Hunters Once Again Getting A Bad Rap
July 10, 2009
Fairfield, Connecticut has an overgrown deer population, with some estimates as high as 75 deer per square mile. The Fairfield Conservation Commission wants to begin allowing hunting on public lands to cull the herd. That doesn’t sit very well with those animal advocates who don’t believe in killing animals. No surprise there.
In an article in the Connecticut Post, from the animal lovers and protectors we can read all the same usual unsubstantiated horse manure about why hunting is not the answer to the problem – deer don’t cause Lyme disease, hunting deer causes the reproductive rate to increase resulting in even more deer, yada, yada, yada.
But this one person, Debbie Lake, a resident of Fairfield said this about hunters:
[hunters] “are going to wind up killing dogs or kids, or anything,”
I would comfortably say that this is a classic example of fear mongering. But what is just as maddening is that the reporter never once questions any of these bold statements, especially one that accuses hunters as being some kind of domestic terrorist, caring for nothing but a kill and willing to take out dogs, kids or “anything”, whatever that is supposed to mean.
Tom Remington
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This Debbie person must live a lonely and boring life if she has nothing better to do than to make such stupid remarks as to say next we will be shooting dogs and kids.
I’ve been working in the Outfitting business for thirty years and have not heard the first hunter ask to shoot a dog or kid while hunting with me.
This woman needs a life.
A Dog running by itself or other dogs in a “PACK” in the big woods are generally up to no good. Since I was a young boy my betters always told me “If you see any dogs while were in here Shoot em there running deer!” Of course we drawl the line at kids. If you love your dogs keep them on a leash. Could say the same about some of your kids too!
Another serious problem involves dogs running uncontrolled in the woods. Each year, domestic dogs kill deer throughout New Brunswick. Deer face many natural hardships and challenges, but this is one which people can do something about. People who don’t properly confine their dogs can be charged and fined, and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has the authority to destroy dogs found running at large in the forests. Conservation officers have observed a number of dogs harassing deer in the southern part of the province where fields are bare, and have subsequently destroyed the dogs. Dogs running at large should be reported to the nearest DNR office.
2. Hunters aren’t dangerous, inept, or trigger-happy.
Hunting would seem more prone to accidents and fatalities than outdoor activities that don’t use firearms. Not so. According to National Safety Council statistics, far more people per 100,000 participants are injured while bicycling or playing baseball than while hunting. And the Council’s most recent statistics show that while roughly 100 people die nationwide in hunting accidents each year, more than 1,500 die in swimming-related incidents.
One reason for hunting’s safety record: Most states require young hunters to pass a firearms safety course. In Minnesota alone, 4,000 volunteer instructors give firearms safety training to 20,000 young hunters each year.
Just as they handle their gun cautiously, so do most hunters strive to kill game as cleanly as possible. Hunters practice their marksmanship, study wildlife behavior and biology, and take pains to follow a wounded animal to ensure any suffering ends quickly.
As do all activities, hunting has its share of scofflaws. But most hunters obey the law and act ethically. To nab the wrongdoers among them, hunters created Turn In Poachers, a nonprofit organization that offers rewards for information leading to the arrest of fish and game law violators.
We just have to keep putting the facts out.
Have a neighbor who Absolutely will not allow a firearm in her house. Believes some statistic that states her children will die if a firearm is kept in her house? But she had no objection to me using my .22 to kill a woodchuck that had taken residence up under her garage and was foraging too close to her children?? She was scared it might turn rabid! Why all this unfounded fear? Can anyone tell me why this kind of thinking has been allowed to spread through our Nation like a cancer?? Is this what we get from HIGHER EDUCATION?? (Young woodchuck too tasted great!) I didn’t tell her how I disposed of it. Just hinted that it might end up in the septic tank
Someone should send “Debbie” this link…If the zoos all over the country and world are broke guess what…YOU CAN BLAME IT HUNTERS I SUPPOSE…Chili is ready folks grab your plate…
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/money/20021259/detail.html
I just had another thought as well, where is HSUS ? PETA ? Now is a perfect opportunity to save the day…Probably to busy inventing lies about hunters and hunting to be concerned with kidnapped zoo animals being put down due to misguided trust in a fiat banking empire…
Bad rap, indeed, Tom…As George noted, the statistics quoted used, “no hunting on public space, no matter how controlled, can be entirely safe.
“It will not work,” she said, suggesting that large public lands won’t be roped off and many people may miss signs that will be posted about the controlled hunts, especially children.
In addition, Gorfinkle said hunters wound or kill 1,000 people in the United States each year.”
As far as I could determine, the only source for those SUPPOSED facts, were an anti-hunting website which was identical to the one quoted, and there was absolutely no references as to where such figures were ……After checking the Bureau of Vital Statistics, I could find nothing at all to support this. And as George notes, no sport can be ABSOLUTELY SAFE…and neither is life itself…but it is safer than many other sports….