I haven't been on here in a bit too busy raising babies but- It always kills me when I hear people talking about deer on their land and how it is 'their deer', even though he beds on one property but feeds on another. Around here ownership of a particular deer can be ferocious. Am I living in a bubble or do any of you deal with the S.O.S. I get a kick when I hear someone refer to a nice buck that has been harvested as ' yeah, that was my buck'. What made me think of this was a fella at work was talking about a buck he'd been after for a couple of years was killed this past rifle season by an adjoining landowner. He was ranting about how that was HIS buck that was taken. I just thought to myself "You don't own that buck", no one owns him. I'm not looking for a particular response, just sometimes it makes me laugh.
I agree though I have to admit to having said in the past that someone killed the buck I was after. But as you said or implied one person doesn't own the wildlife. I also laugh when its said by someone that puts up a high fence..........its to keep other people out. No, its to keep the deer in plain and simple.
Yeah, I hear that around here sometimes. But I believe that the deer, and other wildlife, belong to the state. To prove that, look at who gets the deer if it is shot out of the state's season.
I actually did a search on this subject a while back (because I feel the same way you do). It's not as cut and dried as I would've believed, though. My thinking was.......wildlife is the "property" of the state in which it is standing in (i.e. a "natural resource" of said state). It's not that simple, though. There's been litigation documented where landowners DO feel they have ownership rights to the game on their land. To date, I don't think this has been resolved....and I know it hasn't been resolved for every state. "MY" deer (elk/bear/etc...) to me refers to the one with your legal tag on it. I get a chuckle out of the things I read on this subject, also.
The issue will never be resolved because the deer are free roaming they are not like cattle. I would be willing to bet if one of those deer owners would look at you like you were crazy when you ask them to pay your bill when one of their deer ran in front of your car an did about $3000 in damage.
Jeff, I was thinking more about this and here's what I came up with. I think that the deer are a "natural resource" of any state. But, if a given land owner says you're only shooting bucks with a minimum of 130" (state min would be lower) on MY LAND, how does the STATE'S "natural resource" concept come into play? This land owner is putting his own rules/laws on deer owned by the public? I do think the deer (and their future) belong to the property owner until they leave said property. JMO
He can't give you any MORE rights to the animals then you'd have on public land, though. That's the caveat. He can restrict anything he wants to on his property. He could tell you that you could only shoot pink deer ON HIS PROPERTY. The fact that you can shoot them AT ALL is not his right to give or rescind.
I have heard that quite a bit around here. There is so much competition for land and permission that territoriality can get pretty out of hand. I heard earlier of a group of hunters that had been hunting for a particular buck that lived in a woodlot behind a housing development. Another hunter got permission to hunt behind a friend's house in that development and shot that buck. The other hunters were so angry that this new guy came in and shot "their" buck that they complained to the landowners that they had permission from who gave this guy's friend (their neighbor) a hard time over it. While I might put a lot of work into hunting certain deer, I don't view them as mine until they are wearing my tag.
You don't hear that too much around here. There is only one older gent that thinks he owns the deer on and by his property. By the end of our 2.5 week long rifle season the poor guy is wore to a frazzle patroling... when he should have just went hunting and enjoyed what his land had to offer. Tim
