April 5, 1997
National Wildlife "Refuges" to promote fur trade
The April 1997 issue of "Animal People" (POB 960, Clinton WA 98236) reports that a memo to refuge managers from acting chief of Division of Refuges, Stan Thompson, urged support for the fur trade in its opposition to the European Community's twice-delayed ban against importing fur from countries like the U.S. and Canada that still sanction the use of particularly cruel leghold traps.

There is a strong push in Congress led by Alaskan members to make hunting, trapping and fishing the primary purpose of refuge management while practicing "conservation", a word that has come to have opposite meanings for those who want to kill wild animals for their own use or amusement and those who want to preserve habitat so that wild animals have at least some areas where they can maintain their population balances as they did for eons before humans decided to do it for them. Of the people who visit National Wildlife Refuges, 95% do not hunt or trap.There are vast tracts of land open for hunting and trapping: national and state forest lands, Bureau of Land Management lands, and even "game management" areas specifically managed for hunting. As more and more land is developed, it becomes ever more important to maintain some areas where natural wildlife populations are left in peace. Well aware of this, hunting organizations and the state and federal fish and wildlife departments they dominate are making a grab for as much hunting territory as they can get. This includes our National Wildlife Refuges, and even National Parks. Unless enough people protest they will succeed in subverting the rest of these lands to killing for the sport of it. Individuals can adopt a refuge near them, learn what is going on and establish communication with those in charge. They can also hold educational demonstrations to inform the public how their refuges are being misused. The best recourse for others is to persist in writing Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt ( 1849 C St. NW, Washington DC 20240) and sending copies to their Congressional legislators


New York State's Pheasant Propagation Program ( April 5, 1997)
New York State has a program in which baby pheasants are given to
4-H Club members and other volunteers to raise. When it's time for hunting season, they are set free in designated areas for hunters to shoot. Having been taught no survival skills, those that are not killed by hunters later succumb to predators and severe winter temperatures. This is an Asian species, propagated here at taxpayer expense for a handful of hunters to shoot.

N.B. Governor George Pataki points out that the money for this program comes from the Conservation Fund generated by hunting license fees, but shortfalls in other wildllife and environmental projects have to be made up from the general fund so it's a bit like two different pockets in the same pair of pants.

This program also interferes with a private enterprise known as "put and take" in which pen-raised birds are set out next to bait piles for the customers to shoot.

A study by the Department of Environmental "Conservation" a few years back recommended removing tall trees from hedgerows to deprive hawks of a vantage point from which to swoop down on surviving pheasants. I don't know whether this was actually done anywhere, however. The department does cut down trees in some hunting areas to encourage sucker growth to help the abnormally large deer population it fosters to survive the winter.