Game Resources, State

in the USSR, animals and birds living in the wild. Animals that are purposely released in hunting grounds to enrich the fauna are included among the state game resources. Any wildlife maintained in parks, on farms, in nurseries, and in cages are not included.

The state game resources are public property and subject to the government’s exclusive right of ownership. Citizens are granted the right to hunt. At the same time, the use and protection of the state game resources are regulated by hunting laws and other legislative acts. Violations of hunting laws—for example, hunting without a license or in a prohibited area, hunting out of season, or hunting with prohibited weapons or by prohibited means—are prosecuted in criminal proceedings (art. 166 of the Criminal Code of the RSFSR). The administrative process for violation of hunting laws is also specified. (See POACHING and ILLEGAL HUNTING.)

Persons guilty of violating the established rules of protecting the state game resouces may be subject to disciplinary proceedings. Regardless of criminal, administrative, or disciplinary proceedings, persons who cause material loss through illegal hunting of wild animals are obliged to reimburse that loss through fines fixed by the councils of ministers of the Union and autonomous republics and by the executive committees of the oblast and krai soviets of working people’s deputies.