Bigfoot may not be real, but one lawmaker in Oklahoma wants to create a hunting season for him anyway.
Just don’t plan on actually shooting the ’Squatch.
“I want to be really clear that we are not going to kill Bigfoot,” state Rep. Justin Humphrey, the Republican behind the bill, told The Oklahoman. “We are going to trap a live Bigfoot. We are not promoting killing Bigfoot. We are promoting hunting Bigfoot, trying to find evidence of Bigfoot.”
The bill doesn’t specify that. The text, as introduced by Humphrey, directs the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commission to create rules, dates, license and fees “establishing a big foot (sic) hunting season.”
Humphrey told the Oklahoma City NBC station KFOR that he would work on the specifics with the commission, which would include a $25,000 bounty for someone who traps the cryptid.
The commission didn’t seem interested.
“We use science-driven research, and we don’t recognize Bigfoot in the state of Oklahoma,” Micah Holmes of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation told ABC station KOCO in Oklahoma City, adding that the bill would require them to create a new season and license for something that doesn’t exist.
But Humphrey said it would be great for tourism and outdoor recreation.
“Having a license and a tag would give people a way to prove they participated in the hunt,” Humphrey told KFOR. “Again, the overall goal is to get people to our area to enjoy the natural beauty and to have a great time, and if they find Bigfoot while they’re at it, well hey, that’s just an even bigger prize.”
So Bigfoot might be safe in Oklahoma ― for now, anyway. While multiple states have laws protecting animals not otherwise named, he’s specifically protected by name in Washington.
However, he might want to avoid Texas. The Lone Star State’s laws allow hunters to bag a Bigfoot on sight.
“If Bigfoot did exist, and wasn’t human, then it would [be legal],” L. David Sinclair of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department told NPR’s State Impact in 2012. “Bigfoot would be a non-protected wild animal.”
Humphrey made national headlines in 2017 when he proposed a law that would make it illegal for a woman to have an abortion without the man’s consent. He told The Intercept that he preferred the term “host” for pregnant women.