I love the Kansas state fair and I enjoy talking to people about trapping, so I spend some time each year at the Kansas Fur Harvesters booth at the Kansas State Fair. That booth is an excellent way to educate people about the importance of trapping here in the U.S.
As people stop by the booth, one of the things we point out is that furbearers in Kansas are very prolific breeders and trapping is a perfect and necessary tool to keep their populations manageable.
Beavers have from one to six young each year, and they do considerable damage by damming streams and ponds that flood farmland, back roads and golf courses. They cut off newly planted saplings with just a couple bites and kill large standing trees by completely chewing off the bark…
Warning bells are ringing across the continent over an unstoppable wave of avian flu that farmers fear could lead to poultry farm bans in vulnerable wetland areas.
In the Netherlands,more than 3.7 million chickens, ducks and turkeys have been culled in the most serious outbreak ever.
In France, where breeding ducks is popular, the government said that16 million farmedbirds had been destroyed, with farmers seeing their livelihoods collapse “like a house of cards”.
Earlier this year, the Dutch environment minister, Henk Staghouwer, admitted that bird flu was now “unavoidable” in a country where
Print versions will be available at FWP offices and other outlets in a few weeks.
Hunters and trappers will notice these regulations were combined into one book this year.
A couple of things to point out in the regulations include:
• Trapper education is required for any resident trapper who has not purchased a trapping license for three years in their lifetime, which does not need to be consecutive. This does not apply to those trapping for the purposes of livestock or property protection.
• Wolf trapping dates in occupied grizzly bear habitat may open prior to Dec. 31. Check FWP website for status of trapping dates beginning Nov. 21.
The deer you shot on public land ran onto private property and then died. You shot and killed what you thought was a spike elk only to discover that it was actually a cow elk. You just finished filleting the six rainbow trout you caught before realizing the catch limit at the reservoir was four. Before you find yourself in any of these scenarios, learn what Utah Division of Wildlife Resources conservation officers want you to know.
Do your research before going into the field
Just like you’d never fly a plane without training and preparation, you shouldn’t go fishing or hunting without knowing the laws. A common mistake that DWR conservation officers often see is someone killing wildlife without…
Thanksgiving turkey will be more expensive than usual this year due to a nationwide bird flu outbreak that’s already shortened the country’s supply ahead of the holiday.
One of the country’s largest commercial turkey processors, Hormel Foods, anticipates that “lower industry-wide turkey supplies [will] keep prices higher” through the holiday, according to Hormel CFO Jacinth Smiley on an earnings call this month. Hormel’s own supply, also hit by avian flu, is considerably lower this year, Food Dive reports.
With pricier turkeys and far fewer of them than normal, the race to snag the best bird well in advance of the holiday may be even fiercer this fall. But high prices could very well lower turkey consumption altogether around the holiday season. Last year, when fresh turkey prices rose 10% above those of 2020, turkey sales dropped 6%, according to a Forbes report. Turkey shopping may happen earlier this year, too, and some shoppers may opt instead for cheaper chicken or turkey breast, Carman Allison, a vice president at NielsenIQ, tells Forbes.
Avian influenza doesn’t pose a health concern to humans, but it’s deadly to birds that contract it. In order to contain outbreaks, farmers must kill entire flocks of turkeys—and this year, they killed around 5.4 million turkeys between January and July due to exposure, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Since mid-July of this year, 10 outbreaks have impacted roughly 617,200 birds in 39 states. July is also when producers begin raising Thanksgiving turkeys.
While outbreaks aren’t unusual on their own, they’re normally halted by the onset of warmer weather. That’s not the case this year, with the flu persisting into the hottest months and even in a late-summer heat wave in California.
In fact, this outbreak could match or outpace the worst in recent history: In 2015, the bird flu afflicted over 50 million turkeys before control measures and warm weather saw it plateau. Since January of this year, 40.8 million birds have already been affected by the outbreak.
JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) — Four cases of avian flu, or bird flu, were confirmed among the endangered penguins at Boulders Penguin Colony in Cape Town, News24, a local news website reported on Saturday, citing a clinical veterinarian.
As of Friday, there had been four confirmed cases and another seven suspected cases, said Table Mountain National Park (TMNP) management.
Once seabirds show symptoms of bird flu, they usually die soon afterward, News24 reported, quoting Dr David Roberts, a clinical veterinarian at the Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (Sanccob) as saying.
The flu strain is the same as the one detected in seabirds in the Western Cape last year. That outbreak saw thousands of birds die in vulnerable colonies. Now, conservationists worry the same fate could await the endangered penguins, if no quick action is taken.
