Tag Archives: hunting

Have a Nice Day—Leave the Weapons At Home

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Hunters and their apologists have been getting craftier lately in regards to public perception. They seem to understand that if they were to reveal hunting’s dark underbelly and its evil agenda to usurp all open land for their blood-sport, people would not only be appalled, but the roughly 95% of Americans who do not hunt would not go along with their program.

And their PR efforts seem to be paying off. That’s why you hear some non-hunters say things like, “The hunters I know rarely talk about ‘the kill,’ they talk about sitting on the hill in the still of the morning with the fog burning off, with their father/son/grandfather/uncles. They tell you stories of years past about the times spent with their friends and family.”

Ok, great, spend a nice morning watching the fog lift. Get out for a walk in the woods with your friends or family members. But leave the guns behind—that way nobody will get hurt. Too many people lately have had their day ruined when one of their party ends up getting shot. I’m sure the family of Joseph Steele wishes they had opted for a peaceful nature walk rather than an armed foray last Saturday evening, when the 28-year-old was accidentally shot and killed by one of his own.

As the Kokomo Tribune reports it in their update, “Name released in hunting death, Deputies say Joseph Steele was accidentally shot and killed by family member” Steele was hunting with family members in a wooded area just south of his residence. According to witnesses, the hunters had split up, and at some point they lost sight of the Steele. One of the hunters fired from a distance at what he perceived to be a squirrel, deputies said. Moments later, Steele yelled out that he’d been shot. He was able to communicate with witnesses before eventually losing consciousness…

It’s not the 1800s anymore, people. When we finally realize we can enjoy nature without brandishing a weapon, these kinds of accidents will be a thing of the past.

Text and Wildlife Photography © Jim Robertson

Text and Wildlife Photography © Jim Robertson

Condemning the USDA’s Decision to Slaughter Wild Turkeys

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http://freefromharm.org/animal-cruelty-investigation/weighing-in-on-the-usdas-fish-wildlifes-decision-to-slaughter-wild-turkeys/#sthash.fWYeWk8O.dpuf
By Robert Grillo  –  August 15, 2013
Upon discovering a story entitled Feds round up wild turkeys on Staten Island for slaughter, I felt compelled to comment. Please consider leaving a comment as well:

Let’s call this practice what it is: a transparent form of speciesism. In other words, if you’re another species, and you get in our way or become a “nuisance” to us, we’re going to massacre you — not because we have to, but just because we can.

Might makes right. That’s the underlying premise for treating other species like trash, killing them off when they get in our way, destroying their habitat so we can play golf, breeding more so we can use them for target practice, taking away the babies of others so we can view them in captivity for our own amusement, breeding billions of others through artificial insemination so we can destroy their lives in their youth in a slaughterhouse, emptying our oceans of trillions of sentient life forms so we can buy a can of tuna, and then subjecting millions of others to needless pain and suffering in lab experiments intended to find cures for the diseases caused by eating them. We create all of our own conflicts with animals. We create a staged competition with other species to use as a pretext for destroying their lives, “for our own protection,” of course. I rescue and raise chickens and other birds that come from a kill shelter.

The germaphobe chicken keepers in this comment string have got things a little twisted. They blame the victim, not the perpetrator. They blame the birds for defecating. They excuse themselves for a much more egregious offense: buying and using them for their eggs and flesh directly from the hatcheries — the cruelest industries on earth — which creates the problem in the first place. Think for a moment how that victim blaming serves us. Voltaire famously wrote that “If we believe in absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.” What a prophetic statement to describe the utter selfishness and sociopathic age we live in.

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IDA Action Alert: Tell Your Senator to Oppose The Sportsmen’s Act 2013 (S. 1335)

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from: In Defense of Animals

The formula to protect wild animals from cruelty is simple: anything that the Safari Club International (SCI) supports MUST be opposed.

The SCI, an atrocious trophy hunter organization, is currently lobbying heavily for Selk-000-home17300 1335, sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). If passed, the Act would make hunting and trapping a priority to be considered on federal lands–public lands that are owned and funded by us, the Public.

