| CowboyCS |
| (.333 member) |
| 14/10/09 11:28 PM |
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Re: Children unlikely allies in feral hog hunt
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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