Ah, California.
Land of milk and honey. And a Department of Fish and Wildlife that won’t even stand up for itself.
Read this column from my good friend Tom Stienstra at the San Francisco Chronicle on the DFW’s decision to cancel a predator hunting clinic.
Pitiful.
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While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures.
Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism.
After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters.
Mind blowing!
Scary, Sometimes, for a brief minute or so, I wonder if all of my family heritage and good honest traditions will get eaten up by everyone else that opposes everything I do. A true shame. For there are huge amounts of people in our country that do ALOT of things I oppose, but they have the freedom and right to pursue that which makes them happy, shouldn’t I?
So let me see if I can get this straight, it is wrong for the Humane Society “bullies” to stop a supposed “science-based clinic” supposedly talking about how nature works but it is a great thing when exhibitors and the NRA “bullies” shut down an entire week long family event?
very sad ! It’s obvious the Game Department there is “spineless”
Yes, Sandi, you have it right. The difference is that, in the case of the ESOS, we (attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, celebrities) shut down our OWN event, geared toward US, because of a decision we felt infringed on our beliefs.
In the case of California’s DFW shutting down a clinic such as this, the Humane Society shut down an event that was not their own, probably without the consent of those who wanted to attend.
This, however, is not the point of this article. The point is that a government organization that is supposed to stand up for its constituents (the outdoorsmen of California, in the case of the CDFW) did not do that. It is state that this is an “unprecedented” act, and the scary part is that this precedent is now set, opening the doors for this kind of decision in the future.
Little confused here?? I don’t normally read this section but glad i did this time. Looks like to me that “the balance of NATURE” can take care of itself and the wildlife does not need humans going into the woods to “Cull the herd” to keep it healthy. Why not let the predator animals such as coyote deal with the dear population naturally AS INTENDED !! and get the bounties off their backs. Just saying.
If you read Mark’s commentary on the fisherman caught in a dispute with a land owner, I think it is more than fair to admit that the Game and Fisheries Departments in any state are not all about standing up for hunters or fishermen, not even sure they are actually “its constituents”. They are a regulation and oversight department tasked with collecting fees and maintaining statistics IMO.
This situation is exactly the same, you all just support one effort and decry the other. That is all. YOU (collective not you personally) were not putting on the show and YOU were not the ones who should have decided what was and was not displayed.
No big surprise “Cali” did this. They got rid of one of their top Game officials because he went on and killed a perfectly legal mountain lion on a legal hunt. Then turned around and held public hearings in which the California hunters were overwhelming in their numbers but catered to the HSUS and banned bear hunting and bobcat hunting with hounds.
Sandi Saunders, what pleasure could you possibly get from coming to a site where you are obviously not welcomed by the majority of participants, not respected for your opinions, and just generally seen as a pain in the A$$. You are not going to change one hunters views on here and nobody sees you as a great crusader except yourself. Are you just into the abuse thing?
Have any of you read the stories of recent coyote attack in Illinois.
Pack of coyotes attack Chicago home busting a glass door
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CD0QFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.examiner.com%2Farticle%2Fpack-of-coyotes-attack-chicago-home-busting-a-glass-door%3Fcid%3Drss&ei=1uQHUdvSD4nm0QHR5oCABA&usg=AFQjCNHqJcTYq92iSjJDIR0LBgeedO77Xw&bvm=bv.41524429,d.dmQ
Running the coyotes with an air rifle is classic under kill.
I am big into pointing out the hypocrisy thing R Sprinkle and yeah, that is a “pain in the A$$”. It should be. I did not realize a blog should be limited to those who agree with their host and fellow bloggers, could you spread that idea around? I would sure be grateful if others followed your rule. I would also then be glad too.
Karen — Tom’s column noted that coyotes have actually become so numerous that they are threatening the balance. That said, there is plenty of evidence that suggests that hunting coyotes doesn’t have any significant long-term impact the overall coyote population, and also evidence that bounties don’t have any long-term impact on overall coyote populations.
And, Sandi, I’ve said it before: You are welcome here. It’s good to have people out there forcing us to justify our positions.
Thanks Mark Taylor, I have no intention of becoming a regular. I hop around blogs and when something jumps out at me, I notice and when I see a question asked of me, I answer it.
Yes, isn’t that pitiful? Daring to think that any species on earth matters at all? After all, only humans count, right? Since we’ve done such a good job of taking care of the earth and all.
You didn’t actually read the column, did you, garc?
Perhaps Miz Fearing should watch footage of several adult wolves/coyotes tearing a fawn apart, literally limb from limb, and then decide if the predators need thinning out, or at the very least some serious counseling.
MT, it’s your blog to run as you see fit and I have no problem with that. However, I personally do not want to see this blog turn into a “us against them” debate platform where every point has someone just waiting to contest it and if Sandi, by her own words, just jumps from blog to blog to find something to disagree with then she does not have a set agenda like most of the people do on here, which is hunting not debating.There have been plenty of heated debates on here and I have been in some of them myself as you know. I don’t mind hunters debating their own issues but when people with no vested interest in the subject except to argue go from blog to blog I think it just detracts from the enjoyment of visiting with a group of one’s peers. Sandi was defending the HSUS in her first post and if that is not inflamatory on a hunting blog then I don’t know what would be. I think Sandi is more out for debating for her personal enjoyment and ego than for contributing to the enjoyment of hunting, fishing, and the outdoors like the vast majority of the followers of this blog. If this blog goes away they could care less, they will just find another one to argue on. “That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.LOL”
R Sprinkle — I don’t want this blog to turn into that, either, even though it might help my traffic. I don’t think it will get to that. Unlike some other general interest blogs that attract a really diverse readership, this one is pretty specific. Most of us are on the same page on most things. We love the outdoors, specifically hunting and fishing. We can still have great debates among those of us who think alike on many issues, but not all issues. You’ve been a key cog in some of those! Thanks! We’ve all learned something from along the way. (I hope we have, at least!) We’ve had some interlopers, too. We have a little fun shooting down their logic on certain things. (At least I have!)
By the way, over on the Roundtable blog (http://blogs.roanoke.com/roundtable/2013/01/logic-and-continuing-the-sunday-hunting-ban/)our “vegetarian” and “animal-loving” friend Sandi is sticking up for hunters and calling the Sunday hunting ban “grossly unfair.” Thanks, Sandi!
With the price of ammo skyrocketing the state of Virginia don’t have to raise the price of a fishing or hunting license again. So why is the Sunday hunting ban still in place?
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