Cougar hit, any way I can have it?

[ICEMAN]

Like we have discussed before with found big game skulls with antlers attached....too bad there is no provision where you can contact wildlife, retain the find for later inspection....  I really doubt poachers will expose themselves to this degree of inspection from law enforcement, I feel that good guys could claim items legally, and I feel that nothing would go to waste then....

[rainshadow1]

Lay hands on it - don't pray for it to come back to life - throw it in the back of your truck - take it home - skin it - put tag on it.

FAST!!!   Illegal? Maybe technically.  Unethical?  No

The law can't make anything unethical any more than it can make things ethical. It's a matter of right and wrong. The public, the Indians or the cougar will not suffer any loss if aer212 takes the thing home. In reality, the hide may go to waste if he doesn't. That would be a greater loss.

The way I see it, there's 3 standards of conduct, Legal, Moral, and Ethical.
     Legal is based on the laws, as they're written, in the locale where I live. Don't like it? Lobby to get them changed.
     Moral and Ethical are lines drawn alongside the standard I've chosen to live my life by.

 This is one of the few situations where it is definatley not legal, but it is moral and ethical.

The standard I've chosen to live my life by says that as long as the laws aren't forcing me to go against God, then I'm to follow them, even if they're stupid. All 3 standards of conduct must be in play. They all have to be satisfied.

Can't do it. SHOULD be allowed to, and it's a shame and a waste not to... but I have to respect the law also.

[Skycruiser]

Illegal? Maybe technically.  Unethical?  No

The law can't make anything unethical any more than it can make things ethical. It's a matter of right and wrong. The public, the Indians or the cougar will not suffer any loss if aer212 takes the thing home. In reality, the hide may go to waste if he doesn't. That would be a greater loss.

Sorry,  Mudeater, I expanded on my post but not before you saw it. Please don't confuse the law with ethics. Jesus reproached those who were followers only of the letter of the law, not the spirit of the law.

Oftentimes judges will make prudent exceptions to the law. Sometimes judges are not available and we must be our own judges.

I'm sure the next time you are pulled over by a policeman, you will find yourself hoping that he is a "spirit of the law" type and not the other.

[boneaddict]

Rainshadow nailed it.  Well said.  I am hoping mudeater you didn't think I was suggesting for him to break the law, I was trying to make a point that there was no way to legally obtain it, on the Rez or not, PERIOD.   

Ironic thing is I hit a black angus, HAD TO PAY for the meat and still didn't get any of it. 

Michelles and Charlies poitns are also good.  There would be no way to get your cat legally taxidermied.  You'd have to shoot it and haul it into the WDFW to have it sealed.  Granted, they probably wouldn't notice how you killed it, but......

[sako223]

No way to take it legally, would have to haul it off the res then tag it. I would not have left it in the roadway for someone else to pick up, nor would I inform the WDFW.
I had a friend at work who hit a deer, killed it and damaged his vehicle. On the way home he stopped at the WDFW just to inform them. They wrote him a citation. Can't remember the amount but it was a hundred or two. Not only did he kick himself but he was pissed.

[bobcat]

I had a friend at work who hit a deer, killed it and damaged his vehicle. On the way home he stopped at the WDFW just to inform them. They wrote him a citation. Can't remember the amount but it was a hundred or two. Not only did he kick himself but he was pissed.

A citation for WHAT

[sako223]

A citation for WHAT Huh?

Wish I could remember the technical reason for the citation but it was much like hitting a ranchers cow. It was considered wasting state resources and there was a value for each species. Never heard of it til then or since.

[sisu]

Wow, kind of strange that a site so full of law abiding citizens would advise a guy to break the law so quickly. Just so you know if you take it, you have broken the law. Sounds like there may be more than a few poachers on this site, they use that same method, run em over, throw em in the back of the rig. Ah what the hell, as long as your not an Indian poacher, its cool.

As much as I hate the road kill law in Washington State Mudeater is right. You can't take the critter and yes we as members should not advise someone to break a law no matter how stupid that law may be in regards to fish and game.
Anyone that does so is not being very ethical in my personal opinion. Please keep your comments civil and polite this is not a Bill of Rights issue but a simple question of is this poaching if I do this or not. It is poaching sorry to say if you do indeed collect the kitty.

[Jeremy S]

Letting it go to waste seems unethical to me.

[bucklucky]

The law is the law 

[colockumelk]

So you have found an ethical way to break the law? and just what is a technical law? Is it only the technical laws that you can ethically violate? Or can you ethically violate any old law? You seem to be an authority on ethics and the law, so please explain so we can all have the advantage of knowing how to skirt around all these pesky laws?
[/quote]

Mudeater I think what they were trying to say is that just because it's lawful doesn't mean it's ethical.  Remember some cultures have different ethics.  An example (and I'm not trying to compare the two) would be in the Middle East it is lawfull to beat a woman.  According to their ethical standards this is okay.  In America we are completely against this and are aghast at the thought of it being legally okay.  To our ethical standards this is not okay.

Under the Jim Crow laws in the south it was legally acceptable to only allow whites into restaurants etc.  Discrimination was legally okay.  In the Northern states this was unethical and not kosher.

Now here is what we are trying to get at.  Legally you can not take that cougar off of the road.  This is the law, however, it goes against the ethics of most hunters which is to not waste any animal killed.  While leaving the animal was the legally right thing to do it was ethically wrong.

As for your reference to "Indian Poachers" many can't think of a different term.  Because while it may not be legally "poaching" ethically it IS "poaching"  While it may be legally right for a Yakama man to kill six branch bulls in the Colockum in one year to us this is ethically jacked up and goes against everything sportsman and fair chase stand for.  Especially when most wait 6-10 years for the chance to shoot one bull elk. 

[Curly]

 

Well said, Colock. 

[KimberRich]

Call me a poacher if you like, but if I ever accidentally hit a cougar with my truck, I'm thowing it in the bed of the truck and keeping it.  I'd at least want something to ease the pain of paying the deductable on the auto insurance.


Good for you Aer212 for doing the right thing under the law.........to bad you have damage on your truck.  And congrats on taking out a deer/elk/sheep/etc. killer.  I wish more cougars would just commit suicide....

 

[Ranger91298]

I think its great to have disagreements or things will never change for the better...just silly to make things personal or degrading towards another race... 

[Rudy]

   well said Ranger