Yesterday a spotted, white tail, fawn was hit and killed on a county road here in Iowa. My aunt saw it lying on the shoulder of the road and picked it up thinking I could use it for a mount. When I contacted the local sheriffs department to obtain a salvage tag, I first told to just stop in at the sheriff"s office and pick up the tag. Once I got to there, I was asked if the fawn still had spots. Since it did they told me I could not keep it. I had to return it to the roadside where it was found. The sheriff"s department said they would have some one go out and pick it up or it would be left for animals to eat. Evidently there is a fine for having a spotted fawn in this state. I just couldn"t believe this. It was already dead. I don"t understand the reasoning behind this and if someone else does please explain it to me. I also tend to wonder if these guys at the sheriff department even knew what they were talking about. Just the same, I returned the carcass where it was originally found.
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A friend of mine found a road kill fawn and contacted the game and fish people to get a permit. No luck. He was told that if they issued a permit for fawns for taxidermy purposes that it could create a "black market" in illegal fawn trade. You'd think they'd have more important things to worry about than issuing a salvage permit to a law abiding citizen.
Possession of spotted fawns are mostly discouraged. Think of it, as compared to migratory birds. Before picking any road kill up, especially things out of season or even without a season, call the area warden first. After all he/she is most knowledgable and the one who will or will not issue you the tag to possess it. Better safe than cited!
Laws, protecting are natural resources, are generally based on very sound principles. They are not so crazy, if you think of way the law exists.
Linda,
There are lots of old laws out there that don't seem to make sense to us today. They were made as laws to help protect the species during that time period. This law sounds like one of those. Believe it or not it wasn't that long ago that whitetailed deer populations were no where near the population it is today. Therefore a law was generally made to protect the offspring of these species. Hence a law making it illegal to have in possesion a spotted hide. Since no one has made any effort to remove or revoke some of these laws they are still in effect even though the population is not in need of protection at this present time.
Game animals are the property of the state for them to control, manage, etc. this is why you must have a state lic. to hunt game animals and it is a privlage to hunt and harvest or pick up and not a right, even on your own land. Also if you poach you have stolen from the state and the people in it; ie. poaching is considered theft. So road kills belong to the state to be left to rot as the state sees fit or you can tag it with your hunting lic. during reg. season. On this one I think in the long run it good law. I've been around the world hunting and believe me we have the best system in the world.
that you or your aunt weren't fined for picking up the animal BEFORE you acquired the salvage tag...
Hi Linda, The info above from everybody is good. I work on taxidermy laws with the DNR here is Wisconsin on a frequent basis. I have found that many DNR personal are not aware of all the laws. I would check the actual statute to see what it actually says. You may find out it is legal, but was misunderstood or unkown to the person you talked to. Here in Wisconsin we can get spotted fawns(road kills)as long as you get a permit from the DNR. Your law could also be outdated, but the law could be changed in everybodies favor. Good luck.
It has always been my preception that the game in the US was the
property of the people,not the state. All the state does is to set regulations for taking of such wildlife.
I know there are a lot of stupid laws that should be amended. The best thing I know of is to approach your state representitive and
have him sponsor a bill to do just that. To let a salvagable animal lay on the side of the road and rot just because it has spots is unforgivable.
A salvage tag is a right( but can be taken away if abused) or privledge,( same applies ) in accordance with the laws and regulations. Everyone has their own interpretations regarding, basically...anything. There needs for good reasons, to enforce certain laws and the laws that others have questions about, need to become active and involved and voice their own feelings to the organizations in question.
In short, it's more about educating oneself and awareness than assuming, because assumption can be spelled in many different ways....
This is just another example of what I see as what's wrong with the whole system.Sure the fawns need to not be blasted by some road shooter and I wholeheartedly support all laws against illegal killing of animals, BUT, nobody illegaly killed that fawn. An accident- no crime. The possession law is just easier to enforce than catching Bubba with his shotgun stuck out the window of his car. What about spotlighting at night for deer- legal lots of places and a crime in others. It's just easier to convict someone who shines than it is to proove he was going to kill. So you pick up a dead fawn and you are a criminal, guilty of breaking a law intended to reduce the killing of fawns?Forgive me but I believe this is just another useless law. Here in North Carolina it used to be illegal to pick up any dead critter unless you ran over it yourself. Through a steady effort by th NC Taxidermists Assoc. most of that law was abolished. Bears, turkeys, federal stuff, and protected species must rot. Please don't figure me for some old unreasonable butt. These laws are of the same flavor as some laws that have been proposed for guns and knives--Just my opinion, Aaron H.
You wont be able to get a possession tag, most likely, for the fawn. It IS however, up to the responding officers discretion. Having said that, if you were to hit a doe, and the responding officer gives you a possession tag, based on consumption, the fawns inside her are covered under the terms of that possession tag, and can be utilized. Go figure!
As everyone stated above in good fashion, old laws need to be revised.Nobody wants to go and shoot a spotted fawn for a trophy! The way the law should read is, if you se a road kill ANYTHING!, if you bring it to your local DNR office for examination, and they determine it was struck by a car, hit a phone wire(hawks), but was completely absent of bullet holes, arrow holes, buckshot etc. they should pretty well know at this point it was NOT illegally harvested and let you have it. It seemsthat even if you prove it was an accident like a car hit, they would rather that it geteaten by yotes and other scavengers, than someone get enjoyment from it, or children get an education fomit in a learning type setting. These laws have got to be changed, and it is so esay to do so, and STILL protect the reason they were originally enforced. BUT, this takes some intelligence from the powers that be, and we do not elect them for theirbrains! Look at Clinton!
Hey Bill Y you must have some tough encon officersin your part of the state, Im on the other side of the state (saratoga)and they and the state police give me tags for road killed fawns. They would rather see the be used for something the to be a total waste. I guess it all depends on the officer?
Jeff C
I had mentioned the officers discretion, and I guess it literally does comes down to that. I sure is a waste, though!
Just about 5 years ago we could not buy or sell deer hides,even tanned ones! You couldn't even find deer skin gloves for sale here. They changed it,so now we can buy and sell deer hides,if raw you need fur dealer lisc or be a butcher shop or be your own deer you took.
We can pick up legal to take furbearers hit on roads during their seasons,but otter still have to be tagged.2 counties are fox open year round,so fox pup roadkills are legal to pick up there I assume.Deer roadkills need a nonhunt permit tag,the game wardens or cops issue them,even for fawns.You can't sell them though.
The laws are pretty nice here,just wish otter and beaver would be open to nonresidents,we sure have enough beaver now ( on land owned by antis in my county, mainly ,lol).I might be moving to PA thats why.The only thing is 2 counties are closed on fox period ( want to see a load of mange?) and the antis keep trying to ban trapping statewide.