Posted on 12/09/2003 7:11:23 AM PST by presidio9
W
ASHINGTON — This fall, more than 10 million Americans went hunting. Some met with success, maybe even managing to bring home some ducks or geese or a deer. Of those who returned empty-handed, many did so with the knowledge that a fair hunt comes with no guarantees.
A growing number of people, however, are embracing a different set of rules — they're taking part in hunts that are largely rigged. In the United States, there are at least 4,000 "canned hunting" operations, where people may pay thousands of dollars to pursue trophy animals that have little chance to escape. Bird-shooting operations offer pheasants, quail, partridges and mallard ducks, sometimes dizzying the birds and planting them in front of hunters or tossing them from towers toward waiting shotguns.
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At ranches catering to big-game enthusiasts, hunters can shoot exotic species native to five continents — everything from addax to zebra. "Tired of traveling, spending money and coming home with nothing to show for it?" reads an advertisement on the Web site for Old Stone Fence Hunting Adventures in Rensselaer Falls, N.Y. "Book your successful trophy hunt today! . . . No license required; no harvest — no charge." Though enterprises like this claim to offer "fair chase" hunts, the promise is hollow, since the animals are confined in fences and the money changes hands only if the hunter gets a trophy.
How does an Arabian oryx or a Russian boar find its way to a hunting ground in Pennsylvania or Texas? Many are obtained at exotic animal auctions. A sale at one auction last year included zebras, camels, ostriches, kangaroos and lion cubs — some destined for canned hunts, some for private collections. The three-day sale of 3,225 animals brought in more than $1.5 million.
Of course, no one would expect someone like me — a person who works for the Humane Society — to support canned hunting. But in this fight, animal advocates are not alone. A good many hunters also find the practice abhorrent. In its 2003 national hunting survey, Field & Stream magazine asked readers what they thought about hunting animals "in enclosures or fenced-in ranches." Sixty-five percent of those who responded opposed the practice; 12 percent endorsed it and 23 percent said they had no opinion. Game ranches have also been denounced by a number of outdoor sporting groups, including the Izaak Walton League of America, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and the Boone and Crockett Club, which oversees national hunting records.
The hunts go on, though, in part because they have the support of the National Rifle Association and Safari Club International, a pre-eminent trophy hunting organization.
In fact, it's the Safari Club's award program that helps to drive patronage of canned hunting operations. To win the club's Africa Big Five award, for example, you have to go to Africa to shoot the elephant, the rhinoceros and the leopard, but you can pick off the Cape buffalo and the lion in the United States. There is even an award for Introduced Trophy Animals of North America, in which you can do all your hunting for 18 different species right here at home. In fact, you can shoot all of the species for an award category at just one place. It's one-stop shopping. No more expensive fortnights in the wilds of Africa — and no one to know whether the head mounted above the mantel came from Asia or Oklahoma.
But canned hunting is more than crass — it's cruel. Animals are sometimes drugged, shot in their cages or at a feeder, or killed slowly with spears. Despite this, only 13 states have passed laws to ban canned hunts involving mammals. This year, New York almost passed such a law, but it was vetoed in August by Gov. George Pataki. New York lawmakers should try again. And so should legislators in other states and in Congress, which has the authority to ban the interstate transport of exotic mammals destined for canned hunts.
Canned hunting belongs in the same category as other forms of animal abuse, like cockfighting and bullfighting. It's hard on animals and easy on people — and it should be against the law.
That said this is nothing more than a 'divide and conquer' strategy against ALL hunting by the wackos at the HSUS(not your pet rescue groups).
Where I live there are no free-ranging boar, so if you want to hunt one, you have to go to a preserve. The place I went to was huge (over a thousand acres), very hilly, rough country - in short, it felt more like a "real" hunt than a so-called "canned hunt". The preserve was in the same area of southern Ohio where I hunt wild whitetails and turkey, and I guarantee it's not a 'pen shoot".
I took my boar on foot, stalking, with a bow.
The owner of the place told me that Lou Ferigno (the Incredible Hulk) had killed a boar there with a knife. That was the first time I'd ever heard of that, and I must admit I thought he must be nuts!
I probably wouldn't bother going to a preserve again, but I'm a much more experienced hunter now. I'm sure there are sleazy places out there that do all the evil stuff we've seen talked about here (although "drugging them" is a new one to me), but that wasn't anywhere close to my experience.
And yeah. Guys who consider themselves "real hunters" tend to shun them, because they aren't as challenging as fair chase. But that's not why the "Animal Rights" extremists want to shut them down. They just don't like hunting period. I've already picked sides on this issue, and I'm on the opposite side of PETA, whatever their position is on a subject.
Tell me about it! Standing 15 feet away in a shady canyon, with the boar clicking it's tusks and the hair on it's back bristling as he got ready to charge, I thought he looked more like a rhinoscerous than a big pig.
Take care...
Stay Safe !
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