Heading out in the morning to help 'em some more.
Posted on 12/21/2008 11:21:17 AM PST by SJackson
To make up for years of writing that tends to annoy people with guns, let me take this opportunity to congratulate Wisconsin's deer hunters on a job well done. For decades now, I've written one of the few columns in the state about deer hunting from the deer's point of view. And every year I receive a flood of communications from hunters informing me how totally ignorant I am.
What I fail to realize, they patiently explain, is the vital role in wildlife management hunters perform for deer when they go Up North to blow away Bambi's mother. If they didn't reduce the size of the deer herd, they say, there would be too many deer and not enough food for the deer to eat over the winter. Deer hunters just stay up nights worrying about deer nutrition and never once do those deer ever say, "Thank you."
Besides, hunters point out, think of all the human lives they save by reducing the number of collisions between automobiles and deer on northern Wisconsin roads. Not only that, but too many deer can be devastating to Wisconsin's beautiful, natural vegetation, not to mention lovely suburban landscaping. Consider the lilies of the field. They toil not and neither do they spin, but their brilliant raiment gets ripped to shreds by voracious deer.
Well, it turns out hunters have done such a bang-up job of controlling the deer population that this year's deer "harvest," as they like to call it, was the lowest since 1993. During the nine-day gun season, hunters killed 276,985 deer, down 66,782 from a year ago. That was a drop of nearly 20 percent, and in some far northern counties it was more than 30 percent.
Mission accomplished. The deer in Wisconsin are so well controlled that there are hardly any around to control at all. Hunters now say they can go for days without even seeing a deer. It saves a lot of ammo.
The incredible shrinking deer herd is even more impressive when you realize Wisconsin hunters are accomplishing it with fewer hunters every year. Back in 2004, a study by the Wisconsin Conservation Congress and other pro-hunting groups found that for every 100 hunters who stopped hunting -- because they stopped breathing, joined PETA or whatever -- only 53 new hunters replaced them. Kids today! All they want to do is sit around playing video games where they pretend to blow away prostitutes and other urban wildlife. But can you get one of them to get up off that couch to go Up North to actually kill something? No way.
Concern over the thinning herd of aging deer hunters led Republicans in the Legislature a few years back to try to lower the hunting age from 12 to 8. The idea was to develop a healthy blood lust in children before they got old enough to be distracted by other varieties of lust. Unfortunately, other legislators got scared off by the vision of armed 8-year-olds scampering around the woods with guns as long as they were. The proposal failed.
No problem. Those aging deer hunters, even with their fading eyesight, have wiped out so many deer over the years they can doze off in their tree stands -- as many of them are wont to do -- and never miss a thing.
Now it's time for state hunters to rest on their laurels. They should be toasting each other on a job of killing well done. Think of all the healthy meals they have assured for surviving deer families this Christmas. Think of the car repairs they have spared northern Wisconsinites in this troubled economy.
Instead, our selfless hunters always want to do more. A growing number are complaining to the Department of Natural Resources that there aren't nearly enough deer left for them to heroically manage. It turns out hunting is really boring when you actually have to hunt for the deer. Hunters are never ones to blame themselves. They do what hunters always do -- blame the DNR. Or blame other predatory animals, particularly wolves and bears.
Wolves are icons in Wisconsin. Their pictures appear on state license plates purchased by people who care about the environment. A federal judge in Washington, D.C., recently overturned an attempt by the Bush administration to remove wolves from the endangered species list. But do wolves appreciate the honored place they hold as a vanishing symbol of the wild and free? Heck no. They behave like a pack of wild animals. They kill deer willy-nilly, not to mention the occasional suburban pet named Fifi. And don't even ask about what bears do in the woods.
If the DNR expects hunters to continue doing their crack job of deer management, it needs to encourage overpopulation to make it more like shooting deer in a barrel.
If you’d like to be on or off this Upper Midwest/outdoors/rural list please FR mail me. And ping me is you see articles of interest.
First, hunters do have a tendency to constantly complain about their game management department.
Second, this author is clearly an anti-hunting tool and should be ignored.
Now that is one poorly written article. I hope the editor of that paper knows what a terrible job he/she has done.
Heading out in the morning to help 'em some more.
Loses his cookies?
That’s one sarcastic, annoying article.
It’s a progressive paper, my guess the editor is pleased.
“The deer in Wisconsin are so well controlled that there are hardly any around to control at all . . .”
This statement alone shows how ignorant this writer is about his subject.
