I read something today about deer overpopulation that got my mind going in this direction: most people in the US are fairly well off, but it’s not universally true. Back in the old days the poor Appalachians etc could put food on the table by hunting for it. What about now? As far as I know all states have hunting and game laws, and all have hunting seasons.
So… is there still such a thing as subsistence hunting, so those folks can hunt to feed themselves? Or is everyone (who doesn’t live on a reservation) compelled to adhere to their state’s hunting limits?
Except during culling operations where professionals are brought in to reduce populations I haven’t heard of exceptions to the rules for subsistence hunting.
There are still subsistence hunters. In the news recently (because of a notorious murder case) are the large communities of Hmong refugees in Minnesota and Wisconsin who rely on the local deer season for a large amount of their food.
I’m pretty sure that here in Texas, you can’t just go shoot deer out of season, regardless of how poor you are. And, I’m pretty sure that you need a valid hunting license, regardless of poverty.
Feral hogs, on the other hand, are fair game year-round with a hunting license ($20, I think).
One of my cousins practiced subsistence hunting in Texas back in the 1970s. It was just as illegal then as it is now, but it was only way that he could afford to put food on the table. I was surprised at the time that the game warden was willing to look the other way.
Similarly, in the part of southeastern Missouri that Mrs. Homie comes from, [del]poaching[/del] sustinence hunting goes on pretty regularly among the dirt poor. Even the reasonably well-off (like Mrs. Homie’s family) just shrug it off as down-on-their-luck folks doing what they gotta do. I can’t speak to whether or not the game warden looks the other way, but my WAG is that he does.
Anecdotal, rather than factual, information to follow.
Someone I know lives in the middle of someone else’s cornfield. It’s a very nice new house, it just happens to be mostly surrounded by cornfields. She’s a nifty lady in her eighties, and a few years back took a hunting safety course (or shotgun safety or something like that). She said it was an interesting experience–being old enough to be grandma or great-grandma to most of the teen boys taking the course.
She indicated that she got more coupons or tags or whatever than standard–I’m not clear if this was luck (as in lottery) or age or first-time hunting license buyer or whatever–certainly more than she wished to use. Living in farmland, she gave away the transferrable tags to her neighbors. Who gave her the best parts of “her” deer. Although she suspected that there were more tenderloins than a standard deer contains in her collection.
She also indicated that some of her neighbors, as farmers, took advantage of the “vermin” exception in shooting deer. My impression was that farmers may get a little more legal protection if they shoot more deer or shoot deer slightly out of season than hunters do, but mostly it’s a practical matter. If you shoot deer on your own property and butcher it yourself, who’s going to know that you shot more than you were supposed to?
Some (farmers) can get additional tags, but hunting outside of the legally defined limits/seasons/without license, is illegal regardless of where you are.
In reality, however, unless you’re open and gross about it, you’d likely get away with it.
I’ve been hunting and fishing in NH for about 7 years now, and I’ve only ever been checked by a F&G warden once ‘in the field’. All other interactions with them were at check stations.
I also went hunting last fall in SC, and there was no need to check a deer into a station. The limit for the season was 10 deer (Friday & Saturday could be either sex, M-Th antlered only, unless you had a ‘doe permit’). If you took them home to butcher, you could have as many as you liked (practically), as long as the game warden didn’t catch wind, and feel like coming for an inspection.
So… the rules apply to everyone, but some choose to ignore them… and do so at their peril. I personally follow the rules very closely, as I don’t want my hunting/fishing privileges taken away. In many places, they can also seize anything used to aid an illegal act (boat/car/tackle/guns/stands etc…)
When I lived in Northeastern Oregon “sustinance hunting” was largely overlooked except in cases involving horrible abuses or just being really stupidly obvious about it. Finding meth labs was more important than a guy feeding his family.
I also know plenty of guys in Wisconsin who can get their hands on as many deer permits as they can fill, and even then some that they can’t.