You may or may not have ever driven down a road in a certain part of the country and noticed a highway sign posted that read "Open Range."  It is important to understand what this sign means for motorist.  In essence, it means that an animal has more right to stand as an obstacle in the middle of a desert highway than you do to drive down that road.  Hopefully this never happens to you, but if you should ever have the misfortune of hitting an animal in such a designated area, nobody would owe you for damages done to your vehicle, loss of income, a limb and even your life.

Free range laws exist in various desert lands such as Mongolia, New Mexico, Nevada, etc.  These laws are designed to protect animals such as antelope, gazelle, various deer, and the list goes on and on.  These laws prohibit animal cruelty to free roaming animals with a punishment of prison up to one year or a fine or both. Free range laws have consistently worked toward saving wildlife and operate in three types of areas: those that keep animals within a defined area, those that provide living space for humans and those that provide living space for humans while the rest of the land is free for a large number of animals to roam at will.

Due to a severe overpopulation of whitetail deer in South Mountain, they recently conducted a "modern-day deer hunt" for 10 days.  This decision was made by the county due to all the vegetation that was being destroyed by the deer and property damages they caused to a lot of homes.  The decision to allow these animals to be hunted and killed stirred a lot of controversy among the animal rights groups, however, the county felt they had little choice.  

There will always be those who feel free range laws are unfair to residence and motorists, but there are also those who feel these laws represent a "happy medium" for both humans and animals.