<story><title>Man convicted for trying to help undercover game wardens recover deer with drone</title><url>https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/pennsylvania-drone-sting-conviction/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>crdrost</author><text>So this is what the article is talking about, that it&amp;#x27;s not clear about the difference between killing vs recovering, they are both lumped together as hunting.&lt;p&gt;The reasons that you don&amp;#x27;t want people to use spotlights for killing the animal are not too hard to come up with. (Actually kids on college campuses do this for zombies-vs-humans, smart zombies will blind humans at night with spotlights to make it hard for them to fire their nerf guns back at the zombies.)&lt;p&gt;It is considered unsporting&amp;#x2F;unethical for a couple reasons: first because the animals like to feed nocturnally so it&amp;#x27;s easier to find them near people&amp;#x27;s fields, so there&amp;#x27;s no “tracking it through the forest” step; second the animals will often freeze and stare into the light, making them easier to target; third you can&amp;#x27;t see behind the animal to ensure that the shot is safe if you miss; for all you know you might be aimed at a neighbor&amp;#x27;s house in the distance after they&amp;#x27;ve turned out their lights; fourth, getting a spotlight in your windows is a mild nuisance while folks are wandering around near your property; fifth because nighttime hunting is in general discouraged or illegal because that&amp;#x27;s when the poachers would be out and when you can&amp;#x27;t see other humans very well.</text></item><item><author>pavel_lishin</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Under the “recreational spotlighting” section of Title 34, the Pennsylvania Game and Wildlife Code explicitly prohibits the use of a spotlight “to search for or locate for any purpose any game or wildlife anywhere within this Commonwealth at any time during the antlered deer rifle season and during the antlerless deer rifle season.” It is not immediately clear if this applies to dead or wounded game, since Title 34 does not explicitly address the use of lights or flashlights for recovering game. Another section prohibits hunters from using artificial lights of any kind while carrying a firearm or other weapon, but there is no mention anywhere in the game code of prohibitions against recovering or tracking downed game at night.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I know nothing about hunting, or the laws surrounding it, but why would it be illegal to recover a dead animal at night using a spotlight?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>idiotsecant</author><text>On the other hand, &lt;i&gt;recovering&lt;/i&gt; an animal with a light is a good thing, because otherwise you might lose an injured animal that will slowly die over hours, days, or weeks</text></comment>
<story><title>Man convicted for trying to help undercover game wardens recover deer with drone</title><url>https://www.outdoorlife.com/hunting/pennsylvania-drone-sting-conviction/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>crdrost</author><text>So this is what the article is talking about, that it&amp;#x27;s not clear about the difference between killing vs recovering, they are both lumped together as hunting.&lt;p&gt;The reasons that you don&amp;#x27;t want people to use spotlights for killing the animal are not too hard to come up with. (Actually kids on college campuses do this for zombies-vs-humans, smart zombies will blind humans at night with spotlights to make it hard for them to fire their nerf guns back at the zombies.)&lt;p&gt;It is considered unsporting&amp;#x2F;unethical for a couple reasons: first because the animals like to feed nocturnally so it&amp;#x27;s easier to find them near people&amp;#x27;s fields, so there&amp;#x27;s no “tracking it through the forest” step; second the animals will often freeze and stare into the light, making them easier to target; third you can&amp;#x27;t see behind the animal to ensure that the shot is safe if you miss; for all you know you might be aimed at a neighbor&amp;#x27;s house in the distance after they&amp;#x27;ve turned out their lights; fourth, getting a spotlight in your windows is a mild nuisance while folks are wandering around near your property; fifth because nighttime hunting is in general discouraged or illegal because that&amp;#x27;s when the poachers would be out and when you can&amp;#x27;t see other humans very well.</text></item><item><author>pavel_lishin</author><text>&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Under the “recreational spotlighting” section of Title 34, the Pennsylvania Game and Wildlife Code explicitly prohibits the use of a spotlight “to search for or locate for any purpose any game or wildlife anywhere within this Commonwealth at any time during the antlered deer rifle season and during the antlerless deer rifle season.” It is not immediately clear if this applies to dead or wounded game, since Title 34 does not explicitly address the use of lights or flashlights for recovering game. Another section prohibits hunters from using artificial lights of any kind while carrying a firearm or other weapon, but there is no mention anywhere in the game code of prohibitions against recovering or tracking downed game at night.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I know nothing about hunting, or the laws surrounding it, but why would it be illegal to recover a dead animal at night using a spotlight?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>bbarnett</author><text>Back in the day, in my rural county, people would drive with a spotlight, find a large deer, and run it over.&lt;p&gt;Result?  Food for months and months for the family, and the insurance company produced a replacement car.  And yes, people would do this when their car was in poor shape, eg transmission going or some such.  Car rusting out, etc.&lt;p&gt;They eventually changed the laws so that deer were no longer given to people in car accidents, for obvious reasons.  I imagine the light law mentioned here, is due to this too.</text></comment>