Market Hunting of Waterfowl

Market hunting – mass hunting of game birds for the dinner table and restaurant trade – pushed several species of waterfowl to the brink of extinction during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, and led to a general decline in America’s bird populations. In turn, this wanton slaughter created the momentum for the passage of early game bird laws like the Lacey Act in 1900 and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, as well as prompting the creation of private and public sanctuaries for birds, among them Florida’s Pelican Island, which became the Nation’s first national wildlife refuge in 1903. These wild ducks were seized from market hunters in California (photo estimated to be circa 1930’s) and donated to a Pittsburg, California, sanitarium for use as the case proceeded through the courts.