Should we introduce “days without hunting” ? Created following a petition asking for the measure, a Senate mission answered no on Wednesday, September 14, while proposing a series of new rules, including a ban on the consumption of alcohol and narcotics while hunting.
The mission had been set up last November, after more than 120,000 people had signed on the site of the upper assembly a petition launched by the collective “Un jour un chasseur”, created following the death of a young man 25 year old Morgan Keane, “shot by a hunter while chopping wood in his garden” in the Lot. In particular, it called for the establishment of “Sundays and Wednesdays without hunting” or even of “protective distances around residential areas which are equal to the maximum range of weapons”.
On the days without hunting, advocated during the presidential campaign by candidates Yannick Jadot and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the mission rejected “a uniform national rule”while saying “convinced that local demands must be heard”. She therefore suggests “allow prefects to limit hunting days and times to ensure people’s safety” and establish a “mandatory prior declaration of big game hunts”, the most accident-prone.
According to figures from the French Office for Biodiversity, the number of hunting accidents has been on a downward trend for twenty years. For the 2021/22 season, “The OFB has identified 90 hunting accidents in total (bodily injuries related to the use of a hunting weapon), including eight fatalities. Among these, two involved non-hunter victims”. Opponents of hunting point out that the number of hunters is decreasing, this decrease is normal. According to the figures cited by the senatorial mission, in twenty years the number of accidents has fallen by 46%, that of deaths by 74%, while the number of hunters has fallen less, by 29%.
Instead, it suggests creating “an offense of obstructing the carrying out of legal sporting or leisure activities”, a claim by hunters against activists who are trying in particular to prevent hunting with hounds. She also rejects the idea of protective distances, emphasizing that they “would lead, given the range of weapons, to ban hunting in a large part of France”. On the other hand, it offers“prohibit alcohol and the use of narcotics while hunting” and D’“align the blood alcohol level retained, the prohibition of narcotics as well as their respective sanctions with the rules in force in terms of the Highway Code”.
Among the 30 proposals are also measures to strengthen training, without raising the age of obtaining the license but in “generalizing tutoring”, or the obligation to pass a first aid certificate and an annual medical examination. The president of the National Federation of Hunters Willy Schraen denounced “totally exaggerated proposals and for some stigmatizing”. On alcohol, he pointed out that he was involved in “7% of hunting accidents [9% selon la mission sénatoriale]much less than on the road”. “What right do you have to reserve that for hunters, a drunk guy on a bike is dangerous too”he fumed.
A Dillingham hunter was mauled by a brown bear on Friday. Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Tim DeSpain said in an email that 40-year-old John Casteel was hunting up the Nushagak River, 20 miles by air from Dillingham, when he was mauled.
Casteel’s aunt, Marjorie Nelson, said he came upon the bear while moose hunting. The bear attacked and Casteel called out to his hunting partner, who shot and killed the bear. His partner sent a satellite message requesting help, saying that Casteel had injuries on his arm and leg. He was conscious but couldn’t move.
“They had a nurse with them and other hunting parties that helped stabilize him and control his wounds,” she said. “He stayed out in the wilderness for four hours, laying on the tundra. … The hunting party that he was with, they started a fire and they tried to keep him warm and keep…
A man from Żabbar has been fined €3,000 and had his hunting licence suspended after being found guilty of having hunted birds during the closed season, 5 years ago.
The case dates back to Sunday 23 April 2017, when the police had received a report of hunting activity near Xgħajra, from BirdLife volunteers who had been observing the annual Spring bird migration.
As the hunting season had officially closed 9 days before, and seeing two men with hunting shotguns, the volunteers had started filming, capturing footage of a large bird overflying the hunters’ hide and one of the men standing up and firing a shot at it.
Despite finding nobody at the scene when they arrived, the police had subsequently arrested Simon Camilleri after…
Image by Andrew Skowron of 4-week-old hens destined for an existence as egg machines.
I can’t count how often I’ve seen declarations from people who claim to be vegan despite indulging in some form of avoidable use of members of other animal species. However before I go any further I must stress the word ‘AVOIDABLE’.
Living in a nonvegan world, completely surrounded by a regime of oppression that runs almost entirely on the exploitation of other individuals, I sincerely can’t imagine how anyone can claim that they have absolutely no involvement in exploitation either directly or indirectly. For the avoidance of doubt, this is not some controversial claim that veganism is impossible – far from it. I’m only mentioning this because I’ve seen so many vegans attacking or sniping at others as if they, themselves, were completely free of the taint of corruption that nonveganism brings. Examples of this sniping…
Image by Andrew Skowron of 4-week-old hens destined for an existence as egg machines. 
Exposing the Big Game 