The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1911-09-16
LIGHT ON THE GAME LAW
shed from MinlsferfaI and Editorial
Laws-Mr. Coleman and Mr.. Harris
Argue on the Much Cussed and Dis

C"."ed aue~tienz
| In your paper this morning I note
your appeal for law that will allow
| the trapping and selling of game !;
| also your mention of a hunter who
| killed 1900 quail in a single season.
| happened to know that hunter we'll,
made living for himself and family
by hunting Then Marion county
| quail were served in the hotels.
That pot-hunting then going on by
age of a law which forbids the selling
of game. Had it not been for the law
prohibiting the selling of game there
| would now be no game in Marion
county. And had that law been pass
| ed sooner game would now be more
plentiful
To now allow a law upon our stat
utes permitting the trapping and
selling of game will mean that num-
ber of men whom we know, both
white and colored, will do nothing
but hunt for a living while the sup
ply of game lasts. And there certain
ly is nothing in the law under con-
sideration to prevent any person in
Marion county selling game that he
has bought to any hotel or dealer,
| hence the incentive to -hutning
and market hunting.
To allow this is to work a great
injustice to the great majority of peo-
pie who have to work and can go
hunting only once in while. When
such a man takes his holiday in the
woods with his gun he will be COM
| PEELED to go over grounds that have
been secured every day by the mar
ket hunter and his pack of keen
! nosed dogs. Thus his hunt will be
in vain and his holiday robbed of it's
pleasure. And the game, thus all
given to the market hunter, who
| may pay practically no taxes. while
your busy man, who only hunts oc-
casionally, may be one of the heavi-
est tax payers in the county. Nor is
this all, for the man who wants to
| buy the game will soon find the sup
ply gone, and the last wall of that
| man will be worse than the first.
I The federal and state supreme
courts have wisely decided that the
wild game belongs to all the people
of the state; that each man has the
right to take certain of it for his own
use under certain limitations, which
are intended to conserve the supply
of game and to protect the rights OF
all the people in the matter of wild
animals.
The same courts have also set out
that the use of the game belongs to
anyone who will take the time and
| pains to capture it. If it be complain
| ing, then l reply that there are many
good things in the way of education,
social and political preferment and
| wealth which cannot be enjoyed by
| pCopIC WIZ diC uol " tdhC
the time and pains and make the ne
| cessary effort to acquire them. Hence
the man who will nto go hunting has
as much right to complain as the un-
educated man who would not go to
school. Respectfully,
w. H. COLEMAN.
| Reply
This paper holds that birds should
only be killed as chickens are-for
the table; never for sport.
Men who have the leisure to shoot
for sport should confine their opera.
tions and exertions to the destruction
of clay pigeons.
| The wanton destruction of birds is
cruel, and it is for the prevention OF
which that so many humane societies
are being organized in all parts OF
| the country.
Perhaps less than one-tenth of the
| people of this county own hunting
dogs and guns: the other more than
nine-tenths have not the leisure mol
the inclination to hunt: yet if, as the
federal and supreme courts have
wisely decided that the wild game
belongs to all the people of the state
the nine-tenths should not be denied
their share of it. as they are under
the present law.
If the game belongs to all the peo
pie they should have a right to dc
with it as they choose, and this paper
repeats that it is an outrage because
a man does not own a dog and a gur
and has not the leisure to hunt, tha
it should be a crime for him to bu,
quail. turkey or piece of venisol
in our local markets.
This law was enacted for privi
legged class, and should have no place
on our statute books.
FOR LADIES