Murder
From Yahoo news.
GARDINER, Mont. - Montana's first bison hunt in 15 years opened at sunrise Tuesday, with a 17-year-old boy bagging the first buffalo within 90 minutes.
The hunt, aimed at thinning the bison population near Yellowstone National Park, came after years of protests from animal rights activists.
State and federal officials say the hunt will help manage a population that has grown to an estimated 4,900 animals, more than some fear the area can support. Some ranchers also worry that some diseased bison could spread illness to cattle.
George Clement, a teenager who took the day off from school, killed the first bison near Gardiner. Officials later confirmed a second bison was killed on private property near the park's western boundary.
Montana's last bison hunt was in 1990. Other hunts since then were canceled because of protests over the way wardens would lead each hunter to an animal, which was then shot at close range, often while peacefully grazing.
This year, there are new limits. For example, wildlife officials cannot tell hunters where bison have wandered outside the park, and no more than 50 bison overall can be killed during the three-month season.
Fifty hunting licenses — entitling hunters to kill one bison each — were made available.
Animal-rights activists were on hand with cameras as Clement and his companions skinned the animal where it fell. State wildlife officials also were out in force to monitor the hunt and protesters.
Wildlife officials said they expected many hunters to stay home on the season's opening day.
"I've had a lot of hunters say to me, 'We're going to stay away. We don't want the attention,'" said Mel Frost, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Where is the sport in shooting a passive animal, that has recovered from the brink of oblivion, at point blank range? How can this be condoned? If there are too many of them, can't they be relocated? We spend billions every year making sure energy companies get undeserved tax breaks. What could it cost to transplant a few bison.
We suck.
3 Comments:
There was a Simpsons episode about this very principle...so sad, and so true. :( Poor buffalos. If I had enough grazing land, I'd take one. As long as he didn't get pissed off and gore me or my cat. :)
I've been stewing over this one all evening.
The first thing I wondered was if hunting a creature this size is any less humane than the slaughterhouses used in the great majority of the American cattle industry. I've read up a little on this industry before, and did a little more research tonight. It was not pretty.
Coming back to your post, my attention was caught by your outrage over walking up to an animal and shooting it at point blank range. Actually, the article appears to state that this is how hunts were managed fifteen years ago, but that this year's hunt has new regulations in effect.
I decided to go beyond a Yahoo news article for my information, to see what these new regulations were and to see if there were any fallacies in the Yahoo report.
I went to the official Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks site, where the hunting regulations are made and posted.
I immediately found a major error in Yahoo's report--FWP clearly states that this hunt is not intended for population control. There is a separate state agency in charge of that. This hunt would only thin down the population by one percent anyway, not very effective.
Second, I found much information on the regulations regarding "fair chase" circumstances, and how the state did not want to have another hunt until they could better ensure this, thus no hunt for the last fifteen years.
"Fair chase" includes the following restrictions:
- no hunting from vehicles
- no scouting in aircraft
- no radio communication between hunters regarding location of a herd
- no electronic motion-sensing devices
- no hunting at night
- no night vision devices for scouting at night
Other rules for this hunt require:
- only high-caliber rifles, with "quick kill" abilities for an animal of this size
- all hunters issued bison tags required to attend an intensive training course, which focuses on things like target selection to make a simple, clean kill without causing the animal to suffer needlessly.
- hunt expanded to include both private land and 700+ square miles of public land
- a total of 25 tags issued for the first half of the season, 25 for the second half, three months total.
I also learned that several other western states have quietly held bison hunts annually for years, but have managed to avoid the publicity that Montana is getting this year.
I don't know.
This is no longer an endangered species at all. There are numerous large herds of bison now, both in protected lands like Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks and in public lands, as well as in numerous private ranches. In fact, there is a bison ranch not five minutes from my house. I pass it every time I go to the grocery store.
So if it is not an endangered or even protected animal, and if it's not the only placid grazing animal that gets hunted (deer, elk, moose are all free-range grazers that don't always think to run from humans), then is your issue with bison hunting, or with hunting in general?
To be honest, from what I know of the cattle industry, I much prefer to feed my family free-ranging wild animals. By doing so, I am not supporting the cattle industry in our country, which I see as almost criminal--between the methods used in raising these animals (including the excessive hormones involved, which we as consumers ingest), the methods used in the slaughterhouses, and the amount of our nations's farmland that is used to raise crops to feed all that beef.
Now, whether we should be eating meat at all is clearly not being addressed here, and that is a whole seperate issue, but I've been in your home, and you don't seem to be vegetarians any more than we do.
I just don't think fifty bison being hunted in the same way deer, elk and moose are hunted in much of the nation, every single year, is worthy of the cry of "murder."
And that there's my two cents.
I realize I come off sounding like the NRA here, and I'm not. You won't find me campaigning for the right to carry semi-automatic assault weapons. It's just that I live in this culture now. Almost everyone I know hunts--educated people and uneducated people alike.
The hunters that I know are not uneducated simpletons; backwards red-necks; or thrill-seeking, blood-thirsty yahoos just trying to collect more trophies for the fun of it.
The hunters I know hunt to feed their families in an economical, socially responsible way. They are respectful of nature and the environment, hoping to preserve it in all of its natural beauty so that future generations can continue to provide for their families in the same way.
Young children accompany their parents to learn at an early age here. At age 12, they may begin taking the required hunter safety education classes.
Reckless, unsafe or irresponsible hunters are severely looked down upon in this culture. Unfortunately, their stories, which are few and far between, are the only ones that make headlines.
I guess all I'm asking is not to let stereotypes form your opinions. From where I stand, those stereotypes seem to be undeserved.
--
Oh, and a couple of other observations regarding the article you printed here. So what if the first kill of the hunt was at the hands of a 17 year old who missed school for a day? He must have been a decent hunter to get one in only 90 minutes, and his parents have the right to allow him to miss school once in a while. We plan to miss a few days of school this year for personal family business and travel, too.
And making reference to the boy skinning the animal where it fell is just poor journalism--intentionally inflammatory. Any hunter knows that an animal that large retains so much body heat that it must be "field-dressed," or the meat would spoil and go wasted. A hunter knows that intuitively, but the journalist knew the ignorant public would see the boy's actions as barbaric.
--
Ok, I've used up more comment space than most standard posts require. I'll get off of your page now. I only wrote all this because I know you can handle differing opinions and like a little debate now and then.
Post a Comment
<< Home