Dec 22, 2010: Ramming Texas
 

This is the extreme, most photogenic, part of the reintroducing Bighorn Sheep in Texas.

http://cellar.org/2010/bighorn.jpg

A lot of people are unaware of the extra taxes tacked on to all hunting and fishing supplies, which are use for state and federal wildlife programs. Without those taxes from sportsmen, many environmental programs would disappear.

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As long as they don't get in the way of the ranchers...

cover my eyes! I can't look!

Isn't that why they're moving them to the park?

This should be moved to the the "favorite oxymoron" thread

Why is that? 40 years ago the sheep had been decimated. Now, through this program, they are back to 2/3 of the original levels.

Hunters have traditionally been the biggest supporters of animal habitats. We know, if you don't take care of the cute little bambis in the woods, you will not get to go out and shoot them to make delicious, delicious venison sausage.

It is farmers that usually hate the wildlife messing up their lands. (If that farmer is not a hunter. But in Minnesota, most farmers are hunters and so understand animal conservation too.)

I guess they didn't have permit auctions back then :rolleyes:

But I do like the names of the two groups...
"The WILD Sheep Foundation" and the "Dallas SAFARI Club"
They conjure up such romantic images.

I can just see myself prowling through the skyscrapers of Dallas,
spotting the animals on ledges with my $1K Leupold scope,
and after the kill, mounting the beast on the wall of my den.
Oh, there's Mrs Palin and her caribou on TV

Ah, such sweet memories of "the hunt"

So I get from your post Lamplighter that you are adverse to hunting rights and don't support the environmentalism that is conducted through hunting taxes, license plates, and other things. You have sufficiently demonized a right to hunt.

I think they are great programs. Our hunting programs in GA support tons of wildlife conservation programs, many that have little if anything to do with hunting, and I am glad to do it. I also support the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

Here is an example of some of their work.

http://www.rmef.org/NewsandMedia/NewsReleases/

You expect that they'll stay in the park? Animals don't often understand our boundaries, and are usually given less room than they really need/want.

I think Lamp is saying the oxymoron is that the funding from hunting wouldn't even be needed if the animals hadn't been over-hunted in the first place.

Come on Merc, lighten up.
Do you really think that living in Oregon and being married
to a girl from Montana, I would demonize the "right to hunt" ?

I do have a problem with hypocrisy when it's essentially only the landed-gentry
and the wealthy that can afford the "right".
If you follow the news about "trophy" hunts you already understand what I mean.

Public hunting of bighorn does occur in very limited numbers and the chance for a hunt is highly prized.
[Texas] Parks and Wildife issued a total of 15 permits in 2008-09,
11 of which went to private landowners near wildlife management areas.
Of the remaining four permits, one Elephant Mountain permit was donated to a
Wild Sheep Foundation auction and brought $70,000;
one was a part of the Texas Grand Slam drawing and two were public hunter drawings.

And the results are....

As the lucky winner of this year's Big Time Texas Hunts crown jewel, the Texas Grand Slam hunt package,
Garcia receives four separate guided hunts for Texas' most prized big game animals
- desert bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, pronghorn antelope and mule deer.

All told, hunters bought 64,759 Big Time Texas Hunt entries during this year's sales period through the Oct. 15 deadline.
This generated about $620,000 in gross revenue to support wildlife research, habitat management and public hunting.

I'm gathering information on you, post by post...

I'm against hunting unless you're going to eat/sell the meat.

keeping a "stalker diary"?

I'll bet those orange bags had lots of little brown things to empty out.
Do you suppose they gave them the choice of scanning or patting down before the flight?