BigGameHunt.net Hunting Forums

[moderator]

March 2005 Poll:

Should hunters be allowed to sell harvested game?

To vote in this poll, please visit our home page. The poll is on the right hand side.

[Unit5A]

I'm afraid it would lead to an increase in poaching and perhaps some kind of organized professional hunting. If in "lucky" years I end up with more meat than I can use I give it away to friends, or bring to work.
Although most of us are honest and would only sell what we don't like much, or have in excess, there are those out there that would take advantage.

[cowgal]

Here in the west were tags are sometimes hard to come by, I can't imagine selling the meat. I hardly have enough to give away, let alone sell.

However... in some eastern & southern states were the whitetail are prolific and you can fill multiple tags, selling the game might not be a bad idea. Individuals that really enjoy hunting, but cannot eat all their game (or give it away) would have a way to make sure the meat gets used. I'm sure this would entail a whole new set of laws & regs regarding how to properly handle the game, etc, etc.... But this might be a way to curb the growing whitetail population.

This is an issue that the individual states/provinces should address.

[bnow0707]

I have to agree with 5A. It would be a bad idea.

Here in alabama we have a program "Hunters helping the Hungry" which allows hunters to donate meat unprocessed or not to local taxidermist which then process the meat and send it to different locations such as soup kitchens diaster releif and so on. Leagalizing the sale of game meat would end all the donations because people would want money instead of just giving it away.

[bitmasher]

Whether or not game meat is sold is a throwback from early efforts at conservation. At the time, they were a good idea. With whitetail raging out of control in parts of north america and argueably out of control elk herds in some areas of CO; I think it is time to give people an economic incentive to harvest game. If there was a safe, viable market in say elk meat, it might induce more people to hunt, thus increasing the harvest. The safe and viable part, is admittedly quite a large assumption though.

[NONYA]

as long as the meat is sold with a legal tag i see no reason why it would promote poaching,there is not that big a market for wild meat to make it proffitable,they selling of trophy heads and hides is the market that promotes poaching.

[bnow0707]

[NONYA]

probably I dont know what wild meat sells for,you couldnt get 2 cents a pound for it around here everyone has thier own!I dont know why you would go through the cost and trouble of hunting if you were not interested in eating the game,at the very least give it to sombody who will appreciate it.

[fuzzybear]

Good topic.
I couldn't even begin to imagine how much wild game meat is thrown away each year.
The number of people in this country alone, much less the number of people in the world that have not had or taken the opportunity to savor wild game meat.
An Elk roast baked in a rock salt husk. It doesn't get much better than that. Yum, yum.
I think wild game meat should be available for market. As is beef, etc... I think it should be left to the ranchers of meat. Not a hunter or yahoo looking to make a few extra bucks (ha ha) off his hunting license.
Every year, whether I use it or not. I purchase every available tag for that particular season. To support the wild game programs. Not to make 2 Bucks a pound on an Elk roast baked in a rock salt husk.

[lishca]

this is a good topic.

I've known some who do sell the meat they harvest...mainly taking advantage of "city folks" who don't know any better and you can swindle a $500-$1K off of them for one scrawny deer (dressed weight).

my problem is that i think it would end up the way the regular meat markets are now: full of genetically enhanced, potentially unsafe meat. and what about CWD? wouldn't it be almost on par with mad cow disease?

not arguing, just wondering,
alicia

[expatriate]

Now there's a legal question. If you sold game meat to someone and they contracted a food-borne illness, are you open to a lawsuit?

[NONYA]

if the meat was cooked properly that would not be an issue no different than buyin a chicken in the supermarket,its the consumers responsibility to prepare it correctly or they could get sick,one little warning label would remove liability from the seller.

[lishca]

chickens that are sold in supermarkets are raised in controlled environments. wild game is not (hence the word wild). so i imagine it would take more than a sticker to waive liability. plus i'm not so sure you could get that sticker unless the FDA got involved.



alicia

[Don Fischer]

I've had to think about this quite a bit. If the game is legally taken? Yes! Why not? Does it really need USDA aproval? What for? If you eat it, will you have USDA come to the house and inspect it first?

As for poaching and market hunting, it's already going on to some degree. Do we tell a guy that he can't legally sell his game because someone else might take advantage of it? I don't think so. That is the premiss that is used for making lot's of thing's illegal. Think of the gun control laws we hate. They're supposed to restrict the bad guy but only restrict the good guy. Far to many people willing to give up their liberty's in the mistaken belief they'll be safer.

You have a legal right to obtain a firewood permit, then cut the wood and sell it. Takes longer to grow a tree then a deer! You can purchase a permit to take gravel out of a stream or hill side and sell it. You can get a permit to take all kinds of resourses out of the ground, even public ground, and sell it. You can get a permit to go and catch certain fish and sell them.And you can buy a
licence to go and shoot coyote's, bobcats, ect. and sell them or part's. Hell, you can even have your animal's head stuffed and sell it!