The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources issued a press release today, stating that in Hampshire County authorities have discovered an illegal dumping site used to discard dead animal carcasses. The majority of the animal carcasses found were dogs and cats but there have also been mice, rats, rabbits, squirrels, raccoons, foxes, hawks and deer.

More than 4000 pounds of animal carcasses have been removed from this area for fear of environmental and human risk. Reports of a second dump site is being investigated. Officials ask for you help.

anyone with information regarding this criminal act should contact the Hampshire County Sheriff’s Department at 304-822-3894 or the WV DNR Conservation Officer at 304-822-3551.

Thanks again to Rod Davis for his heads-ups on WVDNR news.

Tom Remington

Just when you thought the coast was clear, along come the dregs who will not give up until they get their own way – acting like spoiled brats. I will give them credit for one thing – they are determined, but not too smart.

The antis are proposing a bill in New Jersey to ban bear hunting, fund their animal rights agenda and strip the wildlife agency from its management authority.

Democrat Assemblyman Michael Panter of Red Bank introduced bill AB525. This bill would remove regulation of the bear from the Fish and Game Commission and the Department of Environmental Protection and place that control in the hands of a Black Bear Study Commission.

This Black Bear Study Commission, as proposed in this assinine bill, would be appointed by the Governor AND would have reserved seats on the board for anti-hunting and environmental groups including the Humane Society of the United States. No seats would be reserved for hunters, sportsmen or game officials.

Taxpayer’s money would be used to fund already proven to be non-effective means of birth control and a bear stamp program would be required to fund reimbursement costs of damages caused by the over population of bears to property owners.

This bill is one of the most absurd proposals I have seen coming from a group so brazen they actually think they can get this passed. It is clearly not an attempt in any positive way to help alleviate a growing bear population. It’s a socialistic program to reimburse property owners for any damages created by nuisance bears and at the same time, an attempt to further the agenda of anti-hunters – at the expense of taxpayers.

Please, residents, and in particular sportsmen, you need to contact your state Assembly person in your district and tell them how you stand on this issue. It needs to be stopped before it can even get out of committee. This group is hoping that you will give up and go away. We can’t let this happen.
You can contact your Assemblymen at this number (609)-292-4840 or if you visit the Legislative Action Center at the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance web site, you can find information there.

Tom Remington

Bob Sheldon has taught hunter safety courses in Missouri for several years. He is a guest columnist at The Press’ Outdoor Sports section and writes an article discussing the past history of Missouri’s hunter safety courses and shares facts about accident rates and fatalities.

One interesting aspect of Sheldon’s piece is his attitude about the affects of hunter safety over the years. Often times I read or listen to advocates for hunter safety classes and the attitude of the person is such that I am many times turned off by their approach and defensive posture.

The article is low key but still makes you want to go sign up for his course again.

Tom Remington

In somewhat of a surprise action, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has postponed any decisision on deer and bear hunts until their April 18, 2006 meeting. This includes antlerless deer permit allocations as well.

It was a unanimous decision by the Board. Because of the large number of comments from hunters at the January meeting regarding how deer management is being done, Board members felt it was important to make sure all those comments were reviewed and discussed as well as to look completely at all the data being collected by game biologists.

Wildlife biologists are recommending no changes for next year’s seasons and permit allotments. They feel their management goals are on target and many hunters are saying the numbers are the lowest they have ever been. Local farmers and land owners are reporting that crop damage, etc. is beginning to show signs of easing.

Needless to say, the Game Commission has a lot of work to do before the April 18 meeting.

You can read more about this here.

Tom Remington

Alaska has a moose population problem in some areas of the state. The problem is there aren’t enough. The areas targeted by the Board of Game to increase the moose population is the same areas where the controversial aerial wolf hunt has been debated.

The Alaska brown bear and the wolf are predators of moose calves killing over half of all new borns. The mortality rate on moose calves has been high in recent years making for a drastic decline in the moose population. The state needed to do something about it.

One way of addressing this was to institute the aerial wolf hunt. Because the region in discussion is remote and not easily accessible, officials believed that allowing the hunting of the wolves by air would help to reduce the wolf population.

Next would be addressing the brown bear problem. With this, the Board of Game has approved, for the first time in the state’s history, the sale of bear hides. Brown bear hides, when sold at times by the state from confiscated illegally shot bears, have sold for several thousand dollars. Officials believe that allowing the sale of the hides will be incentive for hunters to go out and harvest more bears. Black bear harvested in the same areas can also be sold.
The sale of bear hides can only be done on bears killed in the designated areas where they are attempting to increase the moose populations. Strict guidelines will be put in place to regulate and track the bear and hides and an emergency clause will give authorities the right to stop the hunt at any time in order to not over hunt the animals.

Wildlife officials say they will not allow the minimum number of brown bears in this region to drop below 54. Statewide, estimates put the brown bear population at 35,000 to 40,000 and black bears at 100,000.

More information about this story can be found here.

Tom Remington

For all of you interested in applying for a 2006 moose hunting application for the state of Vermont, you can obtain all needed information and applications online. Follow this link.

