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To: lakecumberlandvet

“Leftist politicians get upset when someone works within the system to change a law. The nerve of anyone who would do that.”

I doubt that he will have any luck changing it. Here in Texas a warrant is required for law enforcement officers to come on private land. That is, “except” for Game Wardens. Being that game, at least here in Texas, is owned by the state or considered to be state property, Texas Legislature wrote an exception a long time ago to allow Game Wardens access to private property without a warrant. And, I believe it includes searching autos, coolers, home freezers, etc. anyway, so it goes....


23 posted on 04/02/2014 5:54:04 AM PDT by snoringbear (E.oGovernment is the Pimp,)
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To: snoringbear; cuban leaf
The primary reason game and fish officers have this authority is to enforce trespassing and poaching laws. And if they have that authority, they will also enforce other laws.

That's the way it worked in Texas when they changed the law in 1995. And most of the authority on this type of stuff resides with the commission, whether it is called the Game and Fish Commission or Parks and Wildlife Commission. The agency itself cam only make suggestions. Then it is how much influence does the commission have over the legislature. The commissioners are appointees. And in Texas it was large landowners who were serving on the commission who influenced the lege to change the laws.

An officer traveling down a county road could come upon a car pulled off the road next to the fence, and see hunters in the field but he had no authority to question these hunters as to whether they had permission to hunt and what proof that they had to indicate permission to hunt. The fact that the hunters accessed the land from the road and climbed over the fence made no difference.

The officer had to have a complaint of trespassing or poaching

Also at that time was whether the complaint came thru the agency or thru the sheriffs dept. Most county judges had little interest in fining people if the money went to the agency rather than the county.

And they raised the dollar amount of the fine and added in the possibility of having to serve time.

Through-out my life I had done a lot of quail hunting in the west Texas oil fields because there were a lot of privately owned, open lands. After oil was discovered, the landowners had little interest in these lands and they were used only by the oil industry. And many oil workers hunted these lands also. The landowners could have cared less if there were people hunting these lands. And there was a lot of cotton growers who didn't care either.

So in 1995 I quit hunting and a lot of other people quit hunting. I still recall those first few years after the law changed. It was not uncommon to read an article in the paper of some poor soul being fined 6 grand and having to serve 3 months in jail for poaching.

I am of the opinion that the law was changed over deer hunting, but it also affected small game hunters.

44 posted on 04/02/2014 8:55:04 AM PDT by Ben Ficklin
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