You mean the deer are not overpopulated there? They used to be. This is also one of the states that wanted to legalize shooting cats.
Joel McNally has been fired from left-wing papers for being too much of a left-wing crank.
He’s an old, angry, bitter former hippy who has been attacking hunters for 40 years.
Sarc/off
18,000 accidents in 2007, 15% to 20% of the total, suggests you're right. Besides, if there aren't any deer, hunting them is no more a threat to the enviornment than mammoth hunting.
And having fun doing it!
What a wasted read.
The state legislature could grant a $50.00 bounty for this guys ears.
The Second Amendment was NEVER about hunting game.
It is there to repel enemies of the Constitution. The deer are purely incidental, and exist more for target practice than as s source of sustenance. It is not the trophy of the hunt, but the hunt itself, that is the objective of turning deer hunters loose in the woods. This is a real-life “video game”, in which there are real targets, live ammunition, and cautionary skills against accidentally shooting each other. The DNR, bless their little old bureaucratic souls, are merely the referees here. Many of them would just as soon do away with the guns too, and go for “bow season” only.
But if every third adult American male, and a goodly number of American females, were highly proficient with the use, care and feeding of firearms, and exercised these skills regularly, this would be a much more polite and law-abiding society.
Open carry permitted in all localities, and concealed carry permitted in transit, at work, and at sporting events.
Then muggers could not be sure which target may cause a very nasty turn of events for themselves.
This reads like a jr. high essay(all emotion and little substance)...he must be loads of fun at parties.
Joel McNally
Very nice !
He ain’t no Santa. No cookies ‘n milk for him!
Hey! Joel! Are you a vegan? A weedeater? Huh?
This writer, and I use the term loosely, seems to try and cover his ignorance with sarcasm and even does a very poor job at that.
The author’s windshield needs to have an encounter with a deer. Preferably while going at least 55 mph. There is no reasoning with a leftist, see my tagline.
The author is seriously bad at math.
I disagree with this guy’s point of view, but he has a clever way with words, and if you agreed with him you would think it pretty funny.
Tom clancy had the right idea about these idiots
I live in northern Ill., and if it were not for FR I never would have heard of it.
Here’s to the day we begin hunting leftists!
Maybe her boyfriend forgot to make her double tofu latte skinny enough?
Off to one side about deer hunting, I’m wondering why nobody has taken to wide scale deer ranching? With some selective breeding, and a proper diet, I imagine the flavor of venison could be made a lot tastier, milder and tenderer.
Of course, the first question most people would ask is why? The answer is simple, to make a more popular market for venison. No reason people shouldn’t be able to get a venison burger or steak in most of the US, year around.
It should be one of the big, American meats, as popular as turkey. And the ranched venison would also increase the popularity of wild venison. This might be important as a source of livelihood for hunters in the future.
Sweet!
Thanks for all you do. You haven’t seen Bambi’s FATHER around anywhere this season, have you?
They do, you can buy venison, but venison is expensive. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe by weight, deer produce 40-45% meat, vs cattle and bison that are up in te 80% range. They're skinny, bony animals. And even bison really never has found a niche.
I'd like to differ here. We have a local AP outlet here, a piece of crap called the Daily Herald. Their exeedingly stupid 'commentators' live for the pissed off responses. These supply the only real material they have. They edit them, then wave them around as evidence of how effective they are at 'speaking truth'. This 'writer' is small potatoes. Why help him out?
Not yet, but I'll be looking for him all next week.
I'm not particular, I'm after his whole extended family.
It's a blood feud, going back a long time.
And tasty!
Happy hunting and stay safe!
I’ve still got some of his uncle’s tenderloin in my freezer from last year. Ate the last of his great aunt this summer. Buddy of mine bagged his second cousin twice removed. I ain’t seen squat. And my days of parking my creaky old butt in a tree stand are just about over.
Idiot. If there’s a problem with the herd size, complain to the state wildlife office. They’re the ones who are supposed to be estimating herd size and giving out an appropriate number of tags. No responsible hunter would object to fewer tags being given out for that reason.
I guess he also doesn’t realize the good that the fees and taxes paid by hunters do for the wildlife in the state.
“I’m not particular, I’m after his whole extended family.
It’s a blood feud, going back a long time.”
That is just plain funny.
Yeah, game on! There’s really nothing like a well prepared Elk or Deer steak, or especially jerky. Damn, I’m getting hungry again.
I’ll send a stinky sock if you have a lump of coal for this brain dead Weenie...
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