Tom Remington

Two Texas men were out at 5 a.m. looking for coyote I guess, when a witness said they saw the pick-up truck Stephen Douglas Francis, 22 of Bryan and Mark David Spangler, 21 of Houston were in, pull up beside the road. The witness next heard a gun shot and Francis exited the vehicle heading out into a pasture.

While out searching for the coyote, with a .44 magnum pistol, the man who owned the land they were illegally hunting on, approached Spangler at the truck. Spangler sped off leaving Francis in the pasture to fend for himself.

Authorities eventually found both men and charged them with hunting a non-game animal from a vehicle. They were released from jail on $4,000 bail.

Tom Remington

With some recent snows in the last week, North Dakota Game and Fish officials are anxious to get in the air and begin aerial surveys of big game. With such little snow that doesn’t seem to want to last, it has been impossible for officials to do any surveying. There needs to be at least a foot of snow on the ground to make spotting the deer,elk and moose easier.

During the aerial survey, game counters will fly over large blocks of territory – upwards of 1,200 square miles at an altitude of 500 feet. The data collected during these fly-overs is used to solidify suspected game populations. From that, officials can then determine how many of each species should be harvested the following year.

Recent reports show that the deer herds are doing well. With very little snow and mild temperatures, the deer are spread out over larger areas and are better able to find food.

Tom Remington

Dave Anderson, Director of Education for the Society For The Protection of New Hampshire Forests, has an article this morning in the Concord Monitor about the waning trapping industry in that state and surrounding areas.

Whether you are into trapping or not, this article is loaded with information that is important to all of us who respect the outdoors and in particular, its wildlife. I recommend the read.

Tom Remington

A bill that was approved to allow citizens to carry concealed weapons in public places in Wisconsin, was sent on to Governor Jim Doyle’s desk for signing and he quickly vetoed it. The Wisconsin Senate put together a successful attempt to override the Governor’s veto in a vote of 23-10. The bill goes back to the general Assembly where an override vote will be taken on Tuesday. Many feel the Assembly has enough votes to complete the override.

Wisconsin is one of only a handful of states that have any kind of gun carrying legislation. Proponents are anxious to get the bill passed and opponents still, in my opinion, can’t come up with any good reason not to allow weapons carry.

State Assembly Assistant Minority Leader Jon Richards (D) Milwaukee, presented a report compiled by his staff called, “Not Welcome in Wisconsin: An Analysis of Concealed Carry Legislation”. The report is an attempt to disspell what they consider dangerous myths about guns and gun carrying but according to the NRA in an article in the Green Bay Press Gazette:

“the same old, tired misinformation from lobbying organizations that oppose an individual’s right to self-defense.”

David Hemenway, a professor of health policy at Harvard University and author of, “Private Guns Public Health” had some things to add to the argument.

….says much of the pro-gun lobby has based its arguments on research published in the 1990s that has since been found to have “serious reporting errors” and miscoding in its data analysis.

He cited a report by the National Research Council released last year in which a panel of scientists found no causal link between concealed-carry laws and crime rates.

In a telephone interview Friday, Hemenway said about right-to-carry laws, “You can definitely say that there is no good evidence that it has reduced crime.”

We all know that statistic can be manipulated to show whatever results we want it to show. Hemenway says there is no good evidence that having right-to-carry laws has reduced crime. Is there also no good evidence to show that crime hasn’t increased? Is there bad evidence that shows either up or down changes in crime?

As always, those opposed to gun ownership generally come from one or both of two areas – fear of something they know nothing about and their anger toward someone doing something they don’t like. But then you get politicians adding their lame reasons why Wisconsin shouldn’t have this bill passed.

Representative Thomas Nelson (D) Kaukauna had this brilliant response.

“I think the bottom line with this issue is this is a bill that’s going to do nothing to make health care more affordable, it’s going to do nothing to create jobs and it’s going to do nothing to make home heating costs more affordable.”

Where would we be if the majority of our policy makers approached their jobs with this kind of thinking? There are many bills that passed through the houses of politicians that have litte effect on many things. Is that reason enough not to pass them?

And of course citizens added their same old, same old into the mix. This response was made known via the Internet.

“I totally disagree with this proposal because even though you may have to go through training to get your permit to carry a weapon, training doesn’t mean that you’re not going to snap one day just because you had training,” said Kevin Spice of Green Bay, who cited the example of Chai Vang, a trained National Guard sharpshooter who was convicted last year of killing six deer hunters in Northern Wisconsin.

That’s true and I could make just as ingnorant a statement by applying that same logic to driving an automobile, flying a plane, or working in the Post Office.

Now more than ever, Americans are able to better understand why it is important for them to defend and protect themselves. Carrying deters criminals and provides individuals the ability to protect themselves when seriously threatened. Lawful, educated gun owners are not criminals. They do not use their guns to rob banks and kill innocent people. They simply want to protect and defend themselves, their families and their property and they should not have that right taken away from them by a small minority of scared people.

Tom Remington