Moose hunting in ontario: the answer is simple

Adult moose hunting tags have been drastically diminished this year throughout a large portion of ontario's regularly hunted moose regions. These areas have shown lowered moose densities, based on the statistics of the provincial government. Given these findings, Ontario's government made changes.

As a hunter, fisherman, and trapper, I have very little to say on the subject. I only have one very simple, rational, logical, moral and proper thought, STOP SELLING CALF TAGS.

Ontario hunters have managed to halt many regulations including the abolishment of calf hunting.

The "solution" i am being given is "kill fewer adults, but kill all the babies you'd like"???? 

Please explain to me how killing fewer adults is the solution to our moose population problem. please.

To explain my position, i will use fishing as my example. You see, where i live, i am not allowed to kill, keep or eat ANY musky (muskellunge) unless it is over three feet, This makes sense to me, young fish are protected to insure the future of the population. Furthermore, as a pickerel (walleye) fisherman, i can only keep one fish OVER 18.1 inches, safeguarding the breeding portion of the adult population.

In ontario, if you want to hunt an adult moose, you are put into a lottery, if you're chosen then you can kill a cow or bull (depending on your lottery pool results.) HOWEVER if you want to kill a calf (baby) moose, you only need to buy a tag.

Adult moose hunting is heavily regulated, but as a licensed hunter you can kill a baby moose no problem. just pay a fee, there's no lottery, because ontario doesn't care how many baby moose are killed. These moose are killed without a mandatory reporting law. if i kill a turtle for food, i have to report it but if i kill a baby moose i don't. mhmmm.....

Dear Ontario,

stop killing calf moose. It is a VERY simple management equation, killing babies=fewer adults. 

thank you for your time.

Fur Trapping: A vegan's necessity

Where I live, the muskrat and beaver trapping season is generally from October to may, it varies slightly within regions, but largely encompasses these months. This season is often discussed as a "winter season" although it tends to extend far beyond the melting of snow, and far prior to the freezing of lakes, depending on where you live.

This trapping season lasts longer than almost any hunting season, i am curious if you have ever wondered why? There is a very simple reason.

Commercial plant farmers live their lives, make their wages, and feed their families based on the quantity and quality of their harvests. These harvests are intensely affected by environment as well as regional fauna. If a beaver builds a damn, or muskrat eat a crop of corn. Farmer's lose out.

To combat this fact, farmers will sign off on trappers using their property to get fur. A seasonal haul of 2000-4500 muskrat would be a respectable number (depending on the year and area) for any single trapper.

The harvesting of furs here is regulated, however there is no mandatory census on the trapping of muskrat and beaver. Furthermore trapping is only regulated by season, not quantity.

The point i am trying to make, is that fur trapping where i live exists ONLY to benefit plant eating humans and farmers. If you have any problems with the fur trapping industry, i am asking you to sincerely consider the fact that without trapping, plant farming in a commercial sense, would not be feasible as it exists today. Serious trappers spend the entire year getting permission to trap on private farmland, because they know trapping is a mandatory part of farming. If you are a good and locally recognized trapper, you will receive the right to trap on a given farm. Trapping is so important that all lands are saturated by them. Trapping territories will divide themselves straight up the middle of a creek. This is the current state of trapping here but the reason for this situation was created long ago.

You see, mowing down natural environments to create farms, also created ecosystems that can only support a very small sampling of native species. Muskrat, beaver, raccoons, opossum, and deer tend to thrive in these environments in my area, If they aren't controlled by trappers (and hunters for deer and raccoons also,) then these crops of incredible produce would not be feasible. If you are a vegan, please understand that you HAVE to support reasonable and ethical trapping and killing. Trappers sell the furs to make a living. But, they only have a job as fur trappers so you can eat corn, peas, and beans.

As a vegan, you are aggravating two very serious situations:

1- Abuse and rape of wilderness lands so they grow only what you deem necessary.

2- Since your farms can only support some species (occasionally to excess) you need trappers to control those numbers. 

The statistics and reasons are incredibly simply. If you eat from a crop, than you euthanized countless generations of flora and fauna in the area the you've decided to farm and, if you want those unbalanced environments to exist WHILE still supporting your crops, then you need trappers to handle the lopsided ecosystem you created.

 How does that stop animal abuse? It doesn't. 

Moreover, if your local farmer feels that ANY animal is affecting his farm's yield, he is welcome legally, to kill anything that he considers a nuisance. A person's commercial farm is a money factory, not a moral one. Find me a Moral farm and you will find me an untouched wilderness.

Farming is animal abuse. Farms are not natural.

