HUNTING FOR SPORT

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I consider hunting a means to acquire meat with a different "game" taste. The taste of wild game food is acquired, but once acquired , theres nothing like it. Understanding that point, most game animals are "managed" to some degree. With many its keeping the population viable by controlling the bag limit. with others its actually allowing a "controlled slaughter' in order to keep ceratin animals from becoming dangers to the quickly suburbanizing countryside.

One of our new neighbors lives in a small rural development since the 1980s when a 13 home "mini mansion" development was established. The people of this development have vociferously petitioned the township and the Pa DNR to disallow hunting in this area of about 7-10000 acres of mostly open land (a rarity in Pa)
Through some means, these people had gotten one township in that area to limit hunting by resource based ordinance (health and safety, increased safety zone requirements) They basically tightened the requirements that the state allows townships to enact.
FAst forward about 5 years and the houses have turned over and though many of the originals are still living there, a new crop of AMish neighbors have bought some of these homes (they are mostly on 10 acre plots) and are now hunting the deer under state laws which they say "supercedes" local ordinance. Weve suffered a deer explosion in the decade in which hunting was controlled by ordinance. And many people have suffered injury and severe car damage by hitting what we call "highway deer". It seems the deer have adapted to road usage and travel the macadam paths to get to and from feeding areas and bedding areas.

I know that many in this community are against hunting and I can understand a reverence for life that they wish to display. I as a reently re-converted hunter, have as much reverance for life PLUS, Im voting with my wallet because by fees, hunting permits, sportsmen club endowment funds etc, I promote continued viability of species by supporting hunting.

I am totally against hunting for
1trophies-this is a masturbatory fantasy

2fur-furkeeping is just plain cruel and unnecessary, (its the US equivalent of whaling)

3 High population stress hunting-taking of ruffed grouse or gallinules, rails, woodcocks should clearly be eliminated in areas that have made these populations unsustainable

OK, thats my poistion, stickin with it, and convince me Im wrong.

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works for me.

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you sure are a wordy one

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I'm not dead certain on any of this, except I don't want to hunt myself. However, I do understand culling, as in your #3, and hunting to eat, assuming overhunting is curbed, and shooting to protect one's animals, if that is necessary. I'm a little iffy about the middle one, hunting to eat, re alternatives and how I feel about that..

As to the explosion of mansion suburbs far and wide, or even audacious architecture in the woods... now there I have problems, for several reasons. I understand this means building cities and towns up.

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actually osso, around here, the cities are decaying from within and rotting like an old oak. Theres massive "flight" by all races and in PA the population has remained about the sme for the last 30 years . However weve all just "shuffled around" and turned rural countrysides into Mickey mansion villages with no services. People have to drive evreywhere for anything. Meanwhile, the AMish, who have recently started occupying many of these suburban homes, have begun small businesses like groceries, hardwares, etc . Just like the old days. We can now take a bicycle ride to a nearby Amish grocery to buy bulk foods and many meats and veggies.

However, te hunters in the Amish population are good at culling deer with shotgun and crossbow. Thee are hunting styles that are quite adaptable to small range of fire hunting.

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The fashion industry has embraced fur again, with a bang.

I'm not a peta type, and I admit amazement verging on admiration at all the women in furs in Venice, Italy when I was there in early March in 1988...
the furs were beautiful. But, the cruelty involved makes it over the top for me, except for, say the native populations of the far north, or, I suppose, the far south of south america, though I don't know much about that.

Spoken as one who as a child liked her aunt's, what was it? somehow I doubt it was mink. And one who wore a borrowed jacket from a friend to a movie premier, sometime around 1971... I think it was rabbit. She got it in India... The right sleeve tore as I got out of the limosine...
the movie was terrible anyway... something about Shangri-La, a remake.

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There are many kinds of shuffling going on, with cities fled and cities regained, or so called regained, as they tend to be regained upscale, which is another problem, all happening in different contexts.

