Taxi Mike
10-19-2005, 04:58 PM
Before we as caring individuals go too far with banning all high fence operations or attempt to regulate how they manage their herd sizes, I'd take a minute to consider this piece of history. It's only one angle but worth consideration.
Not too many years ago KDFWR had regulations that prohibited the sale or purchase or even the attempt to purchase any part of any wild animal. It seemed to have been a carry over from the early days of the Dept. carried over from the market hunting issues.
Now the problem was that the regulation not only prohibited taxidermist from selling mounts that may have been abandoned or sportsmen from selling the cape or hide off of their kill it also in reality prohibited Wal-Mart etc from selling Mepps and other spinners or flies with squirrel or deer hair on them.
If fact it was determined that if a taxidermist purchased a red fox fur coat from a department store, disassembled it and used the hides to make lifelike fox mounts those were also deemed illegal to sell. The obviously excessive and ambiguous law went to court and the inability to differentiate between wildlife and "deadlife" or "wilddead" created a serious situation since it played out before a judge that was hearing a legitimate test case on the law simultaneous to the hearings on numerous real criminal poaching and sale issues from a year long sting operation. A bunch of bad guys could have gotten off because of a poor regulation and narrow minded approach of the Dept.
The Kentucky Taxidermist Association had by that point gone to the League and the Dept. for more than 5 years asking for relief from this unfair and unnecessary regulation. While the League had actually endorsed a change, the Dept. stalled, double talked and avoided dealing with the issue.
Finally as a last resort and the court case as an example the KTA went to the legislature and drafted a bill. The Dept. screamed, threatened and warned the sportsmen that this would lead to the devastation of our management programs. The fisheries dept. wanted exemptions for fish as bass would be plucked from the waters and sold as mounts all over the country. Deer managers predicted that deer would be poached solely for their feet which could be used to make gun racks.
Despite the inflated rhetoric the legislature saw a true opportunity to help small business, with a practical, manageable issue and passed the legislation. As there were now legitimate ways for folks to obtain mounts for decoration the black market dried up. There are far fewer related issues today due to less ambiguous and restrictive regulations and the consequential better working relationships between the various interests.
I see a similar situation here and can tell you that bad laws will not help and can greatly hurt the intended cause. Also that suppression of reasonable and acceptable practices gets many legislatures attention. And doomsday bs doesn't really do much in the way of impressing elected officials that have heard it all before on hundreds of issues.
So I will continue to preach: prudence, respect and consideration, as being best for our Sportsmen's interest.
Not too many years ago KDFWR had regulations that prohibited the sale or purchase or even the attempt to purchase any part of any wild animal. It seemed to have been a carry over from the early days of the Dept. carried over from the market hunting issues.
Now the problem was that the regulation not only prohibited taxidermist from selling mounts that may have been abandoned or sportsmen from selling the cape or hide off of their kill it also in reality prohibited Wal-Mart etc from selling Mepps and other spinners or flies with squirrel or deer hair on them.
If fact it was determined that if a taxidermist purchased a red fox fur coat from a department store, disassembled it and used the hides to make lifelike fox mounts those were also deemed illegal to sell. The obviously excessive and ambiguous law went to court and the inability to differentiate between wildlife and "deadlife" or "wilddead" created a serious situation since it played out before a judge that was hearing a legitimate test case on the law simultaneous to the hearings on numerous real criminal poaching and sale issues from a year long sting operation. A bunch of bad guys could have gotten off because of a poor regulation and narrow minded approach of the Dept.
The Kentucky Taxidermist Association had by that point gone to the League and the Dept. for more than 5 years asking for relief from this unfair and unnecessary regulation. While the League had actually endorsed a change, the Dept. stalled, double talked and avoided dealing with the issue.
Finally as a last resort and the court case as an example the KTA went to the legislature and drafted a bill. The Dept. screamed, threatened and warned the sportsmen that this would lead to the devastation of our management programs. The fisheries dept. wanted exemptions for fish as bass would be plucked from the waters and sold as mounts all over the country. Deer managers predicted that deer would be poached solely for their feet which could be used to make gun racks.
Despite the inflated rhetoric the legislature saw a true opportunity to help small business, with a practical, manageable issue and passed the legislation. As there were now legitimate ways for folks to obtain mounts for decoration the black market dried up. There are far fewer related issues today due to less ambiguous and restrictive regulations and the consequential better working relationships between the various interests.
I see a similar situation here and can tell you that bad laws will not help and can greatly hurt the intended cause. Also that suppression of reasonable and acceptable practices gets many legislatures attention. And doomsday bs doesn't really do much in the way of impressing elected officials that have heard it all before on hundreds of issues.
So I will continue to preach: prudence, respect and consideration, as being best for our Sportsmen's interest.