Does your state have a "Recreational Trespass" law for hunters?

[JDgreen227]

About a week and a half ago one of my neighbors was bowhunting for deer on my property, the doe he shot ran about 100 feet after being hit and ended up in an area I lease to someone to grow crops. According to the laws here, if you wound a game animal or bird and it runs or flies into an area on property where you do not have permission from the landowner to hunt, you can be prosecuted for trespassing. Okay now, was I in the wrong to help my neighbor collect his deer, it being on property I hold title to, ALTHOUGH I have a written agreement for the person who farms the land to grow and harvest crops there.

Secondly...my personal feelings are that unless a hunter is intentionally poaching on land he has no permission to be on, he should still have the right to pursue injured game, if only to ensure it meets a humane death and is not left to suffer needlessly.

Any opinions here? Thanks.

 

[forgeblast]

I have an understanding with my neighbor, that if a deer is hit and it goes on the others property then we or he is free to get it.

 

[bcp]

...on land he has no permission to be on, he should still have the right to pursue injured game...

"Some" hunters would then hunt wherever they wanted, and if questioned, just say they were after a wounded deer.

Bruce

 

[1GB]

Secondly...my personal feelings are that unless a hunter is intentionally poaching on land he has no permission to be on, he should still have the right to pursue injured game, if only to ensure it meets a humane death and is not left to suffer needlessly.

In general I'd agree with that.

One change to that statement IMO is that they do so without a bow/firearm upon themselves unless given explicit permission from the landowner. On one hand allowing them to pursue with a bow/firearm to best insure a humane death is great, but it's also a safety risk if there are others in the field or livestock/building which they are unaware of and unintentionally may shoot towards.

The big problem and why the law would never be changed in such a fashion is the property-line hunters. I have no problem with helping someone recover an animal after a less than favorable hit which leads to the animal not expiring as quickly as normal. I'm not a fan of people who setup to shoot a deer standing on the property line knowing that the chances they recover it on their property are very poor at best.

 

[Storm56]

Laws vary by state. In PA you do not have any right to pursue an injured game animal on someone elses private property. If the owner refuses to give you permission to pursue your wounded game animal you must get a game commission officer to assist. They have the right to go in and retrieve your animal.

 

[lockhaven]

trespassing is trespassing plain and simple. That being said i think anyone denying a person permission to retrieve legally harvested game is either a fool or just plain nasty or greedy. A local farm will deny anyone to retrieve deer if they have antlers of respectable size but if a deer travels to a neighbors property they raise H*ll if not allowed entry. I know from first hand experience .

 

[TripleR]

About a week and a half ago one of my neighbors was bowhunting for deer on my property, the doe he shot ran about 100 feet after being hit and ended up in an area I lease to someone to grow crops. According to the laws here, if you wound a game animal or bird and it runs or flies into an area on property where you do not have permission from the landowner to hunt, you can be prosecuted for trespassing. Okay now, was I in the wrong to help my neighbor collect his deer, it being on property I hold title to, ALTHOUGH I have a written agreement for the person who farms the land to grow and harvest crops there.

Secondly...my personal feelings are that unless a hunter is intentionally poaching on land he has no permission to be on, he should still have the right to pursue injured game, if only to ensure it meets a humane death and is not left to suffer needlessly.

Any opinions here? Thanks.

In my state you need permission to retrieve game. I can see a "Recreational Trespass Law" being used as a defense for wholesale trespass.

Personally while we don't allow hunting on any of our land, we won't prosecute anyone for retrieving game and if I know about it will help them get it out if needed. We may own the land, but we don't own the wildlife and I couldn't stand the thought of an animal suffering or being wasted because of a property line.

We rent quite a bit of land out for crops, but still retain control over and rights to access and if they don't like it they can rent from someone else. They do not have permission to hunt or fish, only farm.

 

[JDgreen227]

Problem I have with the law is that by requiring permission to cross the property line is: Exactly HOW does the hunter get permission at 8 pm on a Sunday, for example, if he has no idea who the ajoining landowner is? To be honest, I don't really know who the property across the street from us belongs to, much of it is vacant and same goes for the parcel in back of me. I do have a fair idea who the property north of us belongs to but it's somebody I don't know except by a common last name. Probably twenty-thirty guys in the area with the same last name.

 

[Storm56]

Problem I have with the law is that by requiring permission to cross the property line is: Exactly HOW does the hunter get permission at 8 pm on a Sunday, for example, if he has no idea who the ajoining landowner is? To be honest, I don't really know who the property across the street from us belongs to, much of it is vacant and same goes for the parcel in back of me. I do have a fair idea who the property north of us belongs to but it's somebody I don't know except by a common last name. Probably twenty-thirty guys in the area with the same last name.

County tax records have all the info you need to locate property owners. This is something that could easily be addressed prior to hunting season.

 

[Soundguy]

it's your property you lease out.. I think that takes care of the tresspass issue since you HOLD TITLE to the land....