| Story |
| (.333 member) |
| 14/10/09 10:18 PM |
Children unlikely allies in feral hog hunt
|
In its effort to control Florida's overpopulation of feral hogs, the state has enlisted some unlikely partners: children.
Kids like 9-year-old Cecilia Plummer, a fourth-grader at St. Jude's Cathedral in St. Petersburg. She will be one of 20 children to don gear and rifle for a hog-hunting expedition on a state reserve in Manatee County.
The youth hunt will be a first for the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which also touts the event as a way to get kids outside more. Parents will tag along on the free hunts, which will be held on two Saturdays this month.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1043489.ece
The comments by the anti-hunting/anti-gun activists at the bottom are predictably amusing, considering how they've been trying to indoctrinate children for years.
| Tatume |
| (.400 member) |
| 14/10/09 10:40 PM |
|
Re: Children unlikely allies in feral hog hunt
|
This is a very telling headline, exactly what the left wants. Hunting was a very popular sport among eight and nine-year-old children when I was that age. I used to roam the woods daily, and traveled the county by bicycle with a single-shot 12-ga shotgun across the handlebars. This weekend a child with a rifle rode by my house on a bicycle, and it was a heart-warming sight. But unfortunately, it is exactly as the headline says it is, rare, and by design.
Hooray for Florida Fish and Game Dept!
| CowboyCS |
| (.333 member) |
| 14/10/09 11:28 PM |
|
|
Re: Children unlikely allies in feral hog hunt
|
Quote:
"We don't think having a young child shoot an animal and watch that animal die before his or her eyes is a positive thing in any way," said foundation spokesman Nick Atwood. "Children these days are disconnected from nature and wildlife. Killing an animal is not going to reverse that trend."
Feral hogs in Florida are largely of Spanish origin, brought over by explorers in the mid 1500s. A wild male hog can stand 3 feet tall and weigh as much as 200 pounds.
No one denies the hogs are a nuisance, Atwood said. "(But) if you can tolerate them for a short time, the pigs will probably move on."
I'd like Mr. Atwood to explain to me were these animals are going to move on to. The last article I read said that 39 states now have a Feral Hog Problem and the damage being caused by these non-native species was running up into the billions of dollars. You don't get much more connected with nature and wildlife than during a hunt, all of the true nature conservatives I know are hunters. Responsible Hunters understand the limited resource available to us better than anyone and most of us have more respect and spend more time and money trying to preserve and conserve what is available to us than any other actual activist I have ever seen. Every thing about that program looks like a positive to me. Getting the next generation involved in hunting, in a safe and supervised environment, and using a non-native nearly unlimited species that needs to have it's populations reduced anyways seems like the perfect combination to me.
Colin
| Der_Jaeger |
| (.375 member) |
| 14/10/09 11:45 PM |
|
|
Re: Children unlikely allies in feral hog hunt
|
Well said, CowboyCS
Pennsylvaia is high on that list of problem states with increasing hog problems. There is no season here and thay can be taken anywhere they are found.
I'm heading out in a couple weeks.