Ohio Deer - who owns them?
This topic came up a few days ago while I was sitting around talking with my dad and brother-in-law. We were talking about the recent bust of the poachers and the fines. $13k + truck for a big buck.
Now, I understand the ODNR states that the animals (deer in this example) are the peoples and they are responsible for them. So, if someone is out illegally taking them the wildlife officers can go anywhere they want to protect them and to write tickets. I don't want to argue if they have too much power or not, but my question is this. If the deer are their animals then would we have a claim when one of their animals jump out in front of my car and destroy it? I know my insurance will pay for it, but if I had a cow and it walked out into the street wouldn't my insurance be responsible for fixing the car that smashed into it?
I know nothing will change and it is what it is, but I think it's somewhat interesting that there is sort of a two sided law on this.
Another thought I had was, has anyone ever been sited by a wildlife officer for taking game out of season or even with an illegal weapon by killing a deer with a car?
What do you all think?