The bill would allow hunting and trapping in designated wilderness areas, allow “volunteers” to help in the killing of so-called “excess” animals on Federal land, including National Parks, increase the share of federal lands turned into shooting ranges, and legalize the transporting of bows through national parks and the importation of “trophies” from polar bears kills in Canada.

Please contact your Senator immediately and tell her/him to vote “NO” on the Sportsmen’s Act 2013 (S. 1335). The threats our wildlife face come from many directions- loss of habitat, trophy hunters, poaching, conflicts with humans and or human-based activities, as well as the hardships of living in the wild as predator or prey. The last thing we need right now is to open our national parks or wilderness areas that currently do not allow hunting to more killing.

 

Humans show their thirst for blood

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Roger, one of our regular readers, posted the following letter he wrote which was printed yesterday in the Missoulian, under the heading “Hunting and fishing.”

: Humans show their thirst for blood

The sports killing season of 2013 is upon us. In Montana alone, “sportsmen” will kill around 19,000 antelope, 40,000 deer, 300 wolves, 1,300 black bear, 200 bighorn sheep, 200 moose, 20,000 elk – then there are turkeys and an assortment of other birds to kill.

It is sporting tradition. Wyoming will kill even more elk, having had record years the past 10. The states of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Wisconsin will push wolf-killing as far as they think they can get away with and not risk re-listing. Montana sells $19 wolf tags to kill five wolves.

Then there is the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services, which kills around 72,000 coyotes each year and around 28,000 other animals, a million animals a decade.

Then there are the poachers of Africa, and the sportsmen who go there to kill dwindling populations of elephants and rhinos and lions.

We, human animals, are overfishing the oceans and threatening sharks, whales, bluefin tuna and other marine life.

Then there are the slaughterhouses, which will kill a billion chickens worldwide and millions of cattle, pigs and sheep each year. Now conservative state legislatures are pushing every year, despite what the American people have opposed over and over, the opening of horse slaughterhouses.

Animal shelters “put down” (kill) thousands of dogs and cats each year because there are too many and too few homes for them.

You would think that humans are primarily bloodthirsty carnivores, something as scary as the worse aliens you can imagine, which we are.

Roger Hewitt
Great Falls, MT

Rabbit hunter died in freak accident

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A rabbit hunter died after being shot in the head when his shotgun trigger snagged on the zip of his boot, an inquest has heard.

Father-of-two Carl Rubisch, 30, died of a single gunshot wound after the gun fired as he got out of a Land Rover to shoot a rabbit.

He and friend Stuart Forrest, 30, were on an organised night-time shooting trip on farmland near Brockton, Shropshire, when the tragedy happened.

Mr. Forrest told the inquest he turned the lights off on his Land Rover before using a powerful torch after spotting a rabbit 80 yards away.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2376692/Rabbit-hunter-died-freak-accident-trigger-snagged-zip-boot-left-Land-Rover.html#ixzz2a2BQteEH
[They must not have seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail….]

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Tell Congress to Vote NO on The “Sportsmen’s” Act

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What’s your position on The Sportsmen’s Act:

S. 1335: A bill to protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing, and shooting, and for other purposes…

What do you think?

The next vote on this bill will occur in the Senate. How should your senators vote?

(Hint: NO!!)

Please go here and let them know:

https://www.popvox.com/bills/us/113/s1335?utm_campaign

What people are saying about the “Sportsman’s” act…

Dear Congressperson:

‘I oppose S. 1335 (“A bill to protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing, and shooting, and for”) because…I want a place to visit free of these murderous barbarians who call themselves ‘sportsmen’ <<< WHAT AN APPALLING JOKE! I want what is LEFT of our dwindling wildlife to have one last vestige of safety from these 19th century serial killers with impunity & the onslaught of an OVERPOPULATED, comatose, indifferent human species invading every last wild habitat with roads, housing and malls! Keep these MURDERERS out of OUR national parks, they have no need to be in there shooting & killing animals in the last place wildlife has any hope of safely existing! Hunting is Americas’ greatest SHAME!’    Sincerely, Stephanie T

