Elk ambush
A crowd of hunters participating in the Teton park hunt herded elk from a no-hunting area into a barrage of bullets on Wednesday, upsetting nonhunting passersby.
Thursday, November 20, 2014 4:30 am
Witnesses say hunters in Grand Teton National Park drove a herd of elk from a no-hunt zone and toward an awaiting firing line Wednesday.
The scene at the sage flats north of Kelly was a surprise to Michigan resident and Jackson Hole visitor Joanna Childers, who was on a wildlife safari during her first visit to Teton park.
“It looked like a bunch of hunters surrounded a pack of elk,” Childers said. “Hunters were staked out in the road and around the field.
“You see these animals and they’re in a pack and there a bunch of rifles pointed at them from every direction,” she said. “Overall, it was kind of sad and pretty unfair.”
Wildlife photographer Tom Mangelsen — long an opponent of the park hunt — said hunter behavior Wednesday was as egregious as he’s seen.
By Mangelsen’s account, around 11 a.m. a person pushed a herd of about 100 elk out of an area off limits to hunters near Kelly. Once the herd was on the move, chaos ensued, he said.
“All the sudden somebody shot and they just opened fire on them,” Mangelsen said. “It’s really poor sportsmanship — it was illegal and it was just a display of totally barbaric hunting.”
The photographer estimated that 30 people were involved in the drive, that 25 shots were fired and that eight to 10 elk were killed.
Teton park officials did not corroborate many of the details described by Mangelsen and others, but said some hunters were ticketed Wednesday.
“There was quite a bit of action as far as hunters go and the movement of elk near Kelly,” park spokeswoman Jackie Skaggs said. “At least two citations have been issued.”
Two hunters shot and killed bull elk Tuesday in the park, where harvest is restricted to cows and calves. The elk were confiscated by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, Skaggs said.
One of those hunters was also cited for shooting at a running herd, she said.
Rules unique to the park hunt prohibit firing more than one shot at a group of running animals.
Seven park rangers were still in the field at the time Skaggs spoke with the Jackson Hole Daily, and she said it’s possible there were other violations.
It’s legal for hunters to drive elk out of areas where hunting is prohibited in the park, Skaggs said.
Mangelsen said some people were firing from the road, which is illegal. Photos he provided show hunters with rifles and shooting sticks setting up on the roadside.
Jeff Soulliere, another local photographer, said the display left him speechless.
“It absolutely was a mess,” Soulliere said. “This is a national park, and you’ve got tourists on the road right next to hunters with high-powered rifles.
“It really struck me as, ‘you got to be kidding me,’ ” he said. “No one was taking safety into consideration because they were herding and surrounding them and they could have shot each other.”
[Too bad they didn’t.]
Exposing the Big Game 
Wow, what a disappointing display to put on for someone new to visiting the Tetons to see – I hope this is made illegal; modern people have shown that they have no concept of hunting. And they really get no discouragement from wildlife agencies either.
Hunting is not “fair chase” in any circumstance, except when the game pulls a surprise attack and changes the equation of who is hunted. Man is using scoped powerful, far reaching rifles, ATV’s, high powered binoculars and other technology to get to and find and kill the game. The targeted “game” did not ask to play the “fair chase” game and there is not an equal chance of death on both sides of the game. One side views the other as recreational opportunities, the other side views the situation as an escape from horror, death and injury, or injury, pain and death. Subsistence hunting evolved into sports hunting and killers of wildlife are called sportsmen. We are long past subsistence hunting as a defensible argument. We rather rapidly turned away from that when humans turned to agriculture and animal farming and human population exploded and continues to do so. Animal farming (AKA ranching) is also unsustainable with 7 billion people going to 10-11 billion by end of the century. Wildlife is being hit hard on multiple sides: rancher, farmer, extraction industry, development encroachments and sports killing (AKA hunting), and wildlife agencies’ killing. So, hopefully, “if it does not feel right, don’t do it” spreads to more and more of the population. Sport killing, hunting, leads to a distortion of wildlife ecology with farming of target game species and a minimization and marginalization of predators and wildlife agencies’ killing and farming for hunters. It is animal slaughter in a horrendous scale with humans killing 27 million animals daily for food, and that is not counting the sea life and hunting. Half the world’s animals have disappeared in the last 40 years.
