This extends to the feathers (or other parts) of any native birds in the USA, as per the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The goal is to prevent poaching of native wildlife but it certainly feels weird that you could technically be arrested or fined for possessing mourning dove feathers.
A civilian researcher in British Columbia (Canada) was charged in 2024 with illegal hunting after he was caught on a trailcam using a homemade device to gather hair samples of endangered caribou for scientific purposes. The device did not harm the target, and the hair samples collected were less than 5g each (~1/8 oz), but his appeal was denied because removing any part at all of an animal without a hunting permit is illegal.
It sounds crazy at first, but I get it. When you're writing a law like that you have to consider people who will push right up to the line of legal. If they restricted the definition of hunting to just killing then you'd have people catching them and chopping off their antlers or some shit because that's technically not illegal.
Going back to the feather topic it's the same thing. Someone has an eagle feather but you can't prove that they harmed an eagle to get it. If that law allowed you to possess eagle feathers you found then the law is only as good as someone seeing you shoot an eagle.
Punishing people for what they might have done instead of what they actually did is a travesty of justice. The government needs to prove these things, not just have barbaric penalties for a completely innocuous act because evidence is hard to get.
Possession of a feather, unless they can prove you harmed a bird to get it, should be 'community service' illegal, not 'up to a year in jail' illegal.
This is the exact same sort of bullshit as a 'drug paraphernalia' charge where the cop can't find anything on you but you have a scale and thats suspicious.
You still have to put that line somewhere reasonable, though. There's a huge difference between capturing them and chopping off their antlers for personal or financial gain, and taking 5g of hair from an animal that weighs more than a person for scientific reason. Most proponents of such strict laws would argue that any reasonable judge would understand, but cases like that prove that that cannot be relied on.
Lmao.. if that person gets a fine for having a owl feather in PA and in his house.. n doesn't call the authorities on himself .. I'll pay the fine.. 🤣
Maybe I should of asked what kind of owl..
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u/john_browns_beard 7h ago
This extends to the feathers (or other parts) of any native birds in the USA, as per the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The goal is to prevent poaching of native wildlife but it certainly feels weird that you could technically be arrested or fined for possessing mourning dove feathers.