Council may consider upping penalty for hunting
November 11, 2010
By Caleb Heeringa
New: Nov. 11, 9:17 a.m.
Sammamish may make hunting in city limits a crime on par with drunk driving.
In response to two recent incidents in which someone shot a deer with a bow and arrow, Deputy Mayor Nancy Whitten and Councilman Tom Odell proposed Nov. 9 that the city consider whether to increase penalties for purposefully killing an animal in city limits.
The city passed an ordinance in 2004 making the crime a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. The council spent the last 15 minutes of their Nov. 9 meeting considering whether to raise the crime to a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine. Courts rarely give the maximum allowable sentences for misdemeanor crimes.
Examples of gross misdemeanors include theft, assault and driving under the influence.
“If they’re hit with a $5,000 fine, that’s an expensive piece of venison,” Councilman John Curley joked during the often light-hearted discussion.
Yazici said the city had only had three hunting incidents in its history – it just so happened that two of them happened this fall.
Odell wondered if the city could confiscate an alleged hunter’s weapon or even vehicle, as Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife agents sometimes do to unlicensed hunters or fishermen. This prompted a crash course in criminal law from City Attorney Bruce Disend, who assured the council that raising the potential punishments for the crime was the extent of their legal authority as a city.
The council also worried that simply increasing penalties wouldn’t be enough of a deterrent, since all of the hunters in previous incidents pleaded ignorance of the law. Several on the council suggested posting signs at the city’s boundaries reminding people.
“I don’t know that the higher penalty is going to make any difference if they don’t know about it,” Mayor Don Gerend said.
Disend and City Manager Ben Yazici tried to discourage the council from considering signs because of the perception it might create to outsiders that Sammamish somehow has a problem with roaming packs of gun-toting hunters.
“All kinds of things are crimes,” Disend said. “Are we going to post signs discouraging all different kinds of crimes?”
The council did not take any action on the proposal, but will consider it at future meetings.
Reach reporter Caleb Heeringa at 392-6434, ext. 247, or cheeringa@isspress.com.
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3 Responses to “Council may consider upping penalty for hunting”
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During the past several years how many incidents of hunting within the city have occurred? I believe two in three or four years. Both incidents involved construction workers working on city projects who after the act claimed not to know about the city ban on hunting.
The city council has more important and pressing work. How about some common sense? Ask staff to instruct construction companies to inform their crews that hunting in the city is not allowed.
Then, get busy dealing with the city’s failing economy, useless town center plan, community center and other issues that demand attention.
I agree with Mr. Galvin that Contractors should be obligated to inform their employees about existing laws concerning hunting in city limits.
But I heartily disagree that the council should do nothing about this because of other concerns.
It is the function of our city council to be responsible to all their duties, big and small, and to have the ability to multi-task between the larger, strategic concerns of our city, and the tactical concerns with which they are invested the power to act.
If our city council is not up for being able to handle both kinds of tasks, perhaps it is time to find alternative candidates at election time that can deal with these job requirements.
So if I kill a mouse in a mouse trap I can get a 5K fine and a year in jail. How about mole or a rat?