The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
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Ok, I occasionally go to the Field & Streams blogs. I like posting there now and again and touching base with a lot of folks I don't normally communicate with.
The one thing that bugs the living daylights out of me is the amount of SPAM comments on the blog. I mean really, will nobody moderate them nightly?
Well I guess all the complaints finally got someone to do something. Of course it was overboard. So now whenever I try to post a link to something related, or my blog's link, it kicks me out, the SPAM filter will not allow the post to be published. What a PITA! Guys, you're a big corporation, that's what you get interns for. They physically go through the blogs and clean them up! Jeez...
Now to the meat and potatos.
Seems like some Idaho Sheriff is telling folks that It's OK to break the law and shoot wolves. He says he's not.
From this story in the Spokesman-Review:
A northern Idaho sheriff said he is not advocating the illegal shooting of federally protected wolves by offering a hunting rifle and a shovel as the prize in a raffle called “.308 SSS Wolf Pack Raffle” in a region where SSS commonly stands for “shoot, shovel and shut up.” Idaho County Sheriff Doug Giddings said the SSS in the raffle stands for “safety, security and survival.” “We knew that this would stir up some interest,” Giddings told the Lewiston Tribune.
Seriously.
I believe him like I believe in the tooth fairy.
And of course there was the usual diatribe against the Federal Government, the US Fish and Wildlife, the New World Order, and asorted and sundry other things. Almost sounded like a fringe element of the Tea Party had gathered in one place. One fellow tongue in cheek (maybe...) said we ought to let some wolves loose in Central Park, while another wondered why common birds in one place couldn't be shot at, after all there are a lot of them here! So I had to respond:
How many of you are wildlife biologists?
Just saying...
But this smacks of two things.... ok several.
1) Laws are laws. If we pick and choose which ones we will follow, then we are essentially lawless. I believe Socrates spoke at length on the subject as did Benjamin Franklin.
2) Sometimes, and I mean sometimes, we as a people need to see the bigger picture. That's were a Federal Gov't comes into play. Yes, the rancher in Idaho may not like wolves eating his livestock, but the wildlife manager sees a halt to CCD. So which is more important?
Releasing (hungry) wolves in Central Park, while amusing and certainly something I would enjoy, would not change the equation. Wild menacing wolves howling at night and striking fear into grown mens' hearts, eating poodles, cats, homeless people, and the occasional child does not constitute an issue over livelyhood. It's just a animal niusance issue. Still it would be entertaining.
The Spaniards use the Spanish Mastif to protect their flocks and herds. Very effective. But I doubt many American ranchers want to go through the trouble of following their herds around and penning them up nightly. All together too much trouble for the subsidized industry now isn't it. Much easier to minimize threats and leave it at that. It would be too expensive to spend his or her valuable time out there. What! You can't pass the cost to the consumer?
Now how much is that Dollar Whopper again? Should it really only be a dollar?
And one more thing, just because something is plentiful here, doesn't necessarily make it so way over there! If we as sportsmen, can't even be trusted to clean out the bilges of our boats to stop the spread of invasive species, how can you be trusted to decide what should or shouldn't be hunted? Seriously.
Now I would like to hear some common sense approaches to this.
Best Regards,
Albert A Rasch™
Member: Shindand Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...
