OXFORD — If two certain House bills survive this year’s legislative grind and become law, it will cost you more to neglect reporting a dead deer or turkey than a human body.
That may seem a little ridiculous, but there are probably reasons for it.
House Bill 714, introduced by Rep. Scott DeLano, R-Biloxi, says: “Any person who finds a human body, or any part of a human body, shall report the location and the time of discovery of the body or body part to the appropriate law enforcement official. Failure to report such finding in a timely manner shall result in a fine, in an amount of not more than Fifty Dollars ($50.00).”
I have no idea why such a law is necessary since most people are more than apt to report a dead body or a human body part when they come across one.
Rep. DeLano, judging from his resume, is a serious lawmaker, so there must be a reason he filed the bill. But not reporting body discoveries can’t be a major problem, as the penalty for not doing so is rather light. If you happen to have had something to do with the death of the body, or the separation of a body part from a body, you have more serious penalties to worry about than a $50 fine.
One positive thing can be said about the bill. Unlike some legislation that eventually becomes law, it does no harm, even if it is a solution searching for a problem.
Meanwhile, as usual, there are bills in the legislative hopper this year dealing with hunting and wildlife.
House Bill 1028, authored by Rep. Ken Morgan, R-Morgantown, would require hunters to tag and report deer and turkeys they kill.
Not doing so, if the bill passes, would result in a fine of between $100 and $500 for the first offense with subsequent offenses costing between $500 and $1,000.
The purpose of reporting game harvests is to provide information to officials responsible for establishing regulations on hunting and maintaining the game populations.
Mississippi is one of two states that does not require deer tagging and one of three that does not require turkey tagging. Morgan says a system in Mississippi is overdue.
The law makes sense, although some folks obviously will violate it and get away with doing so. But the majority of hunters in Mississippi are ethical and abide by the rules. Probably not as high a percentage, though, as those who will report a dead body when they see one unattended.
On the subject of wildlife bills, another one that has been filed this year deals with squirrel hunting, a subject that has been broached on and off by the Mississippi Legislature for generations.
House Bill 413, authored by Rep. Andy Gipson, R-Braxton, would extend squirrel season through the first week of March to give hunters with dogs more time while the leaves are off the trees after deer season closes.
During the extra week in March, HB 413 limits hunters to three squirrels per hunter, per day.
“I don’t think it would hurt the population,” Gipson is quoted in The Clarion-Ledger. “It isn’t about killing a bunch of squirrels. “It’s about working the dogs. This would give us another week.”
When I was a boy, growing up in the country in Southeast Mississippi, squirrel hunting was a favorite pastime for my brother and me in the fall and winter. When the hardwood trees shed their leaves, it was fun to hunt them with a dog if you had a good one that would tree squirrels.
I haven’t shot a squirrel in years, but I have trapped a couple in our attic this winter, so squirrels have been of interest to me lately.
There are some pecan trees on a nearby lot providing plenty of food for squirrels, and I have noticed a plentiful population in our Oxford neighborhood.
Some were getting on our roof by way of tree branches that were touching the eaves of the house, and at least two somehow made it into the attic.
I have had the branches trimmed away from the house, and have caught two squirrels in a live trap baited with peanut butter and pecans in the attic.
They were removed to an undisclosed secluded area several miles away which looks like good squirrel habitat.
So far as I know, I am not required by law to tag or report them, but who knows what may come out of the Mississippi Legislature sometime in the future.
Dunagin, who lives in Oxford, is a retired longtime Mississippi newspaperman.