Teton Park hunt: Hunters in Grand Tetons drove herd elk off of no shoot zone onto legal shooting zone and drove them toward waiting hunters, shooting from a road (illegal) firing more than one shot at elk (illegal in the Park), also shooting at a moving herd (illegal). Hunters involved were 30 and 25 shots at least were fired and 8-10 dead elk the result.
https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2014/11/21/onlookers-dismayed-by-elk-herding-hunters/
Is long-range shooting ethical? Check out this story on greatfallstribune.com: http://gftrib.com/1qYx8Dw
Hunting suggestion: If it feels wrong, don’t do it
Editorial board says hunters should follow fair chase approach to big-game hunting.
Check out this story on greatfallstribune.com: http://gftrib.com/1qLy5Pt
“Hunters”, “Sportsmen” ?? Did the hunters just want the meat or did they just like the killing or did they just enjoy being out in the wilderness ? How many Elmer Fudd Nimrods does it take to kill an elk? Are they conservationists? Are they sportsmen? Was it fair chase? Was it stand your ground? Did they do it just so the elk would not have to suffer the winter or starve? Did they do it to spare the elk from “predators”? There must be a sportsmen explanation (rationalization)?
“3 hunters cited after dozens shot into herd of elk”
Two were hunters from great falls Check out this story on greatfallstribune.com:http://gftrib.com/1u7ICcE”
Hunter describes controversial elk hunt
‘It sounded like a war going on.’
Check out this story on greatfallstribune.com: http://gftrib.com/1qBnkz8
“Fair Chase
“If the purpose of hunting is only to kill an
animal, then the process is moot; we contain the
technological ability to kill all animals.”
–Allen Morris Jones
The phrase “fair chase” has a very specific meaning in the hunting world. The Boone and Crockett Club defines it as “the ethical, sportsmanlike, and lawful pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild, native North American big-game animal in a manner that does not give the hunter an improper advantage over such animals.” This means fair-chase hunters pursue their quarry on foot; hone their skills so they make quick, clean kills; and obey the law.”
Good point about the “subsistence” myth. Too many supposedly caring wildlife people still compromise on this. The Bowhead whale kill is a good example. Sure, let’s kill the few remaining whales under the guise of “subsistence” as the “natives” drive their snowmobiles, using their electronics to communicate with each other, while carrying their high-powered weapons. Whether it be rednecks in the lower 48 or up North, it is still slaughtering innocent animals that cannot fight back. Whether it be whale blubber, elk flesh, or wolf skins–its barbaric and senseless.
These backward inbreds keep whining about wolves viciously killing all of the elk, and then they do something like this? The same type of thing happened in Gardiner MT not long ago. Conservationists my ass. If ethical hunters still exist, why aren’t any of them speaking out about these kinds of atrocities? Completely unethical and immoral.
They never did exist.
This slaughter is what hunting is really all about. Forget “ethical, fair chase”, or wildlife agencies doing anything about this killing machine. I hope those tourists went home with an upset stomach–and a lesson about what the hunting industry is all about. Hunting myths–about “conservation” and other such crap, have to be challenged each and every time they come up–we cannot be shy about attacking them, because the animal serial killers certainly aren’t shy about killing animals, are they?
If people did hunt for sustenance, what’s missing today is any kind of respect or reverence for the animal having its life taken. (I love when it is referred to as ‘the animal gave its life so that we could have food’. It was given, it was taken, and usually after a struggle). Modern humans have an exaggerated opinion of themselves and where they fit in Nature – and I’m not sure if it was industrialization or overpermissive parenting of the 1960s where now generation after generation have been raised without any knowledge of good behavior.
sorry, that should read ‘it was not given’.
New evidence now suggests that Homo erectus, later sapiens, was killing whatever it could, using its weapons of mass destruction. What has been referred to as “tool making” relating to that time frame, was actually making arrow heads attached to spear-like objects. It appears that the “uprightness” of these early humans was the key: it freed them up (as they stood upright) to use their arms/hands for weaponry. They killed each other, and wiped out whole populations of other beings. And, sadly it hasn’t stopped; and only increasing now, with more human breeding and more sophisticated weapons. It is a myth that early humans were some kind of Noble creature. Even the later “Native Americans” took advantage of guns & ammunition & steel jaw traps, as they got a hold of them. Early humans ate each other’s flesh, and the flesh of other animals, and so it goes.
This is pretty much what USDA Wildlife Services does.