What is a stupefying substance?
Story by Craig Nyhus, Lone Star Outdoor News
This story originally appeared in the July 23 issue of LSON
Reading the Outdoor Annual can provide an entertaining moment or two mixed in with all the regulations and rules.
When viewing regulations about an illegal type of duck blind, a group of hunters noticed this rule.
“It is unlawful to: Use any firearm other than a legal shotgun; use a trap, snare, net, fishhook, poison, drug, explosive or stupefying substance; use live birds as decoys; use recorded or electronically amplified bird calls or sounds; or use a sinkbox.”
One asked, “What in the world is a stupefying substance?”
A call to one Texas game warden was met with a similar response.
“You got me,” he said. “I guess it could be some kind of anesthetic that renders the animals numb, but I have never come across it.”
The warden said in Louisiana, for example, it’s illegal to put syrup buckets in the water, since it creates a sweet film on the water’s surface that attracts ducks.
Checking the dictionary, one definition described it as a substance which “renders insensitive or lethargic,” and the most common reference or example was a date rape drug.
The regulation including stupefying substances isn’t unique to Texas, as it is included in the federal hunting regulations and in the rules of many states.
Ellis County Game Warden Jeff Pow- ell hadn’t heard of the phrase either saying, “I haven’t dealt with that one,” but it piqued his curiosity. After talking with his captain and other wardens, he said it likely refers to using toxic gases or fumes to get animals to come their way, possibly in a compromised state.
“The older wardens recalled guys ‘smoking out’ geese and other tactics used where animals don’t think straight,” Powell said.
Although the phrase is likely a catch all term to make sure an illegal activity doesn’t fall through the cracks, things people may use to get a skunk, woodchuck or even snakes to come out from under a building aren’t legal for game animals.
