I’m not, at all, but I have a vague idea that there are ‘hunting seasons’ during which you can hunt the whatever, and the rest of the time you can’t. Oh, and there are laws regarding not firing guns too close to homes and such, yes?
Here the situation: my next door neighbor put in a HUGE garden this year. As in, he plowed up his entire back yard and one of his side yards. In total, probably close to an acre, all planted in vegetables – a self-sufficiency, money saving project.
Due to wildlife raids, they barely got enough to eat as they went along, with nothing to preserve for the future. According to his wife, they spent way way more on seeds and seedlings and fertilizer and such than the value of what they harvested.
Still, neighbor plans to try again next year, with the added intention of trapping/killing the ‘vermin’ in any way possible to recoup whatever he can of his losses. Trading veggies for venison, corn for coon skins, as it were.
Q: Is this legal? So long as he is doing it only on his own property, and so long as he doesn’t use firearms, can he ‘harvest’ wild animals that raid his gardens?
Q: Is it safe? He’s talking of eating things like deer and geese and rabbits, but obviously none of them are going to be inspected and certified disease free.
Hunting laws vary widely from state to state. I could give you a vague outline of Indiana’s rules, but if you live in Montana, it wouldn’t help. You didn’t say where you live. Many cities and towns also have rules about firearms in town. Indiana has seasons on deer, rabbits, squirrels and geese. However, there are exceptions in cases of keeping your crops safe on your own land.
Also, I’m not completely sure how neighbor is proposing to off the various animals. He’s talking of ‘trapping’ the rabbits and such, which I’m hoping means humane traps. As to the deer…I dunno. Are there deer traps? I’m sure he wouldn’t be allowed to shoot them (reasonably densely settled suburban type area) but maybe bow and arrow?
The laws do vary a lot from place to place but there are often special allowances that allow a grower to kill wildlife that are eating food crops even if it is not hunting season for that animal. Some animals never are in season and can only be killed for a reason like this. These laws tend to be complicated so I would advise your neighbor to know the law for each type of animal that he intends to kill. I also wouldn’t assume that shooting them is going to be illegal either. Depending on the circumstances, shooting may be the preferred legal method for some animals.
This is just a huge generalization, but there is usually not much legal problem in killing rabbits that jeopardize food crops. Deer are going to be the more tricky one but most states make some kind of allowance for that as well. He probably just needs to call the state wildlife management agency or the gaming agency to find out.
The thing is, I accept his need to deal with the plague of animals decimating his crops. I’ve got a bit of the treehugging Disney-watcher still in me, but putting food in your children’s mouths trumps my “they’re killing bambi” gut reaction. Plus the damn deer are at nuisance numbers, and have wiped out my tulips and some ornamental trees and bushes, too.
OTOH, his property runs right along side mine. I don’t know how good a shot he is, but I’ve heard horror stories of how far bullets can travel – including through ordinary wood/plasterboard walls – and I don’t want to feel in danger of being shot inside my own house(!) at any moment day or night for a stretch of six months or so.
I think I’d best go have a discussion with my neighbor. Give him those citations about rules and contacting the wildlife people and all. And delicately hint (if it seems necessary) that if guns ARE NOT allowed, then the authorities WILL HEAR about shooting.
For a garden of the size you describe, fencing should be more cost effective. It is initially a little labor intense, but he should recoup his investment over time.
Even if your neighbor can clear all the applicable legal hurdles and obtain the right to blast any critter that menaces his garden (a rather big if), there will remain the problem of mounting guard 24 hours a day. Deer, for example, will take a long time to learn that those tempting veggies are in fact off limits.
And note that deer are good at jumping fences - get the advice of someone familiar with deer-proofing a garden.
In a demonstration plot in a state park, the Indiana Dept. of Natural Resources enclosed two 20ft. x 20ft. grassy areas with 8ft. fence. One of the plots was also covered on top with more wire fence. They let them grow wild all summer. By autumn, the caged-in plot had waist-high grasses and weeds. The plot that was open at the top was eaten right down to the ground, just like the surrounding grass land.
It showed that deer will jump an 8ft. fence to feed, and that the park’s deer herd needed to be reduced. A controlled hunt was held the next year. A 3ft. fence with one-inch spaced wires at the bottom will keep rabbits out, but it’s no obstacle to the deer.
Q: Is it safe? He’s talking of eating things like deer and geese and rabbits, but obviously none of them are going to be inspected and certified disease free.[/QUOTE]
Stop and think of how dependent some (you) are on “Government inspections”.
What is it?
Do people have a need to be able to blame someone else.
Maybe so. This thing is, I’ve read the occasional ‘end of civilizations’ novel/survival guide, and most of them made ominous noises about wild rabits carrying a disease (something like tularemia, though I’m not sure of the spelling) and that you must be sure ‘you can recognize the symptoms in a dead rabbit’ so as to dispose of them w/o eating. Of course, none of the books bothered to say what said symptoms are…
Anyhoo, I figured if we need Federal inspectors to insure that carefully bred/raised food animals are indeed safe to eat, ghod knows how dangerous animals that run wild and eat who-knows-what might be.
(Hey, be nice! If there weren’t all us igerrant folks around, what would keep all you brilliant dopers battling? Huh? Huh?)
