Legal issues are affected by deer permit

To the editor:

I read with interest a comment in Speak Out on proposed deer legislation and the caller's frustration. I will give an analogy that may bring some clarity to this.

At present it is illegal for anyone to drive out to our farm and shoot a cow. We have laws against it and a sheriff's department to enforce the laws. But if I sell that person a tag, that is a permit to do so legally, and no penalties apply. If our cow gets out and onto the highway and someone hits it with his car or if it goes onto an adjacent farm and damages crops, we and our insurance company pick up the bill.

The Missouri Conservation Department assumes ownership of that deer when it sells a tag for you to hunt and kill it. The conservation department has it's own law enforcement agents to enforce strict penalties against anyone who does so without a permit.

DOUGLAS FLANNERY

Whitewater