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There have been three major stories last week that won't help hunting. Two were so far out though, that the trickle down negative effects probably won't have much impact. The third is a bit scarier for bowhunters, but really isn't anything new.
Wisconsin Hunting Tragedy First, was the hunter shootings in Wisconsin. For those hiding in a cave, on Sunday November 21st, a non-resident deer gun hunter killed 6 other hunters in the woods of Wisconsin. Seems that around mid day, he got into a treestand, located on 400 posted acres. Two hunters with permission to hunt there found this guy in their tree stand and asked him to leave. One wrote the license number from his back tag on the dust on his 4-wheeler, and it was a lucky thing he did (though the guy probably would have been caught anyway). When the trespasser was 40 yards from the tree, he stopped, removed the scope from his semi automatic, and opened fire. One of the wounded hunters cell phoned friends at their nearby hunting cabin for help. Five came, and then a second group of hunters came, and in the next hour or so, six more hunters were shot. Of the eight wounded, six died. I'm sure PETA and others will try to make some antihunting hay out of this tragedy, but it won't go far. Right from the get go, it was obvious that a man with severe anger management problems went off the deep end. I've not heard any newscasters try to make more out of this than that. Not a word about how hunting causes aggression, or any such dumb, untrue statements. Actually, the interviews of hunters at the scene show compassionate, sympathetic, and caring people. Internet Hunting The second news item is just down right stupid, but for awhile it will be a hunting public relations problem. Seems that John Underwood from San Antonio went on the November 18 "Today Show" to talk about his new idea that uses technology to allow hunters to "shoot animals" over the Internet. Whoa. The "hunter" pays a fee that allows him to use a keyboard and mouse and remotely fire a rifle at a living animal. Now Underwood says that this will be for disabled hunters who can't get into the woods. Hmmm. How will he know? And even if it is just for the disabled, this whole idea reeks of bad judgment on his part. No matter how you cut and slice it, this ain't hunting. Have no fear, this won't come to pass. There are several legal issues that Underwood needs to solve before moving ahead with this hair-brained idea. But even if he somehow passes those issues, Texas legislators will create a law to prevent this from happening. Maybe he doesn't mean to, but Underwood is trying to make all hunters look bad. It won't stick. But the television urban-based media folks loved this one. AR Announcement - Bowhunting Targeted Finally, there comes the announcement that the Humane Society of the United States and the Fund For Animals will merge into a huge $96 million animal rights conglomerate. They immediately announced their goals, and one was to abolish bowhunting. The fact that these two groups want to abolish bowhunting isn't new. Joining together to do it doesn't change anything except put huge money into the process. The issues the animal rights groups have used to try to stop bowhunting remain the same. It isn't safe to use in suburban environments (yet no one has ever been injured in such bowhunts........hmmm???). Deer will run around the suburbs and city and county parks with arrows stuck in them (so rare that no reports are ever seen). Wounded deer go off and die a slow and painful death (I know, they've worn this out, even after the Camp Ripley wounding study showed extremely low wounding losses). Bowhunting is strictly recreational and plays no part in deer management (hmmm.....bowhunters take nearly 100,000 deer a year in Michigan, but that isn't management?). Even though the arguments this new merger will present to the press are not new....even though those arguments have been dealt with from a scientific front....even though the safety issue isn't really an issue ... the bowhunting community needs to unite on this and be pro-active. There are pamphlets out on the effectiveness of the bow, bow safety, urban bow hunts, wounding, the use of bowhunting as a management tool, and the problems with using contraception. Those pamphlets need to be distributed with new press releases to outdoor writers, state bow associations, newspaper columnists, and the bow community in general. A pro-active approach now will force the HSUS-FFA merger to focus on something other than bowhunting.
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