John I understand your viewpoint to a certain extent. However, in all the US States I have lived or hunted in, the game is public property administered by funds raised from hunting licenses fees for the most part. You certainly have a right to regulate who is on your land but you may not regulate the season or bag limits. Nor may you exclude deputies of the Game and Fish department from the land. This is a significant difference from most of Europe,for example, where the land and the game was owned by the King and those rights were passed along to his minions in charge of maintaining the estate. Hunting was not permitted to the common man and pretty much remains that way to this day. Hunting, as envisioned by Theodore Roosevelt when establishing the National Parks, Forests, and game sanctuarys was a democratic pursuit to be enjoyed by all. Futher, nowhere in the deed to your property with it's bundle of ownership rights is there any reference to ownership of the wildlife. This is not by accident. If what you say is true, South Caroline may be an exception which partly explains why they fired the first shots in a very ill advised war they have since tried to spin as the War of Northern aggression.
Last edited by Jerry V Lape; 02/20/08 07:05 PM.
