By the 1800s, unregulated over-hunting had reduced this population to 12 million, and by 1900, because of an increase in commercial hunting practices, as few as 300,000 white–tails remained, and the deer had vanished from much of their historical range. By the year 2000, though, things had changed. The passage of the federal Lacey Act created regulations for the trade of illegally harvested wildlife, and penalties for violating these regulations. This effectively destroyed th