Antler season shot down
Casper Star Tribune
By JEFF GEARINO Southwest Wyoming bureau Saturday, March 22, 2003
"The antlers on the heads of Wyoming's big game animals come under the authority of the state's Game and Fish Commission only when the antlers are attached to the animal, an opinion from the Office of the Attorney General says.
"When antelope, deer, elk, moose or bighorn sheep shed those prized antlers, the commission has no authority to promulgate rules regarding the collection of those antlers on public lands, the opinion said.
"Antlers and horns are routinely gathered each year on public lands in Wyoming by collectors who sell them as decorative items or use them to make furniture. Antlers are also collected to make aphrodisiacs in some Asian countries.
"But Game and Fish biologists say antler hunters can push big game of crucial winter range, when it is critical for animals to conserve energy for survival, sometimes causing them to starve."
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What do you guys think of this? I know that shed hunting can have an effect on wintering herds, but I think a season on shed hunting would be unenforceable.
Oak
Casper Star Tribune
By JEFF GEARINO Southwest Wyoming bureau Saturday, March 22, 2003
"The antlers on the heads of Wyoming's big game animals come under the authority of the state's Game and Fish Commission only when the antlers are attached to the animal, an opinion from the Office of the Attorney General says.
"When antelope, deer, elk, moose or bighorn sheep shed those prized antlers, the commission has no authority to promulgate rules regarding the collection of those antlers on public lands, the opinion said.
"Antlers and horns are routinely gathered each year on public lands in Wyoming by collectors who sell them as decorative items or use them to make furniture. Antlers are also collected to make aphrodisiacs in some Asian countries.
"But Game and Fish biologists say antler hunters can push big game of crucial winter range, when it is critical for animals to conserve energy for survival, sometimes causing them to starve."
Full Story
What do you guys think of this? I know that shed hunting can have an effect on wintering herds, but I think a season on shed hunting would be unenforceable.
Oak
