In Minnesota, if you’re a poacher — meaning if you intentionally kill wildlife without a license or by other illegal means — should you go to jail?
A lot of legal hunters think so. So do a lot of conservation officers, who sometimes spend years gathering evidence on bad guys, only to see the miscreants go to court, pay a fine and get back to doing what they do.
Which brings us to the recent case of Brady Tyler Harth, 30, of Hinckley.
Harth came to the attention of Department of Natural Resources conservation officers in January 2024, when they got a tip he was trapping illegally.
Court documents say DNR investigators searched Harth’s social media accounts and found he bragged about killing a black bear, a gray wolf and a “large” buck.

But Harth didn’t hold licenses for hunting deer and bear at the time the animals were killed, the DNR said. And gray wolves are protected by federal law.
Charged with three gross misdemeanors and two misdemeanors, Harth pleaded guilty last month to one charge of each, the former for transporting illegal big game, the latter for failure to register big game.
His penalty?