{"id":10241,"date":"2012-05-10T10:19:16","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T15:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=10241"},"modified":"2012-09-06T08:51:09","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T13:51:09","slug":"is-it-legal-to-kill-bigfoot-in-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/05\/10\/is-it-legal-to-kill-bigfoot-in-texas\/","title":{"rendered":"Is It Legal to Kill Bigfoot in Texas?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by Flickr user Thomas Hawk\/Creative Commons<\/p>

Is it legal to kill Bigfoot in Texas? Parks and Wildlife has given an official, unequivocal answer.<\/p><\/div>\n

We’ve been talking a lot about invasive species in Texas<\/a> as of late, paying special attention to the issue of feral hogs, which are growing in number and\u00a0cause widespread damage (but taste delicious<\/a>). Texas has\u00a0responded\u00a0by making it very, very easy to kill feral hogs. You can hunt them with a handgun<\/a>. You can hunt them whenever, regardless of the season<\/a>. And you can even\u00a0hunt them from the skies<\/a> (an undertaking known as “pork chopping”), if that’s your thing.<\/p>\n

But what about that most\u00a0legendary\u00a0of invasive species, Bigfoot?<\/p>\n

Yes, someone actually asked Texas Parks and Wildlife Department<\/a>, which regulates hunting in the state, whether or not it would be legal to capture and kill Bigfoot.<\/p>\n

The answer was unequivocal.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Flickr user thewhitestdogalive\/Creative Commons<\/p>

Yes, it's legal to hunt and kill Bigfoot in Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n

“If\u00a0Bigfoot\u00a0did exist, and wasn\u2019t human, then it would [be legal]. Bigfoot would be a non-protected wild animal,” L. David Sinclair with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department tells StateImpact Texas.<\/p>\n

So, yes, it would be legal to kill Bigfoot in Texas. “It’s\u00a0right out of the law book,” Sinclair says.<\/p>\n

This all came up recently when an Oregon man wrote to Sinclair, asking whether or not it’d be legal to kill Sasquatch in Texas. (The hairy cryptid <\/a>is popular once again, thanks to the television show Finding Bigfoot <\/a>on Animal Planet.)<\/p>\n

Sinclair, to his credit, sent back a letter, thoroughly citing various sections of the Parks and Wildlife code<\/a>\u00a0to back up his answer that yes, it’s legal to kill Bigfoot in Texas. “A non-protected nongame animal may be hunted on private property with landowner consent by any means, at any time and there is no bag limit or possession limit,” Sinclair wrote. He added:<\/p>\n

“An exotic animal is an animal that is non-indigenous to Texas. Unless the exotic is an endangered species then exotics may be hunted on private property with landowner consent. A hunting license is required. This does not include the dangerous wild animals that have been held in captivity and released for the purpose of hunting, which is commonly referred to as a \u201ccanned hunt\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When we ask Sinclair if he thought his letter would go viral, he responds with a chuckle. “I didn\u2019t realize it was going to draw so much attention,” he says, adding, “the agency doesn\u2019t want to get into whether or not there\u2019s Bigfoot.”<\/p>\n

While Sasquatch is mostly rumored to be a denizen of the Northwest, there are devoted Bigfoot searchers in the Lone Star State, too<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But hopefully, if an enterprising Texan with a gun encountered Bigfoot, killing it wouldn’t be the only option. Perhaps they could simply adopt it, a la<\/em> Harry and the Hendersons<\/a>, and enjoy the slapstick hijinks that would inevitably ensue.<\/p>\n