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Tue 12 Sep, 2006 06:23 am
In the late 1800's market, subsistance, (and to a degree) "trophy" hunting had decimated many species of game animals.
Seeing the writing on the wall, in the early 1900's hunters began to insitute specie specific bag limits and hunting seasons to regulate the harvest of game animals. This was the beginning of wildlife management as we know it today.
Since the time America's first conservationists (hunters) stopped the wholesale, unregulated slaughter of wildlife and invented game management, hunted species are thriving. Period.
No animal specie has ever been reduced to 'endangered' status or made extinct by regulated sport hunting. Period.
Wildlife thrives today because of regulated sport hunting, not in spite of it.
Whats more, the practice of killing game animals and leaving the meat to waste, shooting them only for sport and/or taking just the horns has been banned in most every corner of America for generations. It is illegal, unethical and sportsmen will not tolerate it. They deplore it and will turn in any criminal they find doing it. Period.
Sportsmen provide 75% of the funding for state conservation agency budgets - NO other group gives more to wildlife conservation than American sportsmen through; though the purchase tags, licenses, wildlife stamps, self-imposed exise taxes and private donations sportsmen are hands-down champions of wildife conservation. Period.
Phillip Morris spends millions on youth non-smoking ads.
Any animal killed by a hunter cannot die of starvation, btw. Something cjhsa forgot to mention as a pro.
Walter Hinteler wrote:Any animal killed by a hunter cannot die of starvation, btw. Something cjhsa forgot to mention as a pro.
There's a huge number of deer in the Michigan herd this year. I am predicting a harsh winter based on things I've seen. Hopefully the deer harvest this fall will be enough to reduce or eliminate starvation.
You've got to save them from dying of natural causes?
I don't believe for one minute that Snood is an anti-hunter.
Of course it is better to eat them than let them starve to death and be only worm/maggot food.
I encourage people to actively participate in harvesting their food. There is no "replicator" behind the meat counter of the grocery store.
Quote:I encourage people to actively participate in harvesting their food. There is no "replicator" behind the meat counter of the grocery store.
We do. My freezer is full of venison, and some turkey...right now as we speak.
cjhsa wrote:I don't believe for one minute that Snood is an anti-hunter.
Of course it is better to eat them than let them starve to death and be only worm/maggot food.
I encourage people to actively participate in harvesting their food. There is no "replicator" behind the meat counter of the grocery store.
I'm not against hunting. And I understand that Americans who by and large hunt on full stomachs have to justify it some other way than as a necessity for survival.
A necessity for the survival of the game animals, for sure.
You know otherwise how?
Go pester someone else.
You started this puffed up thread about how you and other hunters are the "true champions of wildlife", and I'm "pestering you" to point out how goofy and presumptuous that premise comes off.
Maybe if you and the other wanna be Daniel Boones would just admit you simply like shooting live things, it would at least be honest.
Hunters and those who pay for licenses and actively participate in wildlife management are the true conservationists.
Not folks like you Snood, who simply refuse to acknowledge it while you snarf down your McRib.
Hell, I have hunters in my family. They can admit they like snuffing wild things, though. Can you?
I get equal enjoyment out of killing clay pigeons, just without the adrenaline rush.
Here's the thing...
We don't generally keep consuming the copious amounts of fossil fuel we do as a nation because of our never-ceasing efforts to help the downtrodden humanity of the planet - we do it by and large because we are sorta spoiled and greedy.
And we don't generally go into the woods to fire metal pellets at high velocities into animals because we are so concerned with the welfare and survival of those species - we do it because we enjoy shooting shyt.
My bullshyt meter screamed when I read the title of this thread, and that's why I am posting here. See, cj, guys like you have thoroughly convinced themselves, for instance, that we are in Iraq for largely altruistic purposes.
You can't see your own ugly bloated capitalistic jingoistic faces.
Snood, I seriously think you need to see Dr. Feelgood and get some more drugs.
Surveys show nearly 80 percent of Americans support hunting, although less than 10 percent actually participate. These 18.5 million hunters contribute more than $30 billion annually to the U.S. economy and support more than 986,000 jobs. They are the primary financiers (more than $1.5 billion per year) of conservation programs that benefit all Americans who appreciate wildlife and wild places.
Dude I don't have a problem with hunters or hunting - just with bullshyt. Like the premise of this thread.
I'm a hard core environmentalist, dirt worshiping, dolphin kissing liberal. I'm pro-hunting for food and culling over populated herds. I'm against any kind of trophy hunting because it destroys the best of the gene pool. I don't hunt myself, but I allow some people to hunt on my land, especially for white tailed deer.
Teddy Roosevelt was a great environmentalist because he was hunter (although I wish he wasn't such a trophy oriented guy). In the last election there was a group called Republican Sportsmen Against Bush, they felt Bush's environmental policies were so horrible that they refused to vote for him. Around the same time they appeared on the scene, Kerry decided to go shoot some geese.
One of the best hunter-environmentalist groups is Ducks Unlimited. They have done wonderful lobbying and hands-on work to protect and restore wetlands, causing much unhappiness for mall and suburb developers everywhere.
Correction. Ducks Unlimited is a hunter conservationist group.
Environmentalism is for people who think Al Gore invented the Internet.
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