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

The Boss Hunting Truck can track down big game for big bucks

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[This gives new meaning to the phrase,…]

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by Alex Lloyd

When hunters need a vehicle for their excursions, the first choice tends to be a heavy-duty pickup — think an old Ford F-250 equipped with a viewing box on the bed, a few gun holders within, a beer cooler, and for the fancy even a camouflaged paint job. Parker Brothers Concepts, creator of pro-wrestler John Cena’s Incenarator from this year’s Gumball 300, decided to take that concept a step further, building what it calls The Boss Hunting Truck and billing it as “the luxury hunting truck of the future.”

If you want to hunt in opulence, (and who doesn’t?) the cost of this truck will set you back as much as a nice house. The Boss Hunting Truck starts at $200,000, but by ticking various options, it will quickly rise to $500,000.

Based off a Hummer H1 K10 Series, the Boss Hunter sports a tuned 6.5-liter turbo diesel meshed to its four-wheel drive system. Inside sits an abundance of leather with “The Boss” decals and a custom steering wheel. Five monitors for six external cameras are equipped, along with a CB radio and internal gun holsters with additional storage for ammo. The shop will also add a drone plane with iPad control and camera feed for “live viewing” of any extant deer, squirrels or chupacabra, if you so desire. Additional gun storage can also be optioned, as can a magnetically interchangeable exterior camo design.

…More about this slightly exaggerated version of the typical American sportsman’s war wagon here: http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/boss-hunting-truck-track-down-big-game-big-212333552.html

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Wildlife Recovery Just a Big Game for “Game” Departments

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More proof that reintroduction and recovery is all just a big game for state wildlife department managers: Missouri recently reintroduced a mere 100 elk over the past two years, and already they’re talking about implementing a hunting season on them soon.

It seems hunting groups and their “game” department lackeys live by a time-tested formula:

1) Wipe out a species through over-hunting and/or trapping
2) Allow it to recover
3) Open a season and sell tags to kill the animals off again

Lately we’ve seen this formula in action with wolves in the intermountain West and Great Lakes states. In addition to their full-scale assault on wolves, Montana recently started up a hunting season on bison, and they’re already talking about one for grizzly bears the minute they lose federal protection.

Now the recovering elk in Missouri may soon be under fire, as a local paper tells us in the following article entitled,

“Elk hunting in Missouri now predicted to start in 2016”

Tuesday, July 9, 2013 Supervising editor, Jake Kreinberg

COLUMBIA — The Missouri Department of Conservation now estimates that an elk hunting season in the state will begin in 2016.

The department slowly reintroduced elk from 2010 until earlier this year, trapping about 50 annually in Kentucky and then bringing them to the Peck Ranch Conservation Area in southeast Missouri for observation. The program has since moved to its operational phase, in which the herd will grow only via reproduction.

Elk were common in Missouri before European settlement but had been eradicated from the state by the end of the Civil War. Resource scientist Lonnie Hansen says “about 100” elk are now in the herd following several dying off during relocation and last year’s drought.

“I’d be pleased if we had 125 animals in the herd” by the end of this year, Hansen said.

The department wants at least 200 elk in the herd before it will give any consideration to allowing elk hunting, which might not happen for another three years, Hansen predicted. He previously expected hunting to start in 2015, according to previous Missourian reporting. Whenever hunting begins, it won’t be easy to get a license, as there may be only 30 to 40 available.

“We’d like to see them become part of the natural landscape,” Hansen said about the animals.

Reintroducing elk to the state could be beneficial not only to the ecosystem of Missouri, but also the economy. Joe Jerek, the department’s news services coordinator, said the conservation areas could “expect to see a lot of people” hoping to catch a glimpse of the new herd.

“There are lots of people that just want to see them,” he said. “It brings another large native species back to Missouri.”

According to the department’s website, residents’ interest in reintroducing elk led to a restoration feasibility study in 2000, but that was suspended a year later because of fears of Chronic Wasting Disease the elk could introduce to local livestock.

