OLYMPIA – Elk antlers can bring top dollar when sold as a boost to a person's love life, but a bill in the Legislature would crack down on people who trespass onto private property to hunt them or other "wildlife parts."

Rep. Joe Schmick, R-Colfax and the bill’s sponsor, said it's an attempt rein in the practice of training dogs to chase elk, deer or moose, pick up the antlers they shed and go onto private property if thats where the racks happen to fall.

“They're happy to pay the current fines and fees if they can keep the sheds,” Schmick told the Senate Natural Resources and Parks Committee during a hearing on the bill. “The sheds are quite valuable on the market” so allowing the Department of Fish and Wildlife agents to confiscate them is a key part of the bill.

That prompted Sen. Maralyn Chase, D-Shoreline, to ask what makes them so valuable?

“In Japan and the Orient, they're considered an aphrodisiac when they're ground up,” Schmick said.

“Whatever works,” Chase said.

The antlers are also used in jewelry, furniture and interior designs.

Madonna Luers of the Department of Fish and Wildlife, said so-called shed hunting is becoming an issue in the West, particularly when people go into the winter ranges during the prime shedding season from late December through February, which is a time when feed is often scarce and the animals can be under stress.

“It is legal to pick them up on public land,” Luers said. “Lots of people like to collect them.”

Schmick’s bill passed the House unanimously and is expected to get a vote in the Senate committee in the near future.

 

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