Could this affect deer hunting?

[Deerslayer]

This link is to a story about a ruling a judge made regarding the case of those snowmobilers who ran down deer this past winter. I wonder if the anti's are going to jump all over this and try to get it applied to hunting deer as well?

Story (http://www.620wtmj.com/news/local/44881142.html)

[Twanger]

That's a very good question, and probably a watch item.

[GF.]

Or should I have said "Aw, S#!t..."?

Remember all the fun we had with this one last fall? Hoooo-eeeeee!

But here's the thing...

'Abuse' and 'cruelty' apply to the willful infliction of unwarranted pain, suffering or other duress.

Riding a snowmachine down a trail and scaring a deer off into the woods does not qualify; using your snow machine to deliberately run the animal to death most certainly does. If you're riding down a trail and you spook a deer which takes off down the trail ahead of you... that's a judgement call, of course, but I wouldn't want to have to explain myself to a CO if I found myself following the deer for more than a few seconds... I guess that's why there is a law against harassment as well as one against cruelty, and why officers are given some room for discretion...


Here's the thing - if you can't get down the trail while the deer is on it, you have to chase it off the trail. If the deer sticks to the trail, then you're chasing it down the trail, and that is clearly A) not good for the deer and B) not 'necessary', because chances are good that if you give the deer some space, it'll get itself back into the woods soon enough.

By the same token, in order to trap an animal for the perfectly legitimate purpose of taking its hide, you have to restrain it somehow, and the pain inflicted by a leg-hold trap should (IMO) be considered 'reasonable and necessary', provided that the traps are checked on a timely basis. It can't feel too good getting snapped by one of these suckers ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L5vxOvGXLA ), but I expect that the limb goes numb pretty quickly (which would explain why some animals will bite their own toes off - they can't feel it, so how could they possibly know that they have their mouth on their own foot? It's just something chewable that seems to be part of whatever it is that's restraining them, so they chew on it. All that stuff about that begavior being a 'desperate attempt to free itself' is a bunch o' crap. A critter just isn't smart enough to know that it could escape a trap by taking some specific action....

And so likewise, the pain of death in hunting - due to one or more well-placed shots - is altogether reasonable and necessary in the perfectly legitimate process of reducing an animal to possession for the purpose of eating it.

Making a bad first shot is into a gray area, which is why making every effort to ensure a clean, one-shot kill is ethically mandatory but legally unenforceable. Similarly, shooting an animal in the wrong end to 'anchor' it (or just slow it down) until you can catch up for a killing shot is totally unacceptable, ethically, but you can't write a law against it when it's perfectly possible to kill an animal cleanly with a Texas heart shot.

Personally, I wouldn't be totally dismayed if a CO were able to bring 'cruelty' charges against a slob, so-called 'hunter' who acted with wanton disregard for an animal's quick, humane dispatch... but proving malignant intent or inexcusably bad judgement rather than merely 'poor' judgement, an honest miscalculation or sheer ineptitude....

So that's a can o' worms that (for better or for worse) can't be opened....

[ncboman]

NC has a 'Harrassing' law. I'm not sure if the offense is harrassing wildlife or harrassing a game animal. That's for the chasers. If a chaser kills a deer, well that's poaching and opens a variety of charges/confiscations.

I wouldn't worry about the anti too much here. The kingdom will not forsake the revenue deer hunting brings in.

ncboman

[GF.]

I've gotta go with you on this NC.... I was thinking about the poaching piece on the drive home last night.... If you kill an animal out of season, without a permit, and/or using something other than an officially permitted weapon, then you're wide open to charges on 2 or 3 fronts already.... Not to mention wanton waste of game meat if the poacher fails to provide for proper human consumption of the critter...

So the whole deal around 'abuse' and 'cruelty' - while I'm all for it in principle because I do, personally, see a very clear moral/ethical distinction between legitimate consumption and just being a sick b@stard to begin with....

But it's just like the piece that ran on the op-ed page the other day on 'hate crimes'. Is it illegal to beat the hell out of a man or not? What does it matter why you did it or what you were thinking as you went about it? If a crime can be classed as 'worse' because of what was going on between the perpetrator's ears, you're into Thought Crimes. And God help us if we go there...

So at the risk of reversing my opinion from yesterday ( :o ) I think that as a matter of Law, it really is best to keep as many Moral & Ethical judgements off of the books so that judges - good ones, we can only hope - can look at the facts of individual cases and see to it that the sentencing fits the offense.

'Cuz you think about it... Where's the 'justice' in sentencing some punk to a longer term if he were to beat the snot out of me because he thought I was gay/straight/black/white/red/yellow/brown/pro-life/pro-choice/pro-gun/anti-gun/roundball/in-line/stickbow/crossbow/compound-shootin'/evolutionist/creationist/christian/jewish/muslim/hindu/liberal/conservative/republican/demmycrat/independent/red/blue or purple vs. if he were to do the exact same thing for no particular reason whatsoever?

As a matter of my own damn opinion, isn't the greater threat to society posed by the 'equal opportunity' predator than by someone who - however horribly misguided - can at least articulate a specific motive for doing something inexcusable?

[DaveHawk]

Chris if these guys were hunters then I would say yes there would be some kick back here but these guys were plan old Jerks. Making an ass of themselves and being stupid. The Judge would see that.

Hopefully