given out per year per big game species, such as bighorn sheep, mule deer or elk. He said that the permits are either auctioned off or raffled. Malik's permit was obtained through auction.
"All of the proceeds from those permits go to management for that particular species that permit is sold for," he said.
Sitko said the Arizona Legislature recently allowed a third permit to be sold. With the permits the hunter is allowed to hunt in designated game management units, as determined species by species by the Arizona Game and Fish Department Commission. A majority of the units are open for a particular species every year, and the permit allows the hunter a yearlong pass to hunt, regardless of the time of year. Malik's permit ran from Aug. 1, 2006 to July 31, 2007.
According to Sitko, Malik was in one the designated areas, but reportedly fired too closely to occupied structures. Farrier said he talked with Malik after the hunt and was told Malik had three previous hunts in Arizona but did not shoot anything. He added that Malik said he felt bad about the whole situation.
Nevertheless, the incident has emotions running high in the area. Farrier said herds of elk are known to run around the area right in their backyard. The elk that was shot was well known to the community.
The thing that has Farrier really mad, he said, is where the elk was shot. The area is not forested, as it is just grassland with a pond in the middle. He likened hunting an elk in an open area like that to shooting in a corral.
Almour said she was angry and sad about many things regarding the incident. She felt her property rights were violated when Malik and his guide wandered onto her land. She was also saddened to learn a hunt was taking place in the same area where her husband Jeff Almour died in a plane crash more than two months earlier.
But what has Almour most upset is that the elk was advertised online. She said the hunter might have been enticed to come out to Lakeside with video of the elk, possibly taken from a resident. She said that action might have put the rest of the herd in jeopardy.
"I felt that elk was pimped out on the Internet and sold to the highest bidder," she said. "It was a blatant misuse of trust and friendship."
Babbitt said Malik contacted him via phone after seeing pictures of the elk on the Internet. He said he let Malik know where the elk was and guided him on the animal's path into the forest.
"I showed him right where the animal goes into the forest," he said. "I wanted to make sure he shot him out in the forest."
Babbitt said he went out with the rest of the residents after the incident occurred and did not go with Malik for the hunt like some alleged. He added that he was just as mad as anyone since the hunter allegedly went onto private property to hunt.
"He just didn't hunt the animal in the forest," he said. "He was too antsy, I guess. He should've gone where I showed him."
Calls to Malik were not returned by press time.
Arizona Game and Fish served Malik with a citation after conducting an investigation of the incident. Game and Fish reportedly determined the first shot from Malik took place 340 yards from Farrier's house, well within the 440-yard boundary. Game and Fish also said the second and third shots were reportedly taken from between two houses, which are only 677 feet apart.
"It's illegal to discharge a firearm within a quarter-mile of an occupied resident while taking wildlife without permission," Sitko said. The law comes under Arizona Revised Statute 17-309 A 4. It is considered a Class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by up to $750 in fines plus 80 percent in surcharges, up to four months in jail and up to two years probation.
Sitko said the investigation is open, so more charges may be pending. Farrier said it doesn't make him feel any better, knowing the hunter is a wealthy man.
"That guy's got enough money to buy his way out of it," he said.
Meanwhile, the residents feel like they are left to pick up the pieces. Farrier said the people in the area "are in such a tizzy." Not only that, he said people all over the state are learning of this incident.
"Everyone from Phoenix to Flagstaff to Prescott knows about this," he said.
Almour said there was nothing to gain from this situation.
"No one won out in the end," she said.
