STATE LAWS CONCERNING DEER IN PARKS. 55 



to tame deer as well as wild, and further that the act did not violate 

 the constitutional prohibition of taking private property for public 

 uses without compensation. 



George S. Good, of Lock Haven, Pa., wrote in April, 1908, that 

 deer had multiplied so rapidly in the preserve belonging to the 

 Otzinachson Rod and Gun Club that the annual increase would soon 

 reach about 1,000 animals. He thought the time not far distant when 

 the club would be compelled to market or dispose of 1,000 deer each 

 year to prevent overstocking the preserve. But at that time the law 

 of the State did not permit the club to sell these animals except to 

 stock other preserves; neither could they be killed except in strict 

 conformity with the laws of the State concerning wild deer. Each of 

 the 14 members of the club or guests of the club could take one deer 

 in the open season. 



If the surplus animals from large preserves like that just men- 

 tioned could be turned into venison and sold judiciously, they would 

 become a source of steady revenue. A thousand adult deer marketed 

 when the time is favorable should yield a gross income of nearly 

 $25,000 a *year. The Pennsylvania legislature of 1909 passed a law 

 providing a means by which venison from private parks may be sold 

 in the open season. 



Attorney- General Atkinson, of Washington, in 1906, delivered an 

 opinion concerning game raised in captivity, part of which is of 

 interest in this connection: 



It is a well-known principle of law in States generally that wild birds or ani- 

 mals which have been kept in captivity and have become more or less domesti- 

 cated, when reclaimed by the art and power of man, are the subject of qualified 

 property, and are, as a general rule, under the protection of the law the same as 

 any other property, and are at the disposal of the owner for using or selling 

 as he desires. This seems to have been the law for thousands of years in 

 civilized countries, and it would seem to have been the sensible principle to 

 follow ; for without doubt all animals and birds were once wild in ferse naturae 

 state, and by the application of this principle all people have tamed and 

 acquired domesticity in animals and fowls from the game state, from elephants 

 and horses and cattle down to chickens and canary birds. 



It is my opiuion that our laws in this State covering the subject were in- 

 tended by the legislatures to relate strictly to game, meaning animals and birds 

 in their wild, free, roving state, and these statutes were not intended in any 

 manner to limit or prevent any probable or possible occupation or industrial 

 development relating to the growing and raising and domesticating of any 

 kinds of birds or animals for food products and the general use of the people. 



STATE LAWS THAT RECOGNIZE PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF DEER. 



Recognition of the rights of private ownership in deer and other 

 big game is now given in laws of the States named below. It will 

 be observed that most of the provisions were enacted recently. 



Arkansas. — " Nothing in this act shall be so construed as to pre- 

 vent any person or persons from having in their possession or buying 