It reminds me, though, of my first flight, very tired, over Italy. A zillion hours awake, I stared out the window on the flight from Milan to Rome with my first good coffee after hours in airports... and, saw land. I was surprised to see land... (I'd never been to Eurp).. there was so much unbuilt land between those two cities, with thousands of years having passed.

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This may be stereotyping, I don't know. In my reading it seems to me that birds are not so prevalent in, say, Tuscany, re all the hunting, and thus treasured even more than say, we in Los Angeles do (did, re me), with caged birds popular. The other side of that was that it wasn't all that long ago that people survived in that land by eating small birds.

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I see I failed to mention sport. That I don't get.

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As I mentioned in my opening statement, there are certain species that should have their seasons removed, such as gallinules, rails, woodcocks, grouse, etc. These animals are suffering from loss of habitat and will decline until a stable population can be established. Hunting them isnt a necessity for game food, as they taste very similar to quail. The PA ruffed grouse, our state bird is almost extinct due to forest loss and farming practice changes, besides people wanting second homes "in the mountains"

Sometimes conservation means exclusion .
Many states have deer populations that are in the beginning stages of a probable pandemic of Chronic wsting Disease. Fisrt a western phenom, now Wisconsin and Michigan are affected and a few counties in WVa have had positives for this disease. This would kill the deer hunting sport because its like a "mad cow" disease of the nervous system and anyone who wishes to eat the meat is doing so at a certain amt of risk. (especially since most deer butchers are hacks)

Ive gone rabbit hunting around here and have enjoyed all sorts of rabbit dishes . Im gonna be getting out for Canada Geese, since we have thousands of thee birds around and more coming each year that we have a "nuisance geese" hunting season. (Geese tear up and eat the young rye seedlings about this time of year).

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Deer season in PA starts the Monday after Thanksgiving. By Thursday I'm ready to sign a petition to bring back the wolves--or even to import tigers.

Yes, yes, many hunters are responsible and competent. Many other hunters are not.

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Without trapping the furbearers get out of control too. Evidence:

http://myfwc.com/critters/images/beaver.jpg

Those things have ruined more trout streams than you can count, or even find any longer.

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Then there's these guys...

http://louisianahuntingtoday.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/nutria-004.jpg

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I'm curious as to why you decided to title this thread "hunting for sport" instead of "Hunting for Conservation"?

Here in Mighigan we just have a ton of deer. The herd is estimated at 1.6M. A few years ago, it was over 2M, and we were tripping over the damn rats.

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because to paint all hunters as responsible is also an unfair brushing. Many hunters are just loons that shouldnt be allowed to go out in the woods armed.
As for beavers and nutria, they are a consequence of trying to balance an ecosystem while still placing a bounty on such things as coyotes and until a few years ago, lynx.

Nutria are nt a native so I can consider them an invasive. Some people eat the damn things and , if furtaking were limited to nutria , maybe I wouldnt be so anti trapping.
As far as the Mich deer herd, youve got CWD in Michigan, thatll take the herd down , without much hunting pressure.

Conservation is a major consequence of hunting, however , not all hunters are conservation minded. Ive seen too many examples of yahhoos in the woods. I quit hunting for about 20 years because of the nuts out there. Now I own enough land that I can control if and who I will let hunt hereon.

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PS, in MAine, the beavers are directly responsible for the increase in habitat and the rise in the moose population, hence the bigger moose take..

In La, the nutria can become nice snacks for alligators which, as we all know, taste like chicken.

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Actually Michigan has never reported a case of CWD. We do have a TB area, but no CWD (knock on wood).

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farmerman wrote:

In La, the nutria can become nice snacks for alligators which, as we all know, taste like chicken.

Gator is good stuff! Swamp chicken!

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I saw that , from Michigans CUDD website, that the CWD reported in Michigan in2002 , ws in a captive herd. Weve had one case in PA in a captive herd also. I guess that Wisconsin and W Va are the closest states with CWD in the wild.

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Why should we kill them to control the population? They were here first.

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HUNTING FOR SPORT

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