76 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
76 lines
4.1 KiB
Plaintext
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Article taken from the Maryland - Delaware - Virginia - West Virginia FISH
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FINDER & Hunting News - October 1990.
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Some Thoughts for an Anti-Hunter
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You've been pretty quiet recently. At least at the local level. But the
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winds are shifting more frequently to the north now, and there's a hint of
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autumn in the air. Not much. But enough to tickle the spines of those for
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whom hunting and its rich tradition mold a way of life.
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Soon the guns will begin popping-mostly dove hunters in the grain fields,
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but also a few echos from the rail marshes. Those milder reports from the
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hickory groves will be .22 rifle fans plinking away at evasive gray
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squirrels. Welcome sounds to hunters who have suffered through a hot and
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humid summer.
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Sights and sounds to arouse you from your long slumber. Pretty soon
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you'll be pecking away at your typewriter and cranking out twisted sentences
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and shallow paragraphs putting down hunters and hunting. Many of your
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possibly well-intentioned misconceptions will make the editorial pages
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across Virginia.
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Do you really understand what you are trying to accomplish? I don't
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think you will be, but let's suppose for a moment you are successful.
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Hunting is outlawed in Virginia. Will all hunters accept that? Have you
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thought that through? Looked at the consequences?
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An immediate loss would be the crack law enforcement force and the
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dedicated game biologists of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.
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There would be no money to pay their salaries, purchase patrol cars, and
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provide biological support these highly trained professionals need to
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protect those deer, ducks, turkeys, and other critters you insist hunters
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are destroying.
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Bearing the Cost
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Are you and your fellow anti-hunters willing to assume that financial
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load, to cough up anywhere from $5 to $50 each to match the money hunters
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shell out annually for licenses, permits, stamps, and tags for the privilege
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of hunting in Virginia? That money is needed to manage the state's wildlife
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resources and to protect it from illegal hunters. It's no small amount.
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Last year hunters paid $9,640,465 for various kinds of licenses or permits.
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Here we are talking about Virginia alone. Nationally, the figure was
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$400,000,000. Over the years hunters have shouldered the burden of paying
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for the nations conservation programs. And you would eliminate that?
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In Virginia approximately 400,000 hunters carry the load. And they do so
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willingly for the most part. Oh, there are always a few who grumble when
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the costs of hunting licenses are jacked-but never the serious hunter.
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Would the average taxpayer, many of whom do not hunt, be willing to
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assume the financial responsibility?
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No Protection for Wildlife
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Conservation programs supported by hunter's money provide for all
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wildlife, not just for game species. Bird watching is a growing outdoor
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recreation, and a healthy one. Songbirds benefit from game habitat
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improvement and they are protected from hunting. But who's there to hand
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out a ticket when some unscrupulous person shoots a songbird? The
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hunter-supported warden, of course. And you would take away this protection
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for the birds you profess a love for?
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Picture, if you can, a Virginia November when there is no hunting.
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Hunting has been banned and law-abiding hunters have put away their guns.
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But poachers haven't. They've always ignored the law, but now there are no
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wardens to apprehend them. Is this the goal you are seeking?
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And no biologist to halt an epidemic that's hammering the deer
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populations... I could go on.
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I don't think you'll win, Mr. Anti-Hunter. Your case is too weak.
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