290 REPORT OF ONTARIO GAME No. 52 



It is also known to the Commissioner in several instances where the 

 hunter's life has been in jeopardy, but saved through the caution of 

 other hunters waiting to see if what they supposed to be a deer had 

 antlers, when, to their surprise, another hunter came into view. For 

 this one reason the law is a protection to human life. Eight out of 

 ten illegally shot, or killed by dogs, are does." 



The State Game and Fish Commissioner of Alabama, in his First 

 Biennial Report of 1907-8, writes : 



" The provision of the game law limiting the killing of deer to 

 bucks only has had a most salutary effect on the efforts of the state 

 to save these beautiful and valuable animals from extermination." 



The State Game and Fish Commissioner of Colorado, in his Bien- 

 nial Report for 1907-8, writes: 



" The law existing immediately prior to the passage of our pres- 

 ent law forbade the killing of any deer, except that each person could 

 kill one deer with horns. That excluded the killing of fawns of either 

 sex, and the killing of does. This afforded the deer an opportunity 

 to increase in their natural way, and during the years that law was in 

 existence a marked increase was noticed, practically all over the state, 

 where deer are found; but under our present law, taking into consid- 

 eration the loss of fawns, because of the killing and crippling of the 

 mother, and the separating of the fawns from the does, leaving the 

 former in the deep snows of the mountains, and the consequent 

 exposure to all the natural enemies of its kind, I believe I am safe in 

 saying that by far a larger per cent, of the does and fawns were lost 

 to the state than of bucks. This tends more than anything else to 

 the extermination of the deer. In order to increase the deer, the does 

 must be protected first, in order that they may bear increase, and the 

 increase must likewise be protected until it can be given a chance to 

 mature and produce more of its kind." 



The above quotations, in the opinion of your Commissioner, con- 

 stitute succinct and convincing testimony to the eflflcacy of such a mea- 

 ciure, both from the point of view of conserving the deer, if not of 

 obtaining an actual increase in their numbers, and as a protection to 

 human life and limb, and render it unnecessary for him to make any 

 further remarks on this subject. 



Attention has been called to the demand from cities and towns, 

 whose inhabitants often cannot spare the time to go into the woods 

 themselves to kill a deer, for game food, and in Ontario the demand 

 for deer meat is so great that in many of the smaller towns and vil- 

 lages the butchers handle very little other meat at all during the sea- 

 son in which deer meat can be legitimately sold. This demand obvi- 

 ously produces the market hunter and, in addition, also encourages 

 many a man to go into the woods after deer who would not do so 

 unless he were assured of recouping himself for his time and trouble. 

 It is plain, therefore, that the prohibition of the sale of venison consti- 



