Quote:
Originally Posted by Leon
As for killing animals in the name of conservation, I say bull crap to that too. There are other ways to keep populations down.
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Not a hunter, but....
What would those ways be? I'm sure it's possible in other areas, but in most of New England, deer have few natural predators left, and haven't for decades.
In some areas, especially some of the state parks, their population will easily get way out of hand, and an unchecked population is damaging to the environment.
I grew up in areas where hunting for food wasn't uncommon. My 5th grade teacher hunted regularly, but hadn't killed deer in several years. Either he didn't find one, or in at least one instance tracked one for most of the day, briefly had a shot, but it was one of those "large buck backlit by near sunset" moments and he just didn't shoot.
When I was in college one of the smallish parks near Hartford had a yearly hunt that was closely monitored. The place could support maybe 250 deer, but was usually figured at a bit over 300. Every year there would be protests.
That year they had a new ranger, who was a bit harsh. At the inevitable public meeting he gave opening remarks about how in winter deer died, and it was part of his job to remove them to keep the park looking nice for the people that used it. Followed by a slideshow of some of the more grizly ones from the previous winter. I won't give details, but it was said to be pretty disgusting. He offered to call off the hunt if he got enough volunteers to help with the cleanup caused by not allowing it.
No takers, hunt proceeded.
He was somewhere else the next year.
A lot of the conservation that happens wouldn't happen without funding from license fees, federal duck stamps etc.