Sunday, October 27, 2024

No Hunting Sasquatch

So, since we have Halloween coming up, I figured you might like this law. 

Skamania County, Washington, has a law against hunting Bigfoot/Sasquatch. 

It's one of their claims to fame and has led to Bigfoot shaping some of their culture. Multiple local businesses use Bigfoot as a mascot or inspiration, and local artisans use him to sell more of their products or tie him in to novelty items. There is a festival specifically for him, but he does show up at more than just that one. He's something that is used as a tourist draw in many ways, and that can be fun to talk about, but that's not what I'm focusing on right now. 

There is a law, an actual law in the books, that makes it illegal to hunt Bigfoot/Sasquatch. Ordinance 1969-01, which was later altered with Ordinance 1984-02.

Before you think it's just a stunt, like I once did, there's actually a really good reason behind it. The law was created on April first, but it's not a joke. The first reason for it is a claim to fame and getting tourists, so we need to make sure no one shoots him and ends the tourist attraction. The second reason is that, with tourists pouring in to find him, someone might want to pull a prank and wander around in a Bigfoot Costume and cause problems, so no shooting idiots. 

Putting aside the tourists though, one of the arguments for this law is that, basically, if Bigfoot is real, then he's probably either a human or close enough that it would count as murder, which is something that no one wants to do on accident. So no hunting Bigfoot or you might end up getting charged with murder, even if you don't consider him human. And, frankly, I don't think I'd feel comfortable with someone claiming they'd killed Bigfoot anyway, because he's too humanoid for me to not consider it homicide.

Bigfoot is protected in Skamania County, and they've got a ton of forests for him to hide in, so I hope he knows he's welcome there. And that people respect the law. 


Sources: 

Washington Laws Make It Illegal to Kill Bigfoot 

Skamania County Chamber of Commerce

KUOW Bigfoot Law

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