Ok, non-hunter question here: if you kill an animal, like a feral hog, are you allowed to simply leave it where it lays to be eaten by creatures or rot? Around here, we have so many turkey vultures that anything dead does not make it long.
It varies, state to state on how feral hogs are classified under fish and game statute.
For an example, killing and leaving behind sanctioned game animals that require a hunter to attain a license for seasonal harvest such as deer or migratory birds would fall under statutes of wanton waste by willfully letting them lie without retrieving for consumption. While not all game animals can be retrieved in all cases it is incumbent on the hunter to make every effort to do so.
Say you shoot a deer, and it manages to cross a posted private property line and you consult the owner for permission to gain access to the property and the owners decline access, you then would have no further obligation to retrieve as that would constitute an act of willful trespass.
In the cases of vermin, feral hogs and some predators states can classify them as essentially a nuisance animal requiring no license or relaxed oversight for harvesting. I own quite a bit of property in Alabama, although the state classifies them as a game animal I can hunt them any day of the year on my property without a game license with no "harvest restrictions" essentially allowing you to do as you wish with the animal and take as many as you want.
Texas has similar laws for land owners, and non land owners simply need to have a hunting license in their possession. The main difference is in how states classify animals for the purposes of collecting licence fee's. Coveted game such as deer belong to the state, and destructive undesirable animals such as feral hogs belong to the land owners.
