The ‘Strait’ Skinny: Jeff Foiles on the Hot Seat

Celebrity Waterfowler Facing Serious Charges in U.S., Canada

I remember, and vividly so, the first time I met Jeff Foiles.

It was at Game Fair, the popular late-summer outdoor show near Anoka, Minnesota. A semi-circle had formed around Foiles, who was wearing a lanyard thick with his designer Strait Meat calls and glittery waterfowl bands, the spoils of his many years of gunning. The shoulder-to-shoulder scrum, mostly young duck hunters acting like star-struck groupies, were hanging on his every word, like he had just discovered the cure for cancer.

The adulation of these twenty-something waterfowlers shocked me and clearly tickled Foiles. I had never seen such blind hero worship for anyone, let alone someone who for a living guided hunters, manufactured calls and produced hunting videos.

He's not JC, I remember thinking.

For the first time as a reporter, I watched the celebrity waterfowling culture reveal itself, and Jeff Foiles was its Pied Piper. He held court that day like he had just been given the keys to the kingdom; like he was entitled to something long overdue. The entire mini drama curdled my stomach (it still does), but Foiles was merely basking in his celebrity and leveraging his momentum. His calls were hot. His videos too. And his stature in the waterfowling industry was growing as fast as his ego. With a blend of arrogance and narcissism put at odds only by an occasional nod to modesty, Foiles seemed to be living—and enjoying—the good life.

But now the little empire he built off a public resource may be crumbling, torn asunder by a series of alleged waterfowl and waterfowl-hunting violations in the U.S. and Canada that some in the waterfowl industry say has already made him radioactive. (U.S. Charges | Canadian Charges).

Indeed, sympathy appears to be in short supply. In fact, the S word of the day is schadenfraude: taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others. Foiles, it appears, has burned a few bridges in his day.

Foiles faces 12 charges in Canada and 23 in the U.S., all vile and heinous, although some more than others.

According to a story in the Alberta-based Edmonton Journal, the Canadian federal indictment "alleges that on several occasions, during guided hunting tours, Foiles repeatedly violated daily limits in Canada. During an October 2004 guided duck hunt near Camrose, which was filmed for his hunting videos, Foiles allegedly killed at least 24 ducks in one day. The next day the group, led by Foiles, killed about 25 Canada geese. In Alberta, the daily limit for geese is five and for ducks is eight."

According to the indictment, "when the cameraman became upset at the number of geese being killed and shut off the camera, Foiles ordered him to continue filming..."

During the fall of 2005—and this is the charge that, if true, boggles the mind—the indictment says "Foiles travelled to a city park in Loveland, Colo., after learning many Canada geese wearing neck collars and leg tags had been spotted at the park." According to the story, he allegedly used bread to lure the tagged geese to his vehicle, where he shot them with a pellet gun and removed the tags. U.S. officials allege Foiles used the tags he collected from the geese to decorate his duck and goose call lanyard, "which he wore prominently on his commercial hunting videos to advertise his skill and experience as a migratory waterfowl hunter."

Truth is, Jeff Foiles may be innocent of all the charges leveled against him (In the U.S., he has pleaded not guilty) and is obviously entitled to due process under the law. However, if the city park incident is proven true, not to mention the other alleged charges, Foiles will have set the Everest of standards for vile, heinous behavior while impersonating a hunter and should forever be persona non grata in waterfowling circles.

Charges or no charges, Foiles is guilty as sin of debasing our waterfowling culture and making duck and goose hunters everywhere look like knuckle-dragging Neanderthals. His videos are waterfowling pornography that fictionalize our heritage as nothing more than glorified trap shooting, with kill after kill after gratuitous kill (the last time I watched a Foiles video I was sickened by how some of the footage showed the same bird getting shot multiple times, as if dead isn't quite dead enough; pathetic).

Simply put, Foiles has sullied our collective image as duck hunters, especially with the non-hunting public, who outnumber us in by the millions and who, at some point, could decide our fate.

My question is this: Where do we go, and what do we do, to get our reputations back? We start by cleaning up our act and taking responsibility for our actions—all of us. Our culture has ample room for disparate views and customs, but we need to draw a clear, definitive line between videos that stereotype and those that enlighten and educate. Commerce is commerce; we can't stop anyone from making a video. However, we don't have to purchase them, and as consumers that's our trump card.

While I believe these "hunting" videos only appeal to a small demographic (young, male hunters), they do absolutely nothing to enrich or grow our heritage. Most of today's videos are like movie trailers—long on titillation, short on context.

Which brings me to the presentation of the videos themselves. Whatever happened to thoughtful storytelling and putting the kill into context? We need to showcase waterfowl hunting in all its glory—the beginning, the middle and the end.

Instead of a video team collecting an infinite number of "kill" shots (a very time-consuming, expensive and laborious task, by the way), why not frame a kill/harvest sequence around a professionally scripted and shot segment on how to clean and prepare ducks and geese? Why not do it in the field with the setting sun as the scene's endearing backdrop? Why not celebrate the hunt's bounty on camera, with wild protein as the sacrament? Such creativity, ode to nature and fidelity to the long-term future of waterfowling, I believe, will be rewarded in the marketplace. And the storylines are endless.

The Jeff Foiles scandal is an opportunity to regain our moral compass as a waterfowling culture. It will be a damn shame if we let this opportunity go to waste. Let the dialogue begin.

What say you?