Firing the right guy for the wrong reason
I'm the former chair of the Santa Clara County Fish and Game Commission, where we worked hard and mostly successfully to bring environmentalists and hunters together. It's a shame that doesn't happen on a state level. I'm not a hunter and I don't see an ecological need to hunt apex predators, but I don't seen an ecological problem with it either if managed properly. If it were up to me, lion hunting would be legal here in California.
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| via wiki, click photo for source |
Hunters like Richards who don't care about the environment are a big problem. Environmentalists tried to get the burrowing owl, pictured above, listed as endangered under California law several years ago and were denied, and they've been on a severe decline in our area ever since. I'd give even odds they'll be gone in 10 years in the Bay Area, although they're doing okay elsewhere.
Richards and other roadblocks should be fired, but they should be replaced by hunters who care about the environment, not just trophy maximization.
FWIW, I'll give an example of where cooperation broke down on our local level. Our county is considering a Habitat Conservation Plan for protecting endangered species. I tried to unite our county F&G Commission behind a letter calling on the use of hunting as a management tool for controlling non-native species, particularly pigs and turkeys, that harm habitats. I was blocked by a right winger who's no hunter now, but just hated governmental protection of endangered species so much that he wanted nothing to do with it. That's the type of thing we need to overcome.
UPDATE: based on this report, I'd disagree with the assertion made at my first link that it was a canned hunt. There may have been a canned hunt of pheasants, but the lion was wild and presumably free to go anywhere he wanted..
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6 comments:
I've heard gossip from
native plant conservation people that once a site does allow hunting of wild pigs, the hunters start hauling in breeding pairs and releasing them to keep the sport going.
Can't vouch for it, but I'd think twice about permit hunting versus an organized eradication program that doesn't attract sport/trophy hunters.
I don't know Hank - we've got so many pigs that it would take a huge drop before adding a few pregnant sows would make much of a difference.
Just fire him for any reason at all.
...but tree him first.
~@:>
Agreed on the firing and treeing, not necessarily in that order. But he certainly does deserve to be fired for that murder. Poor kitty.
Horatio has photographed mountain lions "up close and personal" (< 15 feet) at a game farm that only allows shooting with cameras and they are indeed magnificent.
The full grown males are 150 pounds of pure sinew*
Horatio suspects that at the end of a "fair" fight-- fists and paws, with biting and scratching and certainly no dogs allowed -- Danny wouldn't be smiling.
*and they eat lots of rabbits (rest easy Eli, that's with double "b" and "i"), along with dear and other popular game, which is why some hunters don't like them. (competition, ya know)
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