24 ALASKA FISHERIES AND FUK INDUSTEIES, 1911. 



If a sufficient number of wardens and inspectors could be provided 

 to insure careful inspection of all shipments of furs, tbe simplest 

 and most effective method of conserving the fur-bearing animals 

 would be to make it illegal to have in possession, sell, purchase, or ship 

 unprune skins of any species. 



A regulation of this kind would probably work a hardship in some 

 instances. It sometimes happens that an individual anuxial may 

 have unprime fur at a time when most of the animals of its species 

 are prime; and the hunter can not tell whether the fur is prime or not 

 until the animal has been captured. And it is sometimes necessary 

 to kill animals for food. It does not seem, however, that these 

 instances are likely to be of such frequent occurrence as to constitute 

 serious or valid objections to such a regulation. 



A practice which is largely responsible for the diminution of fur- 

 bearing animals in certain regions is the use of poison. The essential 

 viciousness of this method of capture is apparent at once. One 

 hunter with a minimum of effort may by this means practically 

 exterminate the fur animals of a comparatively wide area. Not only 

 may practically all of the animals of the region be killed but many of 

 them, dying in out-of-the-way places, will not be found by the hunter 

 and will therefore be a clear loss. The use of poison is comparable to 

 the use of dynamite in kUling fish, and the practice should meet with 

 the disapproval of aU concerned and with every effort toward its 

 discouragement. Druggists and dealers in supplies can give support 

 by care in the sale of poison. 



Attention is called, moreover, to the fact that the use of poison at 

 any time to kill any fur-bearing annual is prohibited by order of the 

 Secretary of Commerce and Labor, which order has the force of law. 

 Under the act of April 21, 1910, the penalty for violation of this law 

 is a fine of not less than $200 nor more than $1^000 and unprisonment 

 for not more than six months. Section 55 of the cruninal code of 

 Alaska makes it unlawful to administer poison to any animals the 

 property of another, and section 186 makes anyone who aids or abets 

 in the commission of a crmie, whether present or not, a prmcipal in 

 that crime. The sale of poison to, or its procurement for, any person 

 laiown to obtain it for the purpose of killing fur animals or animals 

 the property of another would be in aid of the commission of that 

 crime. 



Under the construction of this order the use of poison to kill wolves 

 is unlaAvful. If it were possible to prevent other animals from 

 reaching the poison set for this purpose a specific exemption in the 

 case of wolves could be recommended. But in actual practice any 

 poison set for wolves would be many times more destructive to other 

 animals than to the wolves, these latter being usually sufficiently 

 wary to escape. 



