Washington State is just wild about Bigfoot

[From “CNI News”. 1996.]

Readers may be aware of the ordinance in Skamania County, Washington, which

serves to protect Bigfoot by making it a felony to commit "...premeditated,

wilful (sic) and wanton slaying of any such creature..."  Well, a

correspondent sent me a brief note about a county which went even further and

protected bigfoot habitat. It took me months to track it all down (I didn't

want to run with the story until I had the document in my hand), but I've got

it!

King County, Washington, lists "Bipedus giganticus (Sasquatch)" on the list

of mammals "...observed during wetland field visits."

You see, if your land is declared a wetland, it cannot be farmed because of

the destruction of habitat. The chief of King County's Agriculture and

Resource Land Section explained that the list included "...citizen

observations and there's no judgment made about whether or not the

observations were real or imagined." In essence, they don't call people liars

who say they see a short-tailed weasel, so why should they call them liars if

they say they see a Sasquatch?

Interestingly, one can deduce that the list originally said "Bigfoot" [rather

than Sasquatch]. It is located alphabetically between beaver and bobcat and

is the only one out of alphabetical order.  Also, the symbol is BF, the only

one composed of letters not appearing in the common name. I would guess they

changed it to reduce the controversy.

WCSRO, 2006.