Dec 22, 2010: Ramming Texas

[morethanpretty]

Originally Posted by Sundae Girl

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

keeping a "stalker diary"?

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

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" ?

Yep. You just did it.

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.

Oh, I see, back to the liberal BS of class warfare. Those who have vs those who have not. Typical eh?

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

This generated about $620,000 in gross revenue to support wildlife research, habitat management and public hunting.

OMG How terrible!

You frigging bleeding hearts are all about the Gooberment supporting your pet projects. See I am more on the side of the Gooberment would never support the conservation projects we support. So you want to take my tax dollars to support your little wart worm in the desert of Oregon, and we want to save the Elk with private dollars.

[kerosene]

I don't think I have met anyone who hunts, but not for the meat and most of the time also the hide. I suppose those kinds of people probably exist, but I don't see the point.

I think the program in the OP sounds great.

[Phage0070]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

I do have a problem with hypocrisy when it's essentially only the landed-gentry
and the wealthy that can afford the "right".

So we shouldn't have any extra taxes or fees for hunting licenses and hunting supplies so that everyone can afford it, right?

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by Phage0070

So we shouldn't have any extra taxes or fees for hunting licenses and hunting supplies so that everyone can afford it, right?

Hi Phage,
Hunters and fishermen do pay taxes and fees, etc., and I have no problem with that. I pay my fair share too.
But hypocrisy comes in when you look at the tiny numbers of "common folk" who get the permits for rare or trophy game.
It's very similar here in Oregon, as in Texas, Montana, Idaho, etc.

Here is the rest of that same quote... I just added the bold type

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

<snip>

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.

[morethanpretty]

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

[Diaphone Jim]

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?

[Lamplighter]

Seattlepi.com
ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press
Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Rule restricts hunting of rare exotic antelopes

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — For years, hundreds of Texas ranchers have made big money on exotic antelopes,
with hunters paying up to $10,000 to bag just one dama gazelle, a rare animal with short horns curving outward.



Starting Wednesday, however, the U.S. government will stop allowing anyone to hunt the dama gazelle
or two other exotic antelopes native to Africa, the addax and the scimitar-horned oryx
— unless ranchers obtain a permit.

The move to give the animals full protection under the federal Endangered Species Act
is being praised by animal-rights groups that abhor such hunts
and has upset the ranchers whose efforts have led to a rise in the numbers of those exotic animals.
The ranchers say they won't be able to afford the upkeep for their antelopes
— but they also can't legally kill the entire herds or release them.
<snip>

.

[Coign]

Originally Posted by Lamplighter

The ranchers say they won't be able to afford the upkeep for their antelopes
— but they also can't legally kill the entire herds or release them.

So is the answer then that since the Ranchers can't afford to do upkeep, they just let them starve? Then the animals "die off on their own"?

I hate when hippies go after hunters. Being originally from Minnesota I can tell you with certainty two facts. Minnesota hunters are the BEST animal conservationists. And from knowing loggers that went to school with me, if you love trees, buy paper and use wood. Loggers in Minnesota plant more trees then they cut down.

[ZenGum]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Helicopter tea-bagging!

[Griff]

PA has a similar situation when it comes to Elk hunting but has a lottery system where everyone pays a small fee to enter and a limited but growing number of permits are handed out. They have had great success rebuilding the elk herd with the money raised. The Game Commission has helped bring back a lot of wildlife, beyond game animals, in PA using hunting generated dollars. They also avoid the Texas scene where the richest guy in the room always gets the hunt. That seems like a recipe to build resentment and keep hunting a marginal activity.

Giving an economic value to wildlife may offend some sensibilities but in a place like PA with a lot of private land it helps to have a lot of stake-holders. It isn't much different from what the Costa Rican's have done with eco-tourism.

[TheMercenary]

None of that reflects the amount of money donated to conservation asshole.....

[morethanpretty]

@bruce and merc:

While herds were probably never extremely large, unregulated hunting and exposure to disease from contact with domestic sheep drastically reduced their numbers soon after white man began settling in West Texas.

Over-hunting played its part too.

There are many reasons for ranchers to hunt them, sure they're not a real danger to their livestock, but they do eat the grass/ect that they want to use for their own animals. I've never tried sheep, but it might taste good, and then you get the added bonus of those trophy horns. They could like destroy fences the ranchers put up, ect.

Link

[Elspode]

They could sell the rights to shoot at them as they were dropped from the slings for an extra $50k. I mean, hey...when do you get a chance to shoot a flying bighorn?