8 ms·

Growing up I had a family friend who was a park ranger in a popular hunting area (not California fwiw). The laws protecting wildlife from poachers are really st

by burk96 7y ago

Growing up I had a family friend who was a park ranger in a popular hunting area (not California fwiw). The laws protecting wildlife from poachers are really strong and rangers take them very seriously. As a result, catching a poacher can often be a messy scenario. If it doesn't turn violent, you can bet the poachers will try everything to get out of catching the case. I don't think it's unreasonable that poachers would try to protect themselves with this defense. That said, I don't think that potential wiggle room poachers may try to exploit should be reason to keep salvaging illegal. The only time I have ever heard of a poacher making that excuse was in an askreddit thread (yeah I know take it with a grain of salt) about LEOs getting guns pulled on them. In that story the ranger could clearly tell the animal had been shot, not hit with a vehicle, and I would imagine in many other cases a ranger would be able to tell the difference too.

merpnderp 7y ago
I mean if they shot a deer, then ran it over with their car, it would look like a deer that was shot then ran over. You'd have to mangle the animal severely to make a rifle/bow wound difficult to find.
- dragonwriter 7y ago
  > I mean if they shot a deer, then ran it over with their car, it would look like a deer that was shot then ran over. While no doubt an actual autopsy will often distinguish "run over and then shot" from "shot and then run over" (note that the bill allows "dispatching" animals that are wounded but not killed on the road, so there being a clear bullet/arrow/etc. wound, even if it can be established that it came from the person who collected it and not previously and non-fatally, is not determinative of a violation), its considerably costlier to distinguish violations from permitted conduct, which makes enforcement harder and promotes violations.
  - masonic 7y ago
    autopsy necropsy

by burk96 7y ago

merpnderp 7y ago

I mean if they shot a deer, then ran it over with their car, it would look like a deer that was shot then ran over. You'd have to mangle the animal severely to make a rifle/bow wound difficult to find.

dragonwriter 7y ago
> I mean if they shot a deer, then ran it over with their car, it would look like a deer that was shot then ran over. While no doubt an actual autopsy will often distinguish "run over and then shot" from "shot and then run over" (note that the bill allows "dispatching" animals that are wounded but not killed on the road, so there being a clear bullet/arrow/etc. wound, even if it can be established that it came from the person who collected it and not previously and non-fatally, is not determinative of a violation), its considerably costlier to distinguish violations from permitted conduct, which makes enforcement harder and promotes violations.
- masonic 7y ago
  autopsy necropsy