Imagine doing something so wrong that you get banned from almost the whole United States?
For this Colorado Springs man, this reality just smacked him in the face like a right hook from Mike Tyson.
Okay, he hasn’t been banned from entering almost every single state in the country, but Iniki Vike Kapu has been banned from hunting in 48 states, with the exception of Hawaii and Massachusetts, after he was accused of illegally killing 12 deer, two turkeys, and a bighorn sheep ram across three counties in Colorado.
According to CBS Denver, Kapu plead guilty to illegal possession of wildlife and was fined $900 in Chaffee County in May 2019. He then entered a guilty plea in Teller County in December 2019, and then pleaded guilty to illegal possession of a bighorn sheep in Fremont County.
On top of all this, he pleaded guilty to illegal possession of three or more big game animals. He was fined $4,600 and sentenced to six months in jail along with three years supervised probation in Fremont County. He had to turn over the weapons he used for poaching as well.
After all of these charges, CPW examiner Steven Cooley suspended Kapu’s hunting privileges just last week. Cooley had this to say on Kapu’s actions:
“Mr. Kapu’s crimes against wildlife are the essence of what defines a poacher by taking wildlife without regard for the laws protecting them.
Iniki Kapu is viewed as a serious threat to Colorado’s wildlife and his violations are among the worst. The severity and level of indifference for wildlife in this case are rarely seen and cannot be tolerated.”
Frank McGee, CPW area wildlife manager in Colorado Springs, added more choice words for Kapu:
“Your acts are an insult to all the hunters who follow the rules, who buy the licenses that pay for wildlife management, who respect the hunting seasons and abide by principles of fair chase. When you poach, you are stealing from all residents of Colorado.”
Colorado is a member of the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact, so Kapu’s ban in Colorado applies to the other 47 states involved with the Compact.
People of Massachusetts and Hawaii, keep an eye out for this guy in six months, you know, in case Kapu hasn’t learned his lesson…