Trophy hunting: notes from a frustrated reader

Please read the article without notations here first.

http://outdoorcanada.ca/32593/hunting/article/in-defence-of-hunting-for-the-biggest-game-of-all

Trophy Fight

In defense of hunting for the biggest game of all

In a feature article I wrote for this very magazine in 2001, I recounted the hardships I faced during a bighorn sheep “trophy” (you weren’t meat hunting, be specific) hunt in Alberta’s Rockies. The ram I took on that adventure was a true trophy, with the age and score to back it up, and that is how I referred to it in my story.

To my surprise, (how on earth were you surprised? You write for Canada’s only national fishing and hunting magazine, you want us to believe you didn’t know prior to this article that some people don’t like trophy hunting? Don’t try and garner sympathy points by playing that you were somehow blindsided) the article prompted a letter from an irate reader, outraged that I would hunt an animal just for its horns and allow all the meat to go to waste on the steep mountainside. Nowhere in the article, however, did I discuss the meat (because the point of the hunt wasn’t the meat). While the horns were indeed my ultimate goal, I just thought everyone would have taken it for granted that the meat was equally important (you JUST said the ultimate goal was the horns, and inferred the meat wasn’t worth writing about. Don’t try and tell us the meat was equally important. It’s contradictory, and again chasing sympathy)—not to mention that I was legally bound to recover it (we will talk about laws later… stay tuned). The letter was my first real taste of the disdain for trophy hunters in some quarters (again, proving you weren’t blindsided since this implies you’ve had at least one previous “unreal” “taste of the disdain”).

Indeed, there’s no group of hunters surrounded by more controversy than trophy hunters, with most of the ill will born out of nothing more than ignorance (most? So you admit there is ill will born out of knowledge not ignorance? Thanks for the concession, and the insult, you’re gaining respect for trophy hunters by the second). Sure, there are bad folks in every crowd, but in most cases, a trophy hunter is nothing more than someone who chooses to pursue the biggest and most mature specimens (was that supposed to be a defense? Because all it does is outline why trophy hunters shouldn’t exist) while still respecting the laws (again, we will discuss laws later) of the land and the universal ethics of hunting (there is nothing ethical about trophy hunting, but more on that later as well).

Certainly the University of Alberta’s David Coltman didn’t help the cause of trophy hunters with his 2003 paper Undesirable Evolutionary Consequences of Trophy Hunting. While the paper created quite a stir upon its release, many notable wildlife experts later took Coltman and his co-authors to task for his conclusion that hunters had prompted the evolution of smaller-bodied and smaller-horned rams. The paper is now basically regarded as too limited in scope to have any universal value, with some even referring to it as junk science. (Is there a scientific paper on how trophy hunting helps wildlife? Didn’t think so. Furthermore, “too limited in scope” and “junk science” it may have been, but that doesn’t prove the conclusion wrong, it proves the method wrong. With a less limited scope, the conclusion could still be proved, could it not? So this whole paragraph of yours doesn’t prove that trophy hunters don’t “ prompt the evolution of smaller-bodied and smaller-horned rams” it just proves that one scientific paper had too small a data pool. What a waste of words.)

Nonetheless, Coltman’s paper briefly reared its ugly head again last year when Alberta’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Resource Development was looking at reducing sheep-hunting opportunities, citing the declining quality of rams in the province. The department quickly washed its hands of the paper, however, after being challenged by Alberta hunters. Trophy hunters are an easy target, I suppose, in part because some are driven by ego(trophy hunters can only be driven with ego, by definition. Please remove the word “some”). There’s a certain pride that comes “to some” (here’s a good place for the word “some.” Don’t lump all hunters into this category please and thank you) from taking a high-scoring animal, after all, with numerous clubs and organizations recognizing trophy animals and the people who hunt them (“some” of us don’t need a club to send us a certificate, or a list with our name on it). But with that ego typically (really? Typically? I’d be curious to see that scientific study) comes a commitment to the resource and to the heritage of hunting that is unmatched (so earlier we were “ignorant” for having ill will, and now we are “mostly” not matching your commitment to the “resource?” Again, you’re really ingratiating yourself to your viewership. Making fun of the people you are trying to convince and convert is an interesting approach) by most others in the hunting community.

