The Alaska Board of Game is considering a potential regulation change intended to clarify what hunters could do to legally dispatch a wounded animal, but the proposed regulation could also force well-meaning hunters to run afoul of the law in certain circumstances.
A quick, clean kill shot may take a game animal down on the spot. But what if the animal is just wounded? Mortally wounded, perhaps, but with still enough life and energy to lead a hunter on a chase over a ridge or into a forest? Ethical hunters will pursue and dispatch the wounded game to end the animal’s suffering and prevent waste of the meat.
State of Alaska enforcement officials weren’t very successful in two high-profile wounded game cases.
One case involved an Alaska Department of Fish and Game assistant area management biologist who tried to enlist the aid of a spotter pilot to track down a wounded moose on the Kenai Peninsula last August.
Another case involved three bow hunters who used an airboat to dispatch a wounded moose on Maud Lake near Palmer over a year ago. Electronic court records indicate that two of the hunters pled guilty to a misdemeanor of using a vehicle to harass wildlife while prosecutors dropped other charges of using a vehicle to take or transport game.
Current regulations dictate that “a person who has wounded game shall make every reasonable effort to retrieve and salvage that game.” In the recent Board of Game discussions, the focus has been on the word “reasonable.”
“What is one reasonable person’s standard is not another person’s reasonable standard,” said Lt. Paul Fussey of the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, liaison to the Board of Game, speaking during their recent meeting in Juneau.
“So, there’s other instances that someone might use another vehicle for something else or to run an animal down,” Fussey said.
Does “reasonable” include chasing a wounded and angry brown bear into the forest with a setting sun and rainfall that may wash away a blood trail? And what about hunting on the border of a closed area? Do you continue to chase game across the boundary or during the last hours of the season?
Fussey’s agency submitted a proposal to the Board of Game (read DPS memo here) that amends the regulation for all hunts statewide. Troopers wanted to insert two words to make it reasonable “and lawful.”
After Alaska Department of Law advisers weighed in, they added language referring to methods and means exceptions that are already in regulation for specific hunts or species.
Board of Game Chairman Ted Spraker said that would still allow artificial light, a tracking dog on a leash or other means to track and dispatch a wounded animal.
“If you wound an animal, you could still – under this — use an aircraft to go spot the animal and find it if it gets away from you. And if the animal is dead, you can go get the animal,” Spraker said.
There’s no more of a hopeless feeling than wounding an animal and not being able to find it.”
But the amendment of “lawful” adds a twist and a complication.
“If you take an aircraft and go look for it, and you find it and it’s still alive, then you cannot go and dispatch the animal that day. You have to wait until 3 a.m. the following day,” said Spraker, referring to the state’s ban on same-day airborne hunting for big game.
“That causes suffering and that causes meat spoilage if the animal dies shortly after that,” Spraker said.
And, really, who wants to pack out 500 pounds of spoiled meat?
Board member Nate Turner, a trapper and guide from Nenana, said he understands the need for clarity, but the amended regulation brings up a whole host of technical and practical issues that could open it up to abuse.
“It’s problematic if you have to retrieve wounded game in a closed area or you may have to trespass to retrieve a wounded animal. These are ethical considerations,” Turner said.
“We don’t want animals to suffer or be lost. Dispatching a wounded animal after the season closes? You shoot an animal in the final hours of the hunt and you lose it? Ethically, you should be out finding that animal. What if you find it and it’s still alive? And you shoot it because it’s mortally wounded? You know it’s dying and you’re just dispatching it. You’ve broken the law.”
Board member Stosh Hoffman, a guide from Bethel, also warned that the amended regulation could actually discourage diligent or responsible pursuit of wounded game.
“Someone shoots an animal and they decide once they see the word ‘lawful,’ this could contribute to more wounding because they going to say ‘Well, I guess I didn’t wound the animal,’” speculated Hoffman.
Board member Bob Mumford, a former wildlife trooper, said just because state prosecutors lost two cases on the issue, doesn’t mean the regulation needs to be tweaked.
“I’m swaying myself now to just leave this alone,” Mumford said. “I think we’re getting wrapped around the axle trying to fix something that really hasn’t clearly been broken for a long, long time.”
Board Chairman Ted Spraker considered adding a provision allowing hunters to notify state authorities before chasing wounded game in ambiguous situations. But board members eventually postponed their vote on the amended measure until next month’s meeting in Wasilla. That was largely to allow the public to review and comment on the proposal.
Other Alaska Board of Game business
The Board of Game considered forty changes (read voting and amendment log here) to hunting, guiding and trapping regulations during their regional meeting in Juneau this month.
Board members voted down a proposal to allow hunters to use felt sole waders in Southeast Alaska. All hunters and sport fishermen are currently prohibited from using such waders to prevent the transmission of invasive species, but proponents of the change claimed the felt sole prohibition was unsafe and unnecessarily dangerous for hunters.
Board members also voted down proposals to allocate a majority of drawing permits to resident hunters. The proposals would essentially limit resident participation since roughly 97 percent of all drawing permits are already awarded to Alaskans.
But two previously-tabled proposals setting up new goat hunts in the Haines area were brought back up for considered and approved. One would establish the first ever youth registration in an area just northwest of Haines. Hunters between 10 and 17 years old would be able to take one goat every four years while under the supervision of a licensed, adult hunter.
The Board of Game also deferred a proposal requiring hunters in the growing crossbow specialty to participate in a hunter education program. That has been moved to the next meeting focusing on statewide issues that will be scheduled for early next year.
