Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! In this episode, Joe re-visits some of his favorite segments from the previous year. Some commentary on fair chase and the latest outdoor news too!
This weeks links:
Fireplace of death!
80 year old needs a hobby.
What is "fair chase"?
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Saturday, November 24, 2007
Episode #50 Happy Thanksgiving!! Best of the best show.
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5 comments:
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Great show Joe, loved hearing the "best of's". Keep up the great work my friend!
Now put that mic down, get your gun and go get that deer you've been talking about!
Hunt Safe,
Mark Mingain
www.RIHunts.com
www.NEHunts.com
Hey Joe!
You are right about the fair chase issue and that if it is legal, it is ethical but I cannot, on principle, call waiting near truck loads of sugar beets and other bait for the "big one" that has been coming in every evening to eat for the last month "hunting". I personally believe that it gives the sport on a whole a bad name in the eyes of those who do not hunt. Don't get me wrong, I am not against the baiting of deer by any measure. As a matter of fact, in my area I don't think you can kill enough of them, as they have become a nuisance. The problem I have with baiting is calling it "hunting" as that is very far from being accurate. I am not looking to divide the outdoor community nor do I wish to give fuel to the anti-everything bunch, but calling "harvesting" a deer over bait "hunting" is like calling someone who watches football every Sunday while drinking beer and eating potato chips from the comfort of his Barcalounger, an athlete. I would be very much in favor of a two license system, a "hunting" license and a "harvesting" license. When you go out and track, stalk and kill a deer, that is hunting. When you shoot a deer over a mountain of apples from the comfort of a "blind" the size of a small nation, with heat, running water, satellite tv, bed, refridgerator... that just equals paying a ton of money per pound for venison. Once again, I am not against it at all, I'm just against calling it "hunting". Keep up the good work.
Braver, the divisions in the outdoor community are far deeper than My way or th highway. The greatest amount of damage to the sport of hunting comes from the lack of true knowledge in the public. Just as with firearms the public sees what is on TV and makes a judgment based solely on that. Not on facts. Baiting is not what it seems on the surface via the anti propaganda. Where I live baiting is not legal but hunting cultivated land is. But it seems to me that a man who baits is no different than a man who looks to the forest floor for acorns and apples to determine the best location to up his chances of bringing home dinner. The only real difference is that where baiting is legal is usually where food sources for the animals is intermittent and human intervention helps both the deer and the human.
Hey Tim, I agree with you for the most part but I guess the way we see things depends on where we are standing. In my area both food and deer are plentiful but I could hardley equate the baiting I see here as being the same as what would be found on the forest floor or even a farmers field. I worked for a place that would sell sugar beets to "hunters" by the truckload (there are other places that do the same in my area). They had a tractor with a bucket to load trucks full of beets. On average they would sell 8 to 10 dumptruck loads of beets per season. You can defend baiting until the end of time and I will stand right there and defend it too but these guys give hunting on a whole a bad name. It basically says "I'm too lazy to do the work it takes to get my deer". When these mountains of bait are sitting in a parking lot in full view of the public it paints a very negative view of hunting in the eye of the non-hunting public (let alone the anti-hunters).
Ultimately it boils down to this: Baiting, where legal, is a draw to animals not a guarantee as to when they will be there and that they will not be less aware of the hunters presence.
You are right that it is not the same, neither is sitting in a tree, pursuing with dogs, having friends drive deer and spot and stalk. All different methods to attain the end goal. The problem arises when the antis see you me and Joe debating the issue and take our disagreement to mean that 1/3 of hunters do not support baiting. They are masters of making a mountain out of a molehill with our own disagreements and since the money they raise is strictly used for litigation and legislation while hunters money is spent on real programs that benefit wildlife. They use our divisions and their money to skew data, lie to the non hunting public and claim victories that are not good for the animals or for the truth.
If you choose not to exercise a particular method don't, but at the same time don't disparage what another does if it is legal. There could come a time when a particular method that was outlawed by our apathy becomes vital for the survival of another species, just look at cougar hunting in California or the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone.
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