If You Shot One, Would That Be Poaching?

[Incorrigible1]

Shoot

Secure (refrigerate)

Retain attorney

Contact Meldrum

 

Voila!

[JDL]

I think poaching is only half of the problem that one might encounter with the law.  There will certainly be those advocating a murder charge.

 

Also keep in mind that intent is also part of a crime.  Self defense is a defense against poaching and other charges, but mistaken identification would not be.  If you shoot one and say, "I thought it was a bear", you would be admitting to intent to kill a bear (assuming it was not a self defense situation).

 

Conspiracy and solicitation are also criminal charges and in many cases carry the same penalty as the crime itself, so an organized hunt that falls afoul of state or federal regulations could result in charges against those organizing and funding such a hunt (at the government's option).

 

In any event, charges for the killing of something that folks do not believe to exist would most likely require a spirit of reprisal.

 

I wonder how "I thought it was a monster" would carry as a defense.

[Guest Cryptic Megafauna]

CM,

 

Spot on as the legal woes (read: expenses) would be epic plus you would have your "prize" yanked away by the authorities. Your face would be the poster child for what is brutal and cruel and probably compared to the likes of ISIS.  However, fools rush in.....and, lemmings keep running off the cliff....

Hey Yuchi1

And we all remember what happened to the guy who shot the lion, right?

The lemmings thing was made up for a documentary, they don't even run off cliffs, just the uninitiated, I guess.  

Que up one cliff jumping initiation. 

Edited February 10, 2016 by Cryptic Megafauna

[MIB]

I wonder how "I thought it was a monster" would carry as a defense.

 

That might depend on your ability to prove you believe in monsters. 

 

MIB

[Kiwakwe]

[TD-40]

If someone shot one and proved it with a dead body, their life would change forever. The scientific community would be in disarray and would have to rethink a lot of stuff. Other people would thank you for what you did and would say that you did a good thing by proving their existence and now forcing government to recognize the species, which would result in protections for the rest of them.

 

But I also think a lot of people would hate you and your life would become miserable. You would probably have to live in hibernation and in fear of your life. You might even have to become a hermit--I really think the consternation would be extremely severe. How dare you shoot one!?!!??

 

And the Legal world would be upside down. Who would own the body? I really think the government would seize it from you and turn it over to state and federal biologists to study, maybe even a university. You would not own it, that is for sure. The USFS, Dept of Wildlife, State agencies, Native tribes, and others would fight it out legally, just like they did when "Kennewick Man" was discovered on the Columbia River in Washington. I started a thread on that but it seems to be another thread that has disappeared...

[JDL]

 

I wonder how "I thought it was a monster" would carry as a defense.

 

That might depend on your ability to prove you believe in monsters. 

 

MIB

 

 

Or rather in the ability to perceive something as monstrous and to elicit reasonable empathy.

[Oonjerah]

I saw it ... I had a heart attack ... 

I fell ... my rifle went off.  ...  ...  Sorry

 

Cops: Then how'd it get in the back of your truck?

 

It was standing there when my rifle went off.  

[FarArcher]

There is one overriding occasion that will legally justify a shooting.  Self-defense.

 

What constitutes self-defense?  How blue is the sky?

 

Next is the ability to defend your home, property, and livestock.  In those instances, game laws go out the window.

[JDL]

Reminds me of the book Naked Came the Sasquatch, by John Boston, in which Bean Breath Brown, wearing glasses with a prescription so strong that they magnify the appearance of his eyes, frightened and crawling through the underbrush, comes face to face with a sasquatch hiding in the underbrush and scares it so badly that it has a heart attack. 

 

Incidental death?

 

By the way, I don't often laugh when reading a book, or often re-read one, but I've laughed out loud each of the three times I've read this book.

[Guest JiggyPotamus]

As far as poaching I would have to say that this would not be the main issue, mainly because this is an unidentified species we're talking about, thus there are probably no laws one way or the other. However, some places may have laws that could pertain to the shooting of a sasquatch, but then again this would not be an ordinary circumstance, meaning that many factors would come into play.

 

I also do not believe that any criminal charges would stick. Don't get me wrong however, because I do believe that there will be numerous individuals pushing for such charges, but at the end of the day I just do not believe that any state would prosecute such a case. And even IF they did, there is indeed a good chance that a jury would be sympathetic to the accused, especially given the species we are talking about here. I mean we went from not knowing that sasquatch exist to knowing that they exist, and because this is such a huge scientific discovery there are going to be many advocates on the side of the accused, and this includes numerous resources such as defense/attorney fees being paid or waived, etc... It would be a national, or even global, issue. Anyway, poaching would be an afterthought in my opinion, instead of being the main issue.

 

There are different possibilities regarding just how the shooting occurs, and this will likely have bearing on both the decision to prosecute and the reaction of the public. If the shooter feared for their life for instance, the shooting would be much easier to justify. The most difficult action to defend would be the shooting of a sasquatch just for scientific purposes, but even then I would imagine that most would take into account the fact that a new freaking species was discovered, and not just any species but what is likely the closest living human relative. The existence of sasquatch is a huge deal in that regard, which is why there are so many of us who approach the topic as being of the utmost importance. One thing is certain- there is going to be a media circus after a sasquatch body is found, secured, and reported.

[Guest DWA]

In many if not most states one cannot hunt *anything* not *specifically* mentioned in the regulations.  So a bigfoot, a dinosaur, a snallygaster or a Jersey Devil would be poaching in such states.

[Yuchi1]

Again, (IMO) "Poaching" would likely be the least of your legal and societal worries.

 

Let's say you bagged and tagged one, then delivered the body to academia where the examination revealed that Ketchum was indeed right after all! Now, you are probably looking at a homicide situation and when the authorities find out you are not only a long-standing "member" of the BF Community but also an active member/participant of a pro-kill group...well, that's where malice & forethought enter the equation and the ante was just upped in an exponential fashion.

 

So, there you are in club fed when (a la: Jared Fogle) your no-kill felon cellmate decides to make you his prison beatch....oh, the pillow biting and gnashing of teeth......

[norseman]

^^^^

Sounds like Yuchi speaks from experience! Whoa!

[Guest Crowlogic]

If you shoot one in cold blood there's not a jury in the land to convict you that it wasn't in self defense.  And there's a decent chance that it wouldn't be cold blooded.  Consider it's an alpha male 9 feet tall reeking from head to toe covered in hair bellowing at jet sonic decibels and ripping trees out of the ground and tossing boulders....ahhhh who is gonna say you offed a human being?  

Edited March 17, 2016 by Crowlogic