Why was Burris father permitted to hunt and trap out of season?

Burris' father is allowed to hunt and fish out of season because his children might not eat if he didn't.

“It’s against the law, all right,” said my father, “and it’s certainly bad, but when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains. I don’t know of any landowner around here who begrudges those children any game their father can hit.”