Great article on hunting and hunters...

[IA_Seth]

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2007-11/hunters/poole-text.html

(snip)

The great irony is that many species might not survive at all were it not for hunters trying to kill them. All the wings provided to Norman Saake and his colleagues throughout the country come from hunters, who fold them into prepaid envelopes, record the date and place of harvest, and mail them in. It is but one example of how the nation’s 12.5 million hunters have become essential partners in wildlife management. They have paid more than 700 million dollars for duck stamps, which have added 5.2 million acres to the National Wildlife Refuge System since 1934, when the first stamps were issued. They pay millions of dollars for licenses, tags, and permits each year, which helps finance state game agencies. They contribute more than 250 million dollars annually in excise taxes on guns, ammunition, and other equipment, which largely pays for new public game lands. Hunters in the private sector also play a growing role in conserving wildlife.

(snip)

Hunters of more modest means contribute to conservation in other ways, giving 280 million dollars annually to organizations such as Pheasants Forever, the Ruffed Grouse Society, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Quail Unlimited, and other nonprofit groups, which sponsor scientific research for particular species and maintain important habitat. Since its formation in 1937, Ducks Unlimited has conserved more than 11 million acres (4.5 million hectares) of wetlands and associated uplands. Hunters also focus public attention on conservation issues in state legislatures, in Congress, and in the marketplace. When you buy a camouflage camisole ($24.99) from the Ducks Unlimited catalog, a portion of the proceeds goes to conservation projects. If you visit Bozeman, Montana, and buy a pair of Schnee’s Pac boots, you will find a tag dangling from the laces, along with a promise that the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation will receive some of your money for elk conservation projects.

(snip)

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I thought this was a sad part though, and this is what happens when we abandon hunters for the Republicans to pick up....

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(snip)

Elsewhere, hunters illegally bait for ducks, kill over their limits, ignore the season, spray houses with bird shot, and argue with landowners who catch them trespassing. Even some people who hunt legally do not hunt ethically, leaving mortally wounded prey to flop around while they pose for photographs, piling up kills they have no intention of eating, treating their quarry as just another commodity.

“When you’re hunting,” said Grayson Chesser, a Virginia waterfowl guide and decoy carver, “you have to be ethical. You have to come to terms with the impact you have on other creatures. But I’m afraid we’re seeing a new generation of hunters who are disconnected from tradition. Half the time, they don’t even know what they’re shooting—they’re so obsessed with the latest gun, the latest camo pattern. And they think you’re some kind of sissy if you don’t get your limit

(snip)

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[Annces]

1. It is a closed system

Hunters pay, because the state sets it up that way. They take the monies and then the hunters and the wildlife agencies use the lands and the animals for their own purposes, sports hunting. Their own private scam. In Wisconsin, people have tried to change the system, so all citizens pay a fee for the wildlife, and all citizens get to vote on how to manage the wildlife, but the DNR keeps things so that the general public is not involved at all.

http://www.hsus.org/press_and_publications/press_releases/national_wildlife_refuge_week_100407.html

[LeftyMom]

2. which is why wildlife is "managed" in a way advantageous to hunters.

The most obvious example is deer. If hunting was legitimately intended to reduce the deer population the majority of tags would be for does. But that's not what hunters want to kill, so :shrug:

Likewise, other management options like reintroduction of predators (gee, you think we could let nature do it?) or contraceptives rarely even get tried. Shooting animals for fun is a big business.

[IA_Seth]

3. The majority of tags ARE for does..

With specialized doe-only seasons designed specifically to control the deer population. In Iowa anyway.

Regarding the reintroduction of predators, WE are the reason that nature failed in keeping them around, how exactly would nature bring them back without our help? We have consumed too many of the resources required already.

[LeftyMom]

4. Often the only issue is that somebody-

coughhunterscough- shot most or all of them. Reintroductions tend to go well as long as there's adequate food the area's not ridiculously urban. Although in many areas all it takes it to stop killing the predators, as was the case here in California with mountain lions.