Eww...crows..racoons...beaver...owls....birds....cougars.....cyotes....wild dogs.....CATS....rats.....snakes......squirrels?
WOw....you have some diet.
Gopher, Everett?
racoons are trapped for fur and I know a lady who thinks racoon is the best wild game there is to eat. If I shot one I would eat it.
beaver - used for pelt - I don't believe you are allowed to shoot beaver or muskrat. I would use its meat for my dogs if nothing else. I wonder what trappers do with all that meat? Maybe you should go after them instead?
owls are a protected species
birds - yes most small birds are protected except crows and starlings. (starlings are an introduced species and a farm pest) Again, I say, get a hunting regulations booklet.
cougars yes - there was just a story about a guy who improperly processed some cougar meat and made jerky of it, passed it out to friends and infected them with trichinella.
coyotes -- Koreans eat dogs... they actually raise them for slaughter. So I'd bet coyote prolly tastes ok. But I've never shot one. I have this emotional attachment to dogs, see....but I am working on making that attachment more specific as times goes by. Still even though I love dogs, I don't begrudge anyone else hunting wild dogs.
CATS yes I mentioned cougar.
rats pest control.....
snakes - not many people hunt snakes. So I thinki that would fall under pest control if they ever did
Squirrels? HECK yeah. Ask any hunting bulletin board. they will tell you squirrel is wonderful (when prepared right - they are rather tough little buggers)
You have some diet
Well not all of us shoot all those types of animals in a license year. Most of us specialize in just a few types of hunting. There are only 24 hours in a day after all.
Birds. Have you ever eaten a quail, wild turkey, duck, goose? Tastes great.
Snakes. I've had rattle snake in Texas and it was great.
Squirrels. The first time I had squirrel was in Florida and it was very tasty.
I'm also a fisherman and I eat every single fish I catch. I fillet everything and what's left I use as fertilizer in my garden and I get some really nice tomatoes and other veggie's from it. I can dig up some worms and go to a friends pond and catch some really nice sunfish and bass for next to nothing. I can also buy a pound of squid for $1.89 and fish at a local pier and catch my limit of 50 croakers 12-22" every week and still have a 1/2lb of squid left over for next week. I eat a hell of a lot of fish and what I don't eat I freeze for winter.
You think I shouldn't have that right to catch my own food, that I should go purchase it at a store. Well the amount that I eat, it'd cost mea hell of a lot of coin. Also venison has no hormones.