The record-union., 1899-07-15
THAT Ell DORADO DEER LAW.
TT HAS BEEN IN EXISTENCE
THREE YEARS.
County Clerk Fishers Letter-Why
Not Place q Limitation on
the Gun7

A letter from Clerk Fisher of Ell Do
rado County appears elsewhere in re-
lation to some criticisms made on
Thursday concerning what was gen.
orally supposed to be a recently passed
ordinance of that county extending the
closed season for deer to September
1st
Mr.. Fishers statement that the or
dinance has been in force there for
three years puts quite a new face on
the matter. Those Sacramentans who
stated that they had every season visit
ed Ell Dorado County on their camping
expeditions but would not go~ there
this year because of the new" or
dinance prohibiting the killing of deer
before September, are placed in a
rather awkward light, for it would
seem that they had heretofore been IN
the habit of shooting, or trying to
shoot, deer before the 1st of Septem-
Der, and were. therefore liable to pros
ecution.
OF course the Supervisors have the
right, under the law, to regulate the
shooting season for any kind of game
within the dates for opening and clos
ing the season fixed by the State law,
but if the officials would always en-
force the State law there would be no
necessity for regulation the effect of
which will be to keep away many
who would otherwise go there in July
and August for their outings and spend
their money there. This, however, is
matter of policy for the county au-
thorities to consider. If they want to
boz nfS
they have the right to do so, and those
who do not like it can go elsewhere.
This is all there is to that side of the
matter. But the hide-hunters and
Piute Indians will see that the deer do
not become SO numerous as to be
troublesome.
The Ell Dorado Supervisors some
years ago passed an ordinance prOhib-
iting the killing of more than two
dozen quails by any one person in a
single day, also prohibiting the ship
ment of quail out of the county. In
this they showed excellent Judgment.
Prior to that time as high as four
hundred dozen Quails had been shipped
from that county in a single week by
market hunters.
If a similar deer ordinance were
passed even non-residents could find
no ground for complaint. By limiting
each person to say two deer in the
open season enough to supply any
small camping party with fresh meat,
from July 1st to October 10Th, and then
rigidly enforcing the State regula-
tions the supply of deer would be
conserved and no person except
"game-hog" would stay away from
the county on that account, and these
''game-hogs" are not desirable visitors
anywhere.
There has been just cause for COM
plaint in years past, as County Clerk
Fisher says, through the acts of some
non-residents who went to the noun
tains simply to slaughter all the deer
possible, and such an ordinance as that
suggested would. have cured the evil,
if enforced by a vigilant and active
Game Warden.
Under such an ordinance, rigidly en-
forced, no such sight would have.
offended the eyes (and noses) of Wis
itors as that of hundreds of carcasses
of deer rotting in the canyons where
they had been shot down and stripped
of their hides by a few vandals who
employed Piute Indians to cross the
mountains and slaughter deer for their
pelts, paying them in Winchester rifles
purchased in wholesale lots
By placing everybody on equal foot
ing in these matters of taking game,
and then severely furnishing those who
override the law, there could be no
just cause for complaint, and the sup
ply of game would be kept up. A linn
itation on the gun seems to be the
only true solution of the problem.