My experience is that Museums are very happy to get good road-killed
specimens, despite the letter of the Wildlife Act.
The difference between Museums and Parks and Wildlife is illustrated by the
following story related to me by the owner of a station in northern SA.
He killed a Fierce Snake in the homestead dining room and sent the specimen
to the Museum.
Later he received two letters:
One from the Museum thanking him for the specimen and encouraging him to
send them any other specimens he might come across.
One from Parks and Wildlife warning that the snake was a protected species
and should not have been killed.
Personally I have no qualms about picking up roadkills for the local Museum,
despite the law. My reasoning is as follows:
The chances of my being caught are remote. Police and Rangers do not often
stop law-abiding citizens and search their vehicles for dead birds.
If I were caught most Police and Rangers have far too much common sense to
go into the time consuming business of prosecution for a technical offence.
If the matter went to court, given that the specimen had no commercial
value, that I had a history of donating specimens to the Museum, and my lack
of a criminal record a conviction would be unlikely.
There are good reasons why the law is written as it is. Any attempt to
cover these situations in law could create loop holes to be exploited by
defence lawyers. Common sense is mostly applied in the application of the
law.
Robert Read
Alice Springs
> 'Basically it (picking up roadkills) is not permitted under the Wildlife
> Act unless you have special authorisation (permit) which presumably the
> Museum does.'
>
> I don't know enough about permits to comment on the Museum's ability to
> accept roadkills from the public.
>
> For those interested, I can supply contact details for our Licensing
> Section. Plaese contact me directly.
>
> cheers
>
> Martin O'Brien
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