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Trophy wall of shame Photo by Jim Craven Wildlife biologist Mark Vargas holds one of the mounts of poached animals now on display in the Central Point office of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The mounts were seized from hunters convicted of taking the animals illegally. ODFW office decorated with game animals shot by poachers By MARK FREEMAN CENTRAL POINT -- Mark Vargas can't help but muster bittersweet feelings as he hangs the majestic big-game mounts on his office walls. The blacktail deer, Roosevelt elk and cougar taxidermy mounts are some of the more grand animals to come to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Central Point office. "It's really impressive," says Vargas, an ODFW wildlife biologist in Central Point. "A magnificent wall of heads." But tacked to the mounts' back frames are police evidence tags linking these stuffed trophies forever to the seamy outlaw hunting underworld. All 11 animals were killed with the help of Southern Oregon's most notorious poaching ring that operated during the mid-1990s out of Medford. Each was a poacher's booty, shot illegally and kept by outlaw hunters and eventually seized by police who last week delivered them to the ODFW office for use. The ODFW will now display the mounts as a wall of shame -- a testimony to what poachers can do to wildlife, and what wildlife agents can do to poachers. "Bittersweet's the right word for it," says Vargas, an assistant district wildlife biologist in Central Point. "We're trying to make the best of a bad thing," Vargas says. "At least they're out of the hands of poachers." The seven blacktail deer, one elk, two cougars and one bobcat were some of the animals shot illegally by out-of-state hunters who hired Medford guides Donald Scott Dungey or his son, Jason Forrest Dungey, in the mid-1990s. Each of the Dungeys was convicted on federal wildlife charges, and the elder Dungey served almost a year in federal prison for the felonies. The men who shot the animals were mostly from Michigan and members of a hunting club there, and the mounts were presented as legally shot animals that captured top honors in club trophy hunting lists. But the poachers' lies ended when the Oregon State Police caught the Dungeys and the out-of-state hunters in a sting, eventually charging the men and winning convictions in federal or state courts. The mounts were seized and, under Oregon law, returned to the ODFW. They were shipped last week to the ODFW's Central Point office, where they will be on public display and occasionally used as traveling testimonies in police talks on poaching, says OSP Trooper Dave Owren, who was part of the team investigating the ring. "Normally, the mounts just go to the ODFW," Owren says. "But we really wanted to keep this group together." Most of the blacktail mounts now line a wall in the ODFW conference room, while others are on walls in nearby offices and halls. The conference room, Vargas says, is simply too small to house them all. A small sign or plaque will be placed next to each mount, stating when and were the animal was shot, and that it fell to a poacher who was eventually caught, convicted and sentenced. Vargas expects them to draw a steady stream of gawkers. "They may be good conversation pieces," he says. "Maybe it will leave a message that enforcement does work now and then, that occasionally (police) get the bad guy." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA