Poachers: Rising to the Bait

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The statuesque white-tailed buck grazes along a roadside in rural Virginia. Passing hunters slow their cars, aim their high-powered rifles out the window and fire -- then fire again when the deer neither falls nor flees. Three police cruisers suddenly surround the cars, and the hapless hunters discover they are the targets of a sting dubbed Bambiscam.

In response to complaints that poachers were illegally shooting deer from their cars, Virginia game officials purchased a stuffed buck, named him Sucker and placed him near a roadside. The four-day sting operation led to eleven convictions on 23 separate charges. Sucker has proved such an attractive target that he has been taken to a taxidermist to have his bullet holes restuffed. Said Game Warden Jim Bankston: "That's one thing we learned about illegal hunters. Most of them are pretty good shots."