As with all issues related to the marketing of wild animal products, horn hunting needs regulation as strict and enforceable as anything on the books for any hunting (HCN, 6/23/08). Whenever the convergence of wildlife and man create a market for wildlife products, greed inevitably takes hold, and what was a pastime turns into a free-for-all at the animal’s expense. The hunting regulations of the Colorado Division of Wildlife state that it is illegal to sell, buy, or offer to sell or buy big game. This is in effect to prevent a return to the market hunting days that just about wiped out big game in the West. I struggle to see the difference with shed antlers. Horn hunters should be required to go through the same application, season and pricing process that other hunters do. This will not only to begin to eliminate their “my right” mentality, but will provide the Division of Wildlife with the much-needed extra revenue required to deal with this growing problem.
Marc Oliver
Fort Collins, Colorado
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Got a license for those antlers?.
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