The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-03-15
DEER TORTURED WOUNDED ANIMALS
 LEFT TO STARvE

Superintendent John M. Champion of the fish and game commission is more than little grieved at the man ner in which the deer killing law Of
 1915 is working out. If the conditions
 as set forth in reports by the various 1 agents of the commission are any 1 where near correct, the act has re- suited in more cruelty to wild animals l than any other enactment ever put 1 out by a Connecticut legislature.
 The law, it will be remembered, per
 mits the owner of any real estate, any
 member of his family or the lessee of
 any leased land for agricultural pur- 1 poses, to kill any deer found on his property, providing, however, that 1 only a shotgun shall be used. The l deer so killed is the property Of the i owner of the land on which it was slaughtered and the person doing the
 killing is required to report the fact | to the commission within 24 hours
 thereafter.
 | Up to Monday morning Superintend- ent Champion has been notified that l 1911 deer had been killed by persons who had shot them according to the
 provisions of the law and he said that probably not more than a third of the
 number actually killed had been re- | ported.
 | While the agents of the commission have done their utmost, the deer are l being killed without the slightest re- gard to the wording of the law. It
 provides, for instance, that deer shall only be killed with a shotgun and shall
 not be snared and yet only last week Game Warden E. Linn Pease of 1 Thompsonvil1e came near being caught in a snare, as the wire of which it was made struck his face During the present winter, while talking with a man whom he was prosecuting for the violation of another game law, the of T17n & land, told him that he was hunting
 deer and was using a rifle carrying a, 45-70 cartridge.
 Game wardens in all parts of the state continue to report the discovery of lame deer, wounded deer, deer limping and starving on three legs,
 shot undoubtedly by good, law-abiding folks upon their own land and with a, shotgun, in accordance with the pro visions of the law of 1915. - in stance of the way the law worAs out is now being investigated by the com
 missioner. It occurred. in one of the shore towns a few days ago when
 several dogs got on the track of a wounded deer. They drove the ex- hausted animal into a fence corner where they attacked it and, when men hearing the barking of the dogs, went to the place, they found that the dogs had partially disembowe1ed the deer, which was still alive, though unable to escape from it's tormentors. They humane1y killed the deer, not the dogs, which were licensed and presumed to be of value.
 The law requires that the deer hunter shall use a shotgun, but the law is power1ess to provide that the hunter shall be a good shot, hence this episode of the dogs and the deer is being repeated all over the state while wounded deer are dying from their hurts or from starvation. In a good many towns the sentiment is in favor of the hunter and it is practi- cally impossible to secure evidence of the illegal killing of deer.
 In discussing the game situation, Superintendent~Cra Crampton said that from information brought in <he thought the game birds were coming through the winter in good shape. There has been much snow but little of the icy crust upon, it which is so fatal to quail and partridge. The birds have not been starved nor fro zen under a coat of s1eet and, too, the practice of feeding the wild birds is growing, even among folk who are in different to the fate of the deer Game Warden Pease of Thonpsonville told MT. Crampton that small flock of Hungarian pheasants have come to his yard for food through the winter and seem fairly tame.