April Fools Joke Becomes Law

...or bigfoot can put you in jail.

On April 01, in 1969 Skamania County, Washington was the first official U.S. governmental body to legally recognize Bigfoot as a species. By passing of Ordinance 69-01, Skamania County declared the killing of bigfoot illegal; punishable by a $10,000 fine and 5 years in prison. Although originally an April Fool's joke, it sat in the books for over a dozen years before becoming an official statute with legally binding consequences.

In 1984 the ordinance was repealled and amended as ordinance 1984-2. The new ordinance reduced the fine and jail time to “gross misdemeanor” status. Don't be fooled by the lighter misdeameanor status, due to an exception written into the ordinance, if the animal (Bigfoot) is found to be humanoid, the person who killed the Bigfoot will be tried for homicide.


Even more interesting, the more recent ordinance sets up all of Skamania as a “Sasquatch Refuge.” The reason – Bigfoot is an “endangered species” in Skamania County. Skamania does not claim Bigfoot is endangered overall, just within its own county lines.

EXTERNAL LINKS
Skamania County's official Ordinance Listings (look for 1984-2)
The entire ordinance text

Save Bigfoot

I have been kicking around an idea I had lately, only to find I have been beaten to it. Once in a while when the topic of Bf evidence comes up, I'll hear someone say, "next time someone sees Bigfoot they should try and shoot it, and then there would be evidence!"

My concern is the amount of times I hear this, so I looked into how to protect a species under the Endangered Species Act. During my research I have found that the government has already done so, at least on the local level. So Skamania County has a real ordinance! I would like to see if BfR$LC can't get this done on the federal level and perhaps protect the big guy from harm.