OWNERSHIP OF ANIMALS 231 



186. Animals Ferae Naturae. Wild animals are 

 called in law, ''animals ferae naturae." As such 

 they are not subject to ownership. When cap- 

 tured and confined, or when tamed, they are re- 

 garded as qualified property. ' ' No one can acquire 

 an absolute property in animals ferae naturae, but 

 the ownership of such animals is at most a quali- 

 fied one, and belongs to all the people of the state 

 in common. ' ' ^ The state may therefore protect 

 such animals by statutes, prescribing the times and 

 manner for their killing; ^ and it may prohibit the 

 killing of certain animals, or killing them during 

 certain months; and such prohibition includes 

 such game raised artificially in captivity.'^ 



187. Dead Animals. Animals ferae naturae 

 may be made property by killing. They thus be- 

 come the property of the hunter, and by him may 

 be sold, if the law does not forbid such transfer of 

 property right. In some states each hunter is 

 limited to a certain number in the killing of game, 

 and he may not sell game to any one. Property 

 cannot be created contrary to law.^ The posses- 

 sion of game in the closed season has therefore 

 been held to be illegal,^ even when the property 

 right was established by killing in the open sea- 

 son. This is also true where the game has been 

 shipped in from another state,^^ but the New 



6 state V. Niles, 78 Vt. 266, 10; Smith v. State, 155 Ind. 



62 Atl. 795, 112 Am. St. K. 917. 611; 58 N. E. 1044. 51 L. E. A. 



6 Geer v. Connecticut, 161 U. 404; State v. Rodman, 58 Minn. 

 S. 519. 393, 59 N. W. 1098. 



7 Commonwealth v. Gilbert, lo Merritt v. People, 169 111. 

 160 Mass. 157. 218, 48 N. E. 325; Ex Parte, 



sPuBLic Health, 187; Maier, 103 Cal. 476, 37. Pac. 

 Freund, Police Power, 528. 402, 42 Am. St. R. 129. 



9 Phelps V. Racey, 60 N. Y. 



