Basically, in Massachusetts wildlife law, there is the presumption that you can’t do anything unless there is a statement that says you can. Read the Abstracts. If they don’t give you the go-ahead, you can’t do it. So it’s technically questionable whether we can even legally collect deer sheds. (Don’t worry about this. Nobody is out looking to arrest shed collectors.) We should expect a statement allowing for shed collecting.

Massachusetts’ presumption attitude differs from many other states where you can do anything that is not specifically prohibited. For example, if an ocelot were to walk onto your Vermont farm and threaten your cattle, you could shoot it. Here in Massachusetts, you could not. We have no mention of ocelots — and neither does Vermont. Many issues that were once important are no longer big issues. Conversely, some issues that were once insignificant are today considered important.

Current laws mostly date back to the 1920s and 1930s when, for example, a nationally depleted deer herd numbering just 500,000 was beginning a comeback, and migratory waterfowl had just earlier been decimated. Ninety years ago, lawmakers tried to remove all incentives that could jeopardize species recovery. Today with 30 million deer in America, the sale of mounted whitetail deer heads shouldn’t be an issue for regulation. But it is today in Massachusetts.

You can’t legally buy or sell a mount privately because whitetails are native wildlife. You can’t buy or sell any native wildlife. You could buy a mule deer or blacktail deer mount, though, because they’re not native to Massachusetts. You could buy a case of stuffed, non-endangered hummingbirds from South America, but you couldn’t buy a stuffed American songbird, or one of those antique cabinets of birds that were the style a hundred years — because they’re migratory birds protected by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act. To whom is all this important?

There are many people needing to dispose of trophy collections, which are numerous in Massachusetts. All valuable trophy rooms (it costs nearly $500 to mount one deer head) eventually need to be dismantled, either by older hunters who have the foresight to downsize while there’s still time — or by widows or children who inherit and want to get rid of them for various reasons. The sale of game mounts is currently common on eBay taxidermy. But seller beware in the Bay State.

Buying and selling the wrong game mounts is a serious offense and could in some cases make law-breakers out of some very good people whose actions aren’t harmful.

Author: mkmcst

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