According to the Michigan DNR, a family squabble over inherited hunting land has led to one man being criminally charged for hunter harassment toward his brother. The trail cam evidence shows that one man sprayed his brother’s hunting area with deer repellent. While this might be seen as a harmless — and perhaps funny — deer camp prank among two brothers who share a love for each other and deer hunting, that isn’t the case here.
Evidently, the harassment took place on public land adjacent to private land owned by the two brothers, who inherited the land from their father. The Michigan DNR says the suspect brother was angry because he thought his brother was intentionally cutting off deer by hunting public land next to their private land.
According to the official report, Michigan Conservation Officer Mike Wells received the complaint of hunter harassment during the opener of firearm deer season in Newaygo County, which is about 40 miles north of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The brother who claimed harassment provided CO Wells with two SD cards from trail cams that show the suspect brother using a backpack sprayer to spray two ladder stands and surrounding vegetation located on U.S. Forest Service property. CO Wells walked to the two stand sites and then collected samples of the unknown liquid as evidence. (The liquid had dried into white droplets.)
