GAME LAW ADMINISTRATION. 



Thus far it has been the purpose to explain the nature of the 

 machinery by which game laws are enforced, and it is now desirable 

 to show how this machinery is put into motion." 



ARREST. 



It is scarcely necessary to say that no punishment can be inflicted 

 for violation of the game laws until some act constituting an offense 

 is actually committed. In some States, however, such as Colorado and 

 Minnesota, an attempt to violate the law subjects the offender to the 

 same penalties as an actual violation. 



It is an offense in several States to possess game with intent to 

 export or sell it, and while no effort ma} 7 be made to execute the 

 intent it is nevertheless a violation of law, because the possession 

 with intent to export or sell is made a substantive offense. 



Upon violation of the game law, the first step is to secure the actual 

 presence of the defendant in court to answer for his offense. This is 

 accomplished by his arrest, but usually such arrest must have been pre- 

 ceded by a complaint under oath or an affidavit, setting forth a probable 

 cause for believing the defendant guilty. A warrant is then issued to 

 some competent and authorized executive officer — as a game warden, 

 constable, or police officer — directing him to arrest the accused and 

 bring him before the judge, justice, or court issuing the warrant, or, 

 in a very few cases, before some other court having jurisdiction. In 

 every State and Territory where the warden system is in operation the 

 power of arrest is conferred upon the wardens, and in most instances 

 upon members of the boards of fish and game commissioners. It is 

 customary in some States to include in the game laws a provision 

 authorizing game wardens and other officers to arrest without war- 

 rant, but unless this authority is contained in the game act or allowed 

 by a general statute it can not ordinarily be lawfully exercised, since 

 to authorize an officer to arrest without warrant for airy offense less 

 than a felony — and with very rare exceptions violations of the game 

 laws are only misdemeanors — the offense must tend to a breach of the 

 peace, and the officer must find the person in the act of violation. 

 Were not the power to arrest without warrant conferred upon the 

 wardens many violators would escape. Offenders against game laws 

 usually operate in remote and secluded places, often so far removed 

 from any judicial officer that proper enforcement of such laws would 

 be impossible were warrants for arrest required. 



a New Jersey in 1897 enacted a special law to provide a uniform procedure for the 

 enforcement of laws relating to fish, game, and birds (acts of 1897, ch. 44), but 

 apparently it is the only State which has such a statute. 



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