I noticed that in the wma flyers this year and was just speechless.
Completely insane to think some of these hunters are not going to shot whatever walks in front of them and then decide how to get it out without getting snagged. Why would anyone think the guy loading up a nice buck didn't have a hunting license on a wma, so they should be good to go. So much for fees to help our hunting lands, and pay the officers and puplic workers. They got a deer for free!
ANY ONE WALKING INTO A WMA WITH A GUN TO HUNT SHOULD HAVE A LICENSE. It's called a hunting license not a deer license, or a hog license. The whole issue with not calling a hog a game animal lead to this, are they insane! So this year should be real fun, yeah more unlicensed, no safety class, crazies running around. The last two years I've seen a noticeble increase in hunters with poor ethics, and respect. And yes I am pigeon holeing hunters that would take advantage of this as maybe not the best of people, so go ahead to jump on me.
That is the point of the change. That way they solve a problem that existed for years and a few unethical hunters were taking advantage of. Sure, some hunters will take advantage of this until next season, but the 2014 should be one where the new rule will apply, so unethical hunters only have 5-6 more months to go with that excuse. Now it will be clear that you need a license to hunt wildlife in WMAs and hogs are wildlife.
I don’t agree with classifying hogs as game as it will create issues for us who hunt private land and landowners with hog problems. They already have hog restrictions in several WMAs (size, bag limit).
FWC was talking about changing the hog to a game animal mainly because leo's were having trouble enforcing anything on trespassers that claimed they are just hunting hogs.
This is a little snip from Mr Lolo's post,
"Law enforcement officers also have encountered situations where hunters have asserted they were only hunting wild hogs when, in truth, they were hunting additional species - making misrepresentations to officers in order to avoid the hunting license and hunter safety education requirements of which they were in violation."
There is more to that actually. These encounters were mostly on public land that is not open to hunting! How come people can trespass with a gun on closed land and get away unprosecuted by claiming they are hog hunting.
I agree with terrible ted, just open any WMA flyer and look at any season. Lets take general gun, it clearly says requirements- hunting license, management area permit, and deer permit (if hunting deer) ,on every one! Then the next line lists wild hog under legal to hunt. But now in this years flyers, not in bold print ( as it states all new or substantially different regs should be listed) is #16 a hunting license is not required for the take of wild hog.
For years the WMA flyers have said you need a license to hunt hog, but because the commission didn't designate them as a game animal this mess happened? Wouldn't one trump the other?
SO if the proposal that will be presented on Sept 6th, 2013 is decided in favor of, hunting hogs will go back to requiring a license to hunt. The loop hole was really just a problem on public land that is not a WMA.
BUT wait the flyers this year still say license required under each season, oh no wait but #16 for hog not required :wacko
