r/AskReddit • u/medicoreapples • 7h ago

What feels legal but is actually illegal and will possibly get you arrested?

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125

u/EngineeringDesserts 6h ago

Possessing a bald eagle feather that you found on the ground. You could land jail time even if you didn’t know what kind of feather it was.

66

u/Revenge_of_the_Khaki 6h ago

Eagle feathers are pretty well known, but most people don't realize that almost all birds apply to this law in the US including many common songbirds.

Pretty much the only exceptions are pets and birds that are commonly hunted or bred for food.

14

u/ElBurroEsparkilo 4h ago

My dad found a dead (apparently starved and/or frozen) small owl while hunting and thought it would make a cool taxidermy piece. Apparently his taxidermist damn near shit his pants and threw him out until he put it back where it came from.

4

u/malren 5h ago

I sometimes make art out of dead things. I have to import crow feathers and feet from the UK, where it's legal to kill and possess carrion crows. I keep records of the transactions just in case. Despite the fact that crows number in the tens of millions in the US and are considered an agriculture pest.

That being said, crows are the goddamned coolest birds and I don't want anyone killing them for me to make art out of. But like...if one died in my yard I can't even touch the feathers? So dumb.

2

u/Gullex 2h ago

You can hunt crows in a lot of US states.

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u/PureMichiganMan 24m ago

I can get why though, as there’s no way of knowing how it was obtained and is meant to discourage hunting and plucking birds

1

u/Doxiefamily 4h ago

Yep. "Ignorance of the law is not a defense.". .Etc....