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August 27, 2009 by
It’s becoming painfully obvious that I was born at least a hundred years too late. I arrived upon this realization after researching deer birth control, which is the new fix-all solution being proposed by the “enlightened elite” or anti-hunting organizations. In fact, there are currently several websites devoted entirely to promoting this “morally superior” deer management program over hunting. Recently, a group of residents in Princeton, New Jersey tried to block a private sharp-shooting firm from removing deer in their town. In addition, a poll conducted by Rutgers University revealed that half of New Jersey residents believed an animal’s life to be as sacred as a human being’s. I guess there are either a lot of vegetarians running around in New Jersey or a bunch of hypocrites participated in the poll. In my opinion, hunters really need to start spreading the truth about deer birth control and the benefits of hunting in general.
Reality vs. Make-believe
Did you know it actually costs a staggering $1,000 per doe to implement the deer birth control vaccine for the first two years of treatment? The program is extremely high-priced and very labor intensive. Workers are required to shoot does with vaccine-laden darts that only last through one rutting period. I am definitely not an accountant, but it doesn’t take a mathematician to see just how expensive this program could be for taxpayers. In most cases, areas that were densely populated with deer had disastrous results with the birth control management plan. Basically, the program costs huge sums of money, but fails to get the job done. On the other hand, cities with large deer herds that permitted special archery seasons were able to dramatically reduce numbers. Once again, hunting has proven to be the most logical, inexpensive and effective way to manage a healthy deer herd. It’s imperative that non-hunters be exposed to actual facts instead of all the anti-hunting propaganda that comes out of fantasy land.
Benefits of Hunting
In the real world, the success of whitetails and other types of wildlife can be directly linked to hunters. Money from hunting licenses and equipment sales help fund state wildlife agencies, habitat improvement projects and re-introduction stocking programs. Wildlife agencies conduct extensive work and research that helps maintain healthy populations of wildlife across the nation. How much money does anti-hunting organizations actually spend on whitetails or any animal for that matter? Most of their funds are geared toward running sensational ads, publicity stunts and for gaining celebrity support. However, hunting builds strong family bonds, helps maintain healthy wildlife populations, prevents the spread of disease and has a positive impact on animals. As hunters, what are some ways we can get our message across and fight this nonsense?
[ Read Full Post ] August 24, 2009 by
This entry doesn’t have a lot to do with big bucks, but it does have a lot to do with a common occurrence in deer country: animal collisions. What’s interesting about this collision is that it took place at nearly 200 mph with a NASCAR race car. The accompany photos attest to the speed of the car and lack thereof for one unlucky coyote.
Here’s what happened. In early August Joe Gibbs’ racing team driver Brad Coleman was in Arizona at a Toyota proving grounds testing a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race car. Coleman was running at nearly 200 mph when he caught sight of an animal sneak under the outside guardrail. Things happened fast after that.
“I'm in the middle of the corner, and I'm doing like 190,” Coleman said
Friday at Nashville Superspeedway. “I'm just cruising. You run the high line there, because that’s where the most banking is. It’s the high-speed lane. There’s just a guardrail there like on the freeway.”
That’s when Coleman catches sight of Wile E. trying to take a shortcut.
“I see this thing, it must've been 100 feet in front of me, just jump out.
Right when I saw it come out from under the guardrail, I was like, ‘That’s a coyote,’” Coleman described.
Despite the evasive speed of a coyote, it was no match for the race car and impact was inevitable. Fortunately, the collision didn’t destroy the ability to control the race car.
“It just started smoking like crazy,” Coleman said. “And it smelled
terrible. I didn't see anything in the mirror, so I was like, ‘I wonder
where it went?’ I said, ‘Guys, I hit a coyote. I'm going to come in because
I think it screwed up the radiator. I think it clogged up the grille a
little bit.’”
It appears as if the car is repairable. The coyote, however, was definitely KIA and I don’t think even the Roadrunner would have been fast enough to avoid being a new hood ornament in this case.
