Latest news with #N.H.FishandGame
Yahoo
13-04-2025
- Yahoo
Jail official faces massive consequences after investigation uncovers repeated violations: 'We find these actions disturbing'
A New Hampshire law enforcement official was charged 17 times after allegedly violating state hunting laws. Travis Cushman, the Merrimack County jail superintendent, was hit with seven misdemeanors and 10 violations, the New Hampshire Union Leader reported. Conservation officers said the charges related to "multiple illegal night hunting offenses, illegal baiting and using a live action game camera to aid and assist in taking of deer." They seized three deer mounts as well as a firearm and archery equipment. Cushman was placed on leave. He was promoted to superintendent in 2022 and has been with the Merrimack County Department of Corrections since 2006, per the Union Leader. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department Law Enforcement Division investigated Cushman for eight months before arresting him March 25. He is due in Laconia District Court on May 15 and faces multiple fines and a hunting license suspension, according to Outdoor Life. One of the counts Cushman was charged with stems from his registering a whitetail deer Nov. 15, WSHU reported. A photograph of the animal included a timestamp from the day prior. The New Hampshire Antler and Skull Trophy Club said it removed one post related to Cushman and would erase him from a record book after "the legal actions are complete." "When you enter a buck into NHASTC you sign that the animal was taken legally and ethically," it stated. "We find these actions disturbing and will not tolerate them." Some commenters on the N.H. Fish and Game post expressed their displeasure with the potential punishment, saying it was too light. In Wisconsin, a farmer who illegally killed more than 150 deer was sentenced to four months in jail and fined $27,416. Stiff repercussions for poachers and people who try to game hunting contests act as a deterrent and help protect wildlife and keep Earth's ecosystems in balance. Do you think America is in a housing crisis? Definitely Not sure No way Only in some cities Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. N.H. Fish and Game encourages folks to report wildlife crimes via its app, Operation Game Thief. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bill calling for ability to own gray squirrels, raccoons as pets sparks debate
Feb. 19—The fate of P'Nut the gray squirrel and Fred the raccoon — wild animals that became illegal domestic pets in upstate New York — moved 11 Republican lawmakers who want to make New Hampshire a state that would allow them to become "companion" animals. In October, New York officials confiscated and euthanized both animals after the squirrel bit a wildlife investigator who responded to anonymous complaints. Mark Longo had kept the squirrel for seven years in his rural Pine City home along the Pennsylvania border, and he said it returned after he tried to release it back into the wild. Both animals tested negative for rabies after they were euthanized. P'Nut and Fred had become viral hits on social media with 911,000 followers on Instagram that raised more than $230,000 on a GoFundMe page to try to save them. New Hampshire state Rep. James Spillane, R-Deerfield, said his bill (HB 251) would require that such animals be vaccinated and kept as pets only if a licensed wildlife rehabilitator judged them unable to survive in the wild. "It's very possible someone could have these pets and move here, and being illegal, the authorities here would have to come there and kill them. We don't want the same black eye New York has," Spillane told the House Environment and Agriculture Committee. State wildlife and disease control experts opposed the bill, as did some animal-rights advocates who warned it would upend the natural order and put unwitting citizens at risk of significant health risks. "This bill threatens public health and safety and continues the dangerous trend of keeping wild animals as domestic pets," said Kurt Ehrenberg, state director of the New Hampshire Humane Society. "Keeping wild animals as pets is cruel to the animals themselves." Legal in some states According to the World Population Review, you can own a squirrel as a pet without any paperwork in 13 states, mostly in the far West and South. Massachusetts allows residents to own flying squirrels, not regular squirrels, while Maine and Rhode Island allow them to be owned if the person gets a state permit. Vermont and Rhode Island are among 19 states that allow citizens to own a raccoon. Spillane's bill would let someone moving to New Hampshire to bring a gray squirrel or a raccoon from a state where they were legal without interference as long as the pet is up to date on vaccines. Don Bergeron, a natural sciences manager in the wildlife program at N.H. Fish and Game, said the agency believes these animals should be euthanized if they can't be released back into the wild. In rare cases, Bergeron said, the state has let a wildlife rehabilitator keep a wild animal as a pet for exhibit or educational purposes. For example, Fish and Game confiscated a wild fawn that became so domesticated it would walk into its private owner's garage. That deer now lives at the Squam Lake Education Center in Holderness, Bergeron said. Colleen Smith, chief of the state Bureau of Infectious Disease Control, said there are no approved vaccines for raccoons so, even if given a rabies shot meant for a cat, the animals still could infect their owners or other pets. "Once a human or animal develops rabies symptoms, there is no cure and no treatment, resulting in death nearly 100% of the time," Smith wrote in testimony against the bill. Spillane noted that 15 years ago many state officials opposed a law that allowed the public to keep ferrets as pets, and residents can own rats as pets without a permit. "I don't think it would be much of a problem," Spillane said. The bill would not allow residents to take a red squirrel as a pet. "Red squirrels do not adapt to becoming pets at all," Spillane added. "They are very wild unlike the gray squirrel that can be domesticated." klandrigan@
