Keith Lusher 10.15.25
A wild story swept throughout social media final week, claiming Texas recreation wardens arrested a 39-year-old Oregon man named Ethan McNeely under Lake Tawakoni Dam in Northeast Texas. In keeping with the viral posts, wardens discovered him crouched within the woods making an attempt to hunt squirrels with nothing however his naked fingers and tooth. The “primal predator” allegedly insisted his “God-given claws and fangs” exempted him from needing a looking license, and that catching recreation “together with his molars” was between him and Mom Nature.
The story had all the pieces: a weird arrest, quotable defiance, and even claims he growled at officers earlier than declaring they might “cage me however they’ll by no means cage my inside wolf.”
There’s only one downside. It by no means occurred. Texas Parks and Wildlife officers confirmed your entire incident was a hoax, a bit of social media fiction that fooled hundreds of thousands of readers who shared it throughout looking boards, Fb teams, X, and information aggregators.
Whereas the story could also be fiction, it raises a professional query that any hunter may instinctively surprise about: what really constitutes looking within the eyes of the legislation?
What Constitutes Searching in Texas?
In keeping with Texas Parks and Wildlife Code Chapter 1, Section 1.101, “hunt” is outlined as “seize, entice, take, or kill, or an try to seize, entice, take, or kill.” The code additional defines “take” as “acquire, hook, hunt, internet, shoot, or snare, by any means or system, and consists of an try to take.”
That phrase “by any means or system” is the kicker. The legislation doesn’t specify firearms, bows, or traps. It’s deliberately broad, masking any methodology used to pursue recreation animals. Whether or not you’re utilizing a $100,000 Purdey shotgun or your incisors, should you’re making an attempt to seize or kill wildlife, you’re looking underneath Texas legislation.
Texas laws do spell out authorized means and strategies for looking particular recreation, proscribing sure instruments and strategies. However the elementary definition of what constitutes looking itself stays expansive. Even falconry, one of many oldest looking strategies identified to people, requires correct licensing regardless of utilizing a dwelling hen fairly than trendy tools.
The Legislation is the Legislation
Whereas Ethan McNeely and his “primal predator” protection exist solely within the realm of social media fiction, Texas looking legislation leaves little question about what would have occurred had the situation been actual. Irrespective of how artistic the excuse or unconventional the strategy, making an attempt to take recreation with no license is illegitimate.
The laws apply equally whether or not you’re carrying a an costly shotgun or claiming to channel your inside Neanderthal. In case you’re on the market attempting to take recreation, you’re looking, and also you want the right license. Texas legislation is crystal clear on that, even when nature may not require paperwork. The viral hoax might have been entertaining, however the authorized actuality is easy.
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