[ Read Full Post ]August 13, 2009 by
To John Longo, it was meat and a head going to waste. The road-killed buck near his property was a decent 8-point. So he picked it up, ate the meat and got a taxidermist to mount the head. It wasn’t a monster buck, he says, but for southeast Wisconsin, it was good enough.
“I hate to see it go to waste,” he told the Journal-Times. “I was brought up right after the war. If we had potatoes and eggs and a piece of bread we were lucky ... I’m not a wasteful person.”
When the DNR learned that Longo had the head, they told him they wanted it. He had failed to get a free possession permit when picking the deer up. Longo refused and the battle went to court in 2008. The judge ordered Longo to give the head up, but also said if the DNR didn’t come by to pick it up before Oct. 31, they should issue him a permit to keep it.
The DNR appealed and won that case. The problem is, Longo claims he threw the head into the local dump sometime between the two court cases.
“At the end I said, if you (the DNR) want the deer head, I’ll throw it away or burn it,” Longo told the newspaper. “If I can’t have it, you can’t have it.”
Now the DNR doesn’t know what to do and to enforce the Court of Appeals ruling or have Longo charged with refusing to obey the court, the District Attorney must decide whether to file charges or not. Longo says he ignored the ruling and the law, because quite simply, “it is a stupid law.”
It does seem stupid, I have to admit, for the agency to spend so much money and resources to go after something the guy would have been allowed to keep anyway for free, but at the same time, I suppose Longo’s defiance of the DNR’s rules proved to be their motivation.
Longo pointed to the fact that so many deer hit by cars are simply left along the road to rot. What’s the sense of that, he wonders. He has a point.
What do you think, should people be forced to secure a permit for something that is going to go to waste anyway along the side of a road? Or are such laws necessary to keep people from poaching deer and claiming them as road killed animals? If you were the judge, how would you have ruled in the case of Wisconsin DNR v. Longo?
[ Read Full Post ]August 4, 2009 by  Anyone who has ever been at full-draw in a treestand has experienced the emotional roller coaster ride that comes with bowhunting. In many cases, it’s a game of hard knocks that is often decided by a few yards or even a couple of inches. We have all had one of those heavy-racked giants with pop can bases just a few yards out of bow range. Some of us are probably still being haunted by the one shot that was a couple inches high and barely skimmed the top of a monster’s back. However, there is nothing more painful for a bowhunter than making a bad shot that results in losing a mature trophy-class buck. In most cases, if you hunt long enough, that gut wrenching feeling is going hit you where it really hurts at some point in time. Just ask Jason Harvison of Tennessee how it feels to lose a big buck after spending countless hours in the field pursuing it. Here is Harvison’s tragic bowhunting story and how he plans to redeem himself after a loss that still keeps him up at night.
During the 2008 archery season, Harvison had successfully patterned two nice shooter bucks. For months he had monitored the daily routines of both deer through a network of trail-cameras. Finally, the high-racked 10-point gave him the shot he had been working so hard to get.
Unfortunately, the arrow missed the buck’s vitals by inches, which started a bowhunter’s nightmare that continues to give Harvison painful flashbacks. With a questionable hit, he decided to back out for the night and give the buck some time. A cold blood trail the following day left the hunter spending weeks desperately combing the area for any sign of his buck. It’s amazing how one bad shot can set the tone for the rest of the year and ruin an entire deer season.
For the first time, Harvison couldn’t really enjoy being in a treestand and decided not to hunt during the later segments of the season. He felt there was still a small chance of at least finding the buck’s rack without all of the leafy foliage in the way. However, it never happened and Harvison ended the 2008 season on a horrible note. Luckily, a few weeks ago, the other long-tined 8-point that was pictured the year before with the buck Harvison lost was captured again on his trail-camera. The archery season is still several weeks away, but Harvison is already looking forward to climbing back up the tree and redeeming himself from last year’s painful loss. Jason all of us at the BBZ know what you’ve been going through and we hope that you lay the smack-down on the “Redemption Buck” this season.
[ Read Full Post ]
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