ega@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu (Everette G. Allen) (11/16/88)
So Joyce now that you have made you position clear, lets talk about the real issues here. First I should not need to tell you that education is the primary need to help wildlife. The mere fact that you are so upset at fishermen as well as hunters indicates that hunting alone is not the problem. Let me make my position clear before I go on. I am a hunter, a trapper, a fisherman and I have a BS in Wildlife Biology. Wether I can hunt or trap or fish is a *POLITICAL* issue not a biological issue. I don't have to tell you that loss of habitat is the greatest killer of wild creatures today. I have great respect for the outdoors as well as the creatures in it. I have lived on a farm all of my life. When I am in the woods I take care of them ie pack out trash etc even if I didn't bring the trash in. You and every other person I have ever seen flame hunters and every consumptive user I have ever seen flame non-consumptive users of wildlife have the wrong attitude. Sure each can blame the other. Great, now we have a war to fight in the House or the Senate, but the critters you keep picking up each day keep right on dieing or getting hurt because no body is doing anything real. Wildlife rehab is great, I think that you and folks like you do a great job, but most of you arn't creating any habitat to put those animals back into. Some groups are, and we need more of that. BUT UNTIL PEOPLE BEGIN TO LOOK AT THE EARTH AS A WHOLE COMMUNITY AND ** RESPECT ** IT we arn't going to get very far. So the real issue here is how can we get hunters and bird watchers and trappers and photographers to pull together side by side to preserve habitat and quit doing stupid things like throwing down 6-pack rings and mono line?? Answer = EDUCATION. My rifle kills once, ignorance kills over and over and over. I am at this moment involved in planning a lobby for MANDATORY hunter safty here in North Carolina. I have given and hope to continue to give programs to k-12 school childern on practical environmental ethics. I am neither consumer nor non-consumer oriented in these just see the world as a whole ecosystem and take care of it. I am with you: do away with all wildlife enforcement, but put that money into education. You, I am sure, are one of the people who can and does educate all people when you get your chance. This is great, the more we can do it the better. But please work with me and don't shrug me off as a lunatic like the folks you have encountered just because I hunt. I enjoy being in the woods or on the river because I get to be there and see nature. I kill to have hunted. I eat what I kill and I enjoy all phases of the process. I want my children to grow up on a farm where they will learn about life and ethics by living them not by talking about them. I hope they will understand hunting and see it the way I do. Remember death has its place for all of us and all living creatures. Your answer to preventing suffering is to heal individuals. My answer is to kill individuals and leave an opening in the habitat. In this country we have a right to take different views on how things should be solved. What we have to do is put aside these differences and work to save land and educate people side by side before its is too late to do anything. If you want to really save wildlife, buy 100 acres of land and let it grow up, become a primary school teacher and teach land ethics and conservation to your students, retire early, move to Washington, DC and become a strong pro-environment lobbist. These are the real issues. You and I are going to have to deal with them or be prepared to loose the wildlife we love. So I say channel your anger into education and leave the antihunting politics in rec.politics. BTW, This is not a flame it is a call to arms. If anyone out there can comprehend this stand with us by teaching your children good outdoor ethics. The choice is ours: fight among ourselves or fight the real battle together. Everette Allen Associate Wildlife Biologist EVERETTE@NCSUVM.NCSU.EDU Disclaimer: If I didn't think this way I wouldn't live the way I do.
jimf@ihlpf.ATT.COM (YES) (11/16/88)
In article <2327@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>, ega@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu (Everette G. Allen) writes: > that hunting alone is not the problem. Let me make my > position clear before I go on. I am a hunter, a trapper, > a fisherman and I have a BS in Wildlife Biology. > Wether I can hunt or trap or fish is a *POLITICAL* > issue not a biological issue. I don't have to tell you > that loss of habitat is the greatest killer of wild > creatures today. I have great respect for the outdoors > as well as the creatures in it. I have lived on a farm all > of my life. When I am in the woods I take care of them ie I haven't hunted for years, but I believe that my hunting experiences with my Dad when I was a kid are the reason why I've always loved the outdoors. Nothing makes me madder than idiots who litter or don't respect Nature but in my experience, the vast majority of these folks have never hunted in their lives and grew up in an urban environment. I agree with the above article that education is the key - but I believe it's more important that city folks get educated than hunters. If this doesn't happen, more development and destruction of habitat will occur. I'm more concerned with the mayor of Aurora who wants to put an industrial park in a Forest Preserve than with a few spent shotgun shells (not that that's OK). The vast majority of mayors, governors, senators, etc. favor development without end, since anything that brings in tax dollars is good. What the hell good is a good tax base when you've made your own community an undesirable place to live because of the traffic, pollution, etc, etc. The real threat to wildlife is politicians, developers, and Raygun (and George, son of Raygun).
jla@inuxd.UUCP (Joyce Andrews) (11/17/88)
> So Joyce now that you have made you position clear, > lets talk about the real issues here. First > a great job, but most of you arn't creating any habitat to put those > animals back into. Some groups are, and we need more of that. BUT > be prepared to loose the wildlife we love. So I say > channel your anger into education and leave the antihunting > politics in rec.politics. > > Everette Allen > Associate Wildlife Biologist > Yeah, Everette, you're right. I was being a complaining bitch because I'd just tried to fix the severed tendon of a great white heron. And because my son, whose job includes feeding an American crocodile (one of about 50 left in the world) who is blind because she was shot in the head, had just mentioned that he was worried about her health. And I was too angry to think straight. So I will do more, including trying to save the paradise where I live. The education part I will handle by taking our three educational birds to the local schools (an osprey who ran into monofilament line, a broad-winged hawk with one wing shot off, and a brain-damaged cormorant whose background would take too long to explain). I think we will find that Bush will do more for conservation than most people think. While the present administration hasn't given us much thought, I think we will find Bush will do better. He is a hunter and fisherman, and the vacation White House will be here in the Florida Keys, where he fishes the back country for tarpon and bonefish. He has shown his concern for the Everglades. I hope he can keep it up. Thanks for putting me back on the track. -- Joyce Andrews King att!inuxd!jla AT&T, Indianapolis (This message brought to you from the Florida Keys via the miracle of modern communications.)