I’m not saying that only (are we ignorant again? We knew what “typically” and “mostly” meant in the previous paragraph, but thank you for explaining things and talking nice and slow to us “ignorant” folk) trophy hunters work hard for conservation and our heritage (standing behind “heritage” is a really pathetic ploy. Give me a minute to ask my girlfriend if we should revoke her voting right because it was part of our heritage, I’ll be right back). But if you look at the prominent hunting and conservation groups in North America, most have a strong trophy-hunting component (are you going to jump off the bridge after me, because I did it too? Monkey see monkey do isn’t much of a defense. Other groups do it? That’s your proof of it’s righteousness?). I can’t see why an apology is required for that. (I really hope you regret this sentence someday)

Safari Club International, for example, is a global conservation and hunter advocacy group, and one of the leaders in promoting the benefits of trophy hunting across the globe. In 2011, the president of Safari Club International Foundation, Joseph Hosmer, testified before the U.S. Congress about the benefits of trophy hunting. According to Hosmer, hunters inject more than $200 million a year into the rural African economy alone (Damn, I forgot that money makes things ethically defensible, my fault). And without trophy hunters travelling to Africa, the future of wildlife in many areas of the continent would potentially become tenuous. (Interesting time to use a word like “would” on it’s own, don’t worry I fixed it for you. “Typically,” “most,” “mostly,” “many,” should you really be picking on scientific articles? Also, that entire final sentence is simply conjecture.)

Even here in North America, trophy hunting puts a lot of money into local economies (really? Money is again your defense?), while playing a major role in ensuring the future of wildlife in some regions (be honest here, “some” means that you want to ensure areas with “trophy” potential). Combine that with the countless hours that trophy hunters volunteer to promote conservation, and wildlife is the ultimate benefactor (except your ram, and any genetic lineage and offspring he could have sired, but you’re right, this is an article about wildlife winning).

In the end, trophy hunters are simply hunters who choose to travel, focus only on the mature males of a species and dedicate a lot of time to their passion. They practise good ethics (we’ll see about that), follow the law (again…. Give me a minute to broach this point) and promote the heritage (*coughs) of hunting. Why is it again that these dedicated people are so hated? (Thank you I needed a reason to write a follow up piece) They really are just hunters who pursue their passion for reasons that may differ from those of others (certainly can’t argue with that). I guess for some, that’s reason enough (it’s not, THAT their reasons differ, it’s HOW their reasons differ). And that’s a shame.

Vegetarianism: A Conservationists Twist

Please go to peta.org and read this article first, for context.

http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/

Factory Plant Farming: Cruelty to Animals

On todays factory plant farms, forests are clear cut by the thousands, into filthy, shadeless zones and largely left to rot cruelly, devastating entire ecological systems. These forests will never rise into old growth environments, supporting thousands of flora and fauna species by the acre, or do anything that is natural and important to them. Most aren’t even native species anymore, never feeling the sun of their natural lands or creating it’s fresh air until the day they are loaded into trucks bound for slaughter. The green landscapes and idyllic scenes of years past are now distant memories.

The factory plant farming industry strives to minimize costs—always at the wilderness’ expense. The giant corporations that run factory plant farms have found they can make more money by clear cutting, and replanting non-native but commercially viable species, and spraying chemicals to stop the growth of any other species, non-commercial trees get sick, and die. The Canadian government goes so far as to legislate clear-cut logging within provincial parks as long as it *“maintains appropriate aesthetic…Standards” for visitors #seenoevil.

Bear, moose, deer, wolf, fox, lynx, turkey, ducks, geese, and all other animals are killed or driven into extremely stressful conditions:

·      Kept in smaller environments and jam-packed forests or driven into filthy cities, often with so little space that they can’t survive or raise young comfortably.

·      Deprived of freedom and safety the mass extinction by starvation, predation, and human interaction of the entire animal population from the clear-cut area begins.

·      With a massive population increase, the invaded areas flora and fauna begins to dwindle as it’s eaten into sickness.

·      Replanted with non-native species, and sprayed with chemicals to ensure growth all native species of flora and fauna in the clear-cut area will never reoccur as it naturally would

When they have finally regrown large enough, forests raised by factory plant farmers are clear-cut again, loaded onto truck, and transported over many miles, leaving extreme conditions for a new generation of animal life, which are killed or flee once again. This nightmarish cycle is as cruel to animals as slitting their throats, even if done while they are still conscious. Diseases are spread, genetic pools recede, countless flora and fauna are killed or left to die or become extinct entirely.

You can help end this abuse. Stop farming, vegetarians can’t be conservationists, an animal free diet is not righteous. Every farm is genocide on natural flora and fauna.

An animal-free diet is an animal-free world. #clearcuttheworld

@charles_lambe

*http://www.algonquinpark.on.ca/pdf/management_plan.pdf

Algonquin Provincial Park, management plan, operation policies. 2002.