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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
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    5

    Default Trespass by Hunters

    My question involves real estate located in the State of: TX

    If people on the acreage next to us are hunting and they shoot an animal (deer, hog, etc.) but it runs onto our land before it collapses, does that hunter have the right to trespass on our land to collect the animal?

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Houston Texas
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Trespass by Hunters

    librob, the hunter can go if you haven't met the conditions set forth in TPC 30.05 and texas game laws require the animal to be tracked and claimed unless it is a violation of 30.05

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Posts
    401

    Default Re: Trespass by Hunters

    From: https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/..._l2000_820.pdf
    RETRIEVAL OF GAME: No person may pursue a wounded wildlife resource across a property line without the consent of landowner of the property where the wildlife resource has fled. Under the trespass provisions of the Penal Code, a person on a property without the permission of the landowner is subject to arrest.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Trespass by Hunters

    Your private property doesn't become any less private just because a purposefully wounded animal comes onto it, nor does the presence of such an animal create any legal easement or right of passage to a hunter. Such hunters **should** seek the permission of the property owner before entering the property, whether there's a deer or not, and most importantly, before entering property while ARMED (which in most states will bump the misdemeanor of simple trespass up to a felony of armed trespass). Now, with that said, in most cases in which a hunter has maintained sight on the animal from the moment of wounding until it's down and can with relative ease and quickness be retrieved, **MOST** state attorneys won't bother pursuing such a case - if for no other reason than the defendant will simply say "I was so excited that I hit it that I failed to keep sense of my surroundings and didn't realize at the time that I was trespassing". If they hunter didn't have to open a gate, climb over a fence, or take some act where a normal person would be aware of change of ownership, states don't like to spend the money to prosecute because juries like to give the benefit of the doubt in such cases. Now if the hunter is searching, hoping to come across it, entering and REMAINING on the property, other than a quick jaunt in to grab the deer, that's likely to vastly expand the time spent roaming (aka trespassing), and chances that the state will prosecute start to go up.

    The people who can give you the most truthful and accurate answer, given that enforcement can be selective, are the law enforcement officers and/or wardens responsible over the property in question. The bottom line being, no, the hunter doesn't have a right to trespass, but neither is law enforcement likely to intervene if it's a quick, one time event, with no hint of other wrongdoing or malice, or some other circumstance. If it's something happening habitually with the same hunter, then it becomes something even MORE likely to get scrutinized for action. Keep in mind that SUBJECT to arrest doesn't mean WILL BE arrested.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2015
    Location
    Houston Texas
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Trespass by Hunters

    I would agree once the requirements of TPC30.05 are satisfied


    Quote Quoting aardvarc
    View Post
    Your private property doesn't become any less private just because a purposefully wounded animal comes onto it, nor does the presence of such an animal create any legal easement or right of passage to a hunter. Such hunters **should** seek the permission of the property owner before entering the property, whether there's a deer or not, and most importantly, before entering property while ARMED (which in most states will bump the misdemeanor of simple trespass up to a felony of armed trespass). Now, with that said, in most cases in which a hunter has maintained sight on the animal from the moment of wounding until it's down and can with relative ease and quickness be retrieved, **MOST** state attorneys won't bother pursuing such a case - if for no other reason than the defendant will simply say "I was so excited that I hit it that I failed to keep sense of my surroundings and didn't realize at the time that I was trespassing". If they hunter didn't have to open a gate, climb over a fence, or take some act where a normal person would be aware of change of ownership, states don't like to spend the money to prosecute because juries like to give the benefit of the doubt in such cases. Now if the hunter is searching, hoping to come across it, entering and REMAINING on the property, other than a quick jaunt in to grab the deer, that's likely to vastly expand the time spent roaming (aka trespassing), and chances that the state will prosecute start to go up.

    The people who can give you the most truthful and accurate answer, given that enforcement can be selective, are the law enforcement officers and/or wardens responsible over the property in question. The bottom line being, no, the hunter doesn't have a right to trespass, but neither is law enforcement likely to intervene if it's a quick, one time event, with no hint of other wrongdoing or malice, or some other circumstance. If it's something happening habitually with the same hunter, then it becomes something even MORE likely to get scrutinized for action. Keep in mind that SUBJECT to arrest doesn't mean WILL BE arrested.
    there are rules in texas about posting trepass they are found in TPC 30.05,06,07 there is NO felony trespass in texas merely because a firearm or bow or machete is carried. if the requirements of TPC 30.05 are NOT met there is not trespass

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    Behind a Desk
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    98,846

    Default Re: Trespass by Hunters

    JP171nTx posted the correct statute, the trespass statute from the Texas Penal Code.
    Quote Quoting Texas Penal Code, Sec. 30.05. Criminal Trespass
    (a) A person commits an offense if the person enters or remains on or in property of another, including residential land, agricultural land, a recreational vehicle park, a building, or an aircraft or other vehicle, without effective consent and the person:

    (1) had notice that the entry was forbidden; or

    (2) received notice to depart but failed to do so.

    (b) For purposes of this section:

    (1) "Entry" means the intrusion of the entire body.

    (2) "Notice" means:

    (A) oral or written communication by the owner or someone with apparent authority to act for the owner;

    (B) fencing or other enclosure obviously designed to exclude intruders or to contain livestock;

    (C) a sign or signs posted on the property or at the entrance to the building, reasonably likely to come to the attention of intruders, indicating that entry is forbidden;

    (D) the placement of identifying purple paint marks on trees or posts on the property, provided that the marks are:

    (i) vertical lines of not less than eight inches in length and not less than one inch in width;

    (ii) placed so that the bottom of the mark is not less than three feet from the ground or more than five feet from the ground; and

    (iii) placed at locations that are readily visible to any person approaching the property and no more than:

    (a) 100 feet apart on forest land; or

    (b) 1,000 feet apart on land other than forest land; or

    (E) the visible presence on the property of a crop grown for human consumption that is under cultivation, in the process of being harvested, or marketable if harvested at the time of entry.
    * * *

  7. #7

    Default Re: Trespass by Hunters

    Finally a chance for someone to cite Pierson v. Post and nobody takes it!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Location
    El Dorado County, CA
    Posts
    395

    Default Re: Trespass by Hunters

    Quote Quoting Huai
    View Post
    Finally a chance for someone to cite Pierson v. Post and nobody takes it!
    Ummmm.... You could have posted it.

    I'm not familiar with it. If it's relevant, how 'bout you post it.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    Behind a Desk
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    98,846

    Default Re: Trespass by Hunters

    It's not really on point, but it's an interesting digression that involves the property rights of hunters, but personal property rights as opposed to a right to trespass -- whether a hunter who is chasing an animal in the course of hunting gains a property right in the animal. Here's Wikipedia. Needless to say, to litigate a case over property rights to a fox all the way to the Supreme Court, both litigants had more money than sense.

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