API, Oregon Humane paid poacher for evidence

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, November 1998:

MEDFORD, Oregon; ALBUQUERQUE,
New Mexico––Former Animal
Protection Institute wildlife programs chief
Bob Hillman and an unnamed former Oregon
Humane Society executive in 1993 allegedly
paid $9,000 to poacher Donald “Scott”
Dungey, 48, “for videos, photos, and other
information about illegal and legal methods
used by bear and cougar hunters,” M e d f o r d
Mail Tribune writer Mark Freeman disclosed
on October 23.
Some of the material was used,
Freeman said, to support the referendum
campaign that in 1994 banned hunting bears
and pumas with dogs in Oregon.

Freeman cited Oregon State Police
reports filed during the recent prosecution of
Dungey and his son Jason F. Dungey, 21, for
unrelated deer and elk poaching while working
as hunting guides. Both pleaded guilty
to federal charges. On October 22, the senior
Dungey was fined $10,000 and sentenced to
serve 366 days in prison. The younger
Dungey still awaits sentencing.
OSP senior trooper Walt Markee
and colleagues subpoenaed API and OHS
after finding their contract with Donald
“Scott” Dungey while investigating the deer
and elk case, Freeman wrote.
Hillman was said to have told OSP
that Dungey approached him with the claim
that he had killed 52 bears in Jackson County,
Oregon, just in 1992.
“Dungey told Hillman that he
would be killed ‘in a heartbeat’ if Dungey’s
friends found out he was helping to outlaw
hounding,” Freeman recounted.
“Dungey also showed Hillman several
illegal bait stations used to attract bears,
and––with his identity hidden––was interviewed
by a Portland TV station about negative
aspects of bear and cougar hunting.”
Current Oregon Human Society
executive director Sharon Harmon called the
episode “embarrassing,” but added,
“Sometimes you have to deal with dirty people
to clean up a problem.”
Hillman, who left API in 1995, is
now embroiled in another controversy, as
director of Animal Services in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, for allegely not disciplining a
female staffer who is accused of improperly
using an animal control pole.
Alliance Against Animal Abuse
founder Marcy Britton claims she first saw
the staffer use the device to choke a kitten
nearly two years before Hillman was hired,
but she told Albuquerque Tribune reporter J.
Gutierrez Krueger that Hillman hasn’t prevented
repetition of the act. Britton threatened
to sue the city, and demanded that
Hillman be fired.
Hillman told Krueger that he hadn’t
been properly informed by Britton that there
was a problem.