Subject: Hunting, Was: The Dreaded Cat Thread - large pinch of salt required
Date: Apr 20 08:06:53 1995
From: Stuart MacKay - stuart.mackay at mccaw.com


Tom wrote:

> Stuart MacKay included several reasons for the loss of birds.
> Duck hunting!? Ahh, now we can start a hunting/antihunting
> thread.
>
> Tom Juelson Olympia

Yippeee,

I'm a licenced bander in the UK, hopefully in the US as well soon. Science is
the justification for what I do, but I also consider hunting to be a
motivating factor as well. This can also be said for a lot of the amateur
banders I know in the UK. Maybe less so in the US, firstly because the
majority are professional biologists and secondly anybody with a strong
hunting instinct is more able to go out and hunt. The culture in the US
promotes this - in the UK there is not much wildlife left and restrictions on
access to property. The result an explosion of hobbyists - birders,
entomologists, train spotters, plane spotters, ad nasueum. The hunting
instinct is sublimated into these other activities.

Back to hunting. The Dutch have been doing some excellent research on the
effects of hunting. It turns out that skilled hunters maim and fatally injure
(not kill) more birds than unskilled hunters. The reason is that they are more
accurate, wildfowl travel in groups so when a bird is shot and killed, its
travelling companions get hit as well by shotgun pellets on the periphery of
the "kill zone". The estimate is that for every bird killed outright another 6
will be injured and eventually die as a result. Pretty sobering numbers.

I have met quite a few hunters on my travels around Washington so far. The
thing that amazes me most is that a high percentage have no idea of what they
are shooting. I suppose that explains the signs at hunting areas which has a
picture of a Snow Goose with "OK to shoot" and a Tundra Swan with "Not OK to
shoot" - unbelievable. If they can't tell the difference they should not be
allowed to go out. I think there is a lot to be said for tribal peoples
(American Indians spring to mind) , respect for the animals hunted. Not much
evidence for that in red-blooded white males :-))

The money that hunters generate for conservation is very impressive. I'm
surprised that there are not more alliances between conservationists and
hunters when it comes to opposing damaging the environment.

Enough ranting.

Don't ban hunting.
Keep the people who don't know what they are doing safely locked indoors.
Reduce the kill zone from shotguns - maybe even replace shotguns with
small-bore rifles.
Eliminate lead from shotgun pellets - if it hasn't been done already.
etc, etc.

Flame on....

Stuart MacKay