A method for testing for the disease and continued interest in having elk revived the reintroduction effort in 2010.

[Just who is interested in “having elk,” and for what purpose, the paper didn’t say.]

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

Celebrate the Right to Be Quiet Instead

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Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

On the way home from the ocean, just before sundown yesterday evening, I passed a field where a local elk herd can often be seen peacefully grazing or lounging at the edge of the forest. This time the elk were running away from some unseen threat. Being as it was July 3rd and considering the number of fireworks stands around, there was no sense second-guessing what was frightening them—fireworks!

Despite the increasing fire danger this time of year and regardless of who or what they might annoy, celebratory Americans can’t seem to resist launching their little rockets and lighting off their pocket-sized explosives. Those without their own box of bombs compensate by shooting their semi-automatics ‘till the cows flee home.

What a thrill—but not for everyone. While people play their war games, the wildlife head for the hills. To them, the sound of fireworks and gunfire are synonymous: they both spell human-up-to-no-good. As the raucous revelers express their right to be obnoxious assholes, the non-human animals—much more in tune with the senses—have to live in terror. Don’t believe it? Just look at your family pet.

And all so we can relive a war over and over. But the one good thing about war: while humans are busy fighting with each other each other, they don’t have as much time to torment the wildlife. Also, from the scavengers’ perspective, there’s sometimes a lot of fresh carrion left on the battlefield.

America’s Top 10 Threats to Trapping; or, The enemy of my enemy is my friend

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http://www.ussportsmen.org/trapping/americas-top-10-threats-to-trapping-2/

Posted on August 22, 2012

Courtesy of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance/ http://www.ussportsmen.org.

There are many forces in America working to end trapping and wise wildlife management. Here are a few of those anti-trapping groups:

1- Sierra Club—this group’s board of directors has let America know it opposes any and all trapping—period. The official Sierra Club statement reads: “The Sierra Club considers body-gripping, restraining and killing traps and snares to be ecologically indiscriminate and unnecessarily inhumane and therefore opposes their use.” This position earns this group a No. 1 spot.

2- PETA—best known for being wackos, this group opposes fur, trapping and anything non-vegan. PETA also wanted to “trap” and euthanize problem hogs in Florida to prevent them from being hunted.

3- Humane Society of the United States—this radical animal rights group lists trapping as wildlife abuse. This group is currently being sued for violation of federal racketeering laws.

4- American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (alias ASPCA)—states openly on its website that “The ASPCA is against the use of leg-hold or body gripping traps to capture wild animals because of the pain and distress that they cause.” The group also opposes hunting.

5- Defenders of Wildlife—this group opposes wolf hunting and trapping, and launched an aggressive on-line campaign to skew an Idaho wolf trapping survey in its favor. D o W reported it had 39,000 followers overwhelm the Idaho Game and Fish Commission’s website.

6- Born Free USA—this radical animal rights group labels trapping as “barbaric” and has a trapping victims fund to help cover veterinarian costs for animals—including wildlife—caught in traps. It distributes a free “How to Organize an Anti-Trapping Campaign” booklet through its Animal Protection Institute group.

7- In Defense of Animals—opposes trapping and has created a “furkills” website to promote the group’s propaganda—and to collect funds. The group also encourages followers to create a display in their local public library to display leaflets, posters, and books about the cruelty involved in trapping or leg-hold traps.

8- Animal Welfare Institute: Opposes trapping and is pushing the Refuge from Cruel Trapping Act in Congress to end trapping on national wildlife refuges. Filed a lawsuit in 2008 to stop coyote and fox trapping in Maine under the guise of protecting Canada lynx.

9- Center for Biological Diversity: has campaigns underway to stop wolf trapping and hunting in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, and another in New Mexico to save Mexican gray wolves. Some of the group’s “urgent letters of action” also includes requests for donations to end trapping.

10- Footloose Montana—works to oppose wolf trapping and the management of these large predators in Montana while other wildlife species, like elk, dwindle in numbers at the hands, or paws, of wolves. Also works to end trapping on public lands.

As you can tell, trappers and hunters need to work together to overcome these radical forces…