38 



HUNTING AND FISHING IN MONTANA 









Killed Out of Season, 1917, Near Hell Creek, Garfield County 



A Meritorious Resolution 



At a regular meeting of the Anaconda Lodge No. 239, B. P. 0. E., 

 the following resolution was unanimously adopted: 



It has been brought most forcibly to the attention of the members 

 of Anaconda Lodge No. 239, of Anaconda, Montana, that great numbers 

 of elk have been slaughtered in the counties of Powell and Granite dur- 

 ing the ten days' open season established in said counties by the last 

 legislative session of this state; and 



WHEREAS, It is also reported that many of these animals have 

 been maimed and crippled by hunters, and permitted to drag them- 

 selves away and die without effort even to save the carcasses of such 

 animals for food, and others which were killed, through improper care 

 or through greedy desire to kill an animal regardless of its food value 

 through which cows and others unfit for food were killed, and such 

 carcasses were thus lost or wasted without food or other return; and 



WHEREAS, The said elk were largely elk that had been shipped 

 in, cared for and protected by sportsmen of this territory and per- 

 mitted to breed and multiply almost as domestic animals to the extent 

 that thoy were not wild or afraid of men so as to seek protection in 

 the mountains and out of the way places, and under these circum- 

 stances their slaughter was wanton, unsportsmanlike and ruthless; and 



WHEREAS, The condition under which such killing of elk is at- 

 tempted to be justified through the fact that an open season was de- 

 clared by law, permitting such killing for a period of ten days, and 

 under such protection many availed themselves of the opportunity of 

 killing or slaughtering without sport or sportsmanship, such heretofore 

 protected and practically domesticated elk. 



We, the members of the Anaconda Lodge No. 239 of Benevolent and 

 Protective Order of Elks, of Anaconda, Montana, hereby join in deplor- 

 ing the action of the last regular legislative assembly and the extraordi- 

 nary session of the State of Montana in not passing suitable legislation 

 to protect the oik in the districts herein referred to and to express our 



