“There’s all kinds of things that we’ve done to set bounds around what we call fair chase. And this is just another one of those moves,” said Senator David Langhorst, (D-Boise).
I found this in an article on the FOX 12 News website yesterday, late. So when did Sen. David Langhorst become the collective we, that believes that he has the dictatorial right to tell me or anyone else what is ethical or moral. I’m sure that Mr. Langhorst would object should the other “collective we” propose bills that would make it unethical for him to do what politicians do best – lie.
“It’s just another one of those moves”, is how he finishes that statement. Oh, well! Business as usual. Just another day at the office stripping the rights of individuals while forcing government down their throats. America take heed. What’s going on in Idaho will affect the rest of this country and you have a choice as to whether to shut up and take it or fight back.
I wise old man once told me that the objective of the democratic party was to keep the masses down through government sponsored programs and regulations. With no more means to better one’s self, the masses become dependent on government and therefore secures the future for the democrat politicians. Here you have a very good example of just what that old man meant.
At issue here is the debate in the Idaho Senate over regulating the elk farming and elk hunting business. Langhorst leads a group that would like to see elk farming banned along with hunting on elk ranches. For those of you who have been following my coverage of this story know, I view this debate as a property rights issue and hunting ethics issue, neither of which needs to be nor should be, legislated.
I respect anyone’s belief that hunting on an elk ranch in Idaho or anywhere in the world is unethical. That doesn’t give any of those people the right to tell someone else what is and isn’t ethical but for some reason a noisy group in Idaho believes they are above the rest of the citizens of Idaho.
From what I am reading in the biased press this morning, the committee hearings yesterday got an earful of what Ray Romano would call “crap”.
“Nobody likes the idea of taking somebody’s livelihood away, I certainly don’t. But we have to balance that with the livelihood that a lot of people have based on regular, wild, fair chase hunting that’s evolved in Idaho over 100 years.”
This is another quote by Sen. Langhorst which is a flat out lie. I would ask him or anyone else to name specifically how an elk hunting ranch in Idaho has negatively affected the livelihood of anyone who makes money from what he calls, “regular, wild, fair chase hunting”.
“Fair chase is why you don’t see a black Angus mounted on someone’s wall,†he said. “No one feels good about hurting someone’s livelihood, but there are other livelihoods at stake here.â€
The question I have to ask, of which the answer I think is obvious, does Langhorst and his opposition party have no better argument than to liken elk hunting with black Angus hunting? How about some facts for a change of which there are really none that can justify stripping hard working Americans of their rights.
There is no threat of spreading disease from fenced in elk to wild elk. There is just the opposite. Elk in states all around Idaho are riddled with chronic wasting disease and brucellosis. What is to stop those diseases from entering Idaho through wild animals? The Idaho elk breeders may be the only source of disease-free elk if we don’t do something about feed lots and other practices that continue the spread of these diseases.
The elk breeders are taking huge risks hoping that infected herds of wild elk don’t get into their pens and destroy their businesses.
The other unfounded fear factor that has spread since last August when Rex Rammell’s elk got out was the ridiculousness of spreading bad genes. None of those in opposition to elk farms want to look at facts. All the elk in behind fences in Idaho came from the same gene pool. The elk are tested before they are allowed into the state. There are no known cases of interbreeding of red deer with elk to grown large antlers. As a matter of fact, all the elk that were killed that had escaped Rammell’s ranch tested pure, when the media and anti-ranching zealots screamed that Rammell was cross-breeding his elk just to grow big antlers to sell to hunters.
The reason we see elk in enclosures with larger antlers than in the wild is because of elk breeding practices. Elk breeders understand the importance of strong healthy stock. They keep their “prize” bulls and “prize” cows specifically for breeding. Because of the game management practices of Idaho and other states, we are “dumbing down” the wild gene pool because of our interest in money. We encourage hunters to shoot only the big bucks and bulls, that way more permits can be sold and more money means higher salaries and bigger and better programs to do more of the same. Isn’t the pot calling the kettle black?
Matt Compton is a lobbyist for the Idaho Sportsman’s Caucus Advisory Council. The ISCAC claims to represent over 30 hunting, fishing and outdoor sports groups in Idaho. Some members of that group are fighting to ban elk farming and ranch hunting. Here’s another fallacy being spewed about by some hunting organizations.
“We are also concerned about the erosion of the hunting tradition,”
If Matt Compton and others who have that concern believe in the need to protect tradition, why are they spending their time and money fighting this issue when there are far worse issues that face the hunting tradition than legislating ethics. Hunters rant on continuously about animal rights groups that try to take their hunting away from them, yet they can’t see that they are doing the same thing. HSUS members think killing any animal is wrong. Those opposed to elk farming and ranch hunting think those practices are wrong. What’s the difference? Are you less wrong or more right than the other guy?
It’s time to get down off a few high horses and take a long hard look in the mirror. Once we as hunters begin demanding that we legislate ethics, there is no stopping. From my own perspective, I could list things that I don’t do or wouldn’t do that are completely legal in many states. If I worked to ban those practices because I view them as unethical, I could cut the number of deer hunters in half in this country. Is this the direction we want to go by dictating personal ethics?
I have said this since day one. At this point in time in my life, I have never hunted on or within an enclosed hunting ranch. I have no intentions to anytime soon but things change. I have never hunted any animal with a dog, not even a rabbit or a bird. I’ve never hunted any animal over bait. I don’t grow crops to feed deer or other game animals. I spend very little money each year to hunt. This is just all a part of who I am and how I was raised but I was raised an American above and beyond being raised a hunter.
I ask myself often, the way things are progressing in our society, is there a future for hunting? With the shrinking of land access reducing available places to hunt and thusly bumping the cost of hunting out of sight for many, what will be left? In fact it may only be private hunting ranches.
I see elk ranchers in Idaho and any other state for that matter, as an integral and important part of our society. They are business people trying to make a living just like the rest of us. They run a good clean business. They have their rights and these rights need protecting as they pass the ultimate test – they pose no threat whatsoever to anyone else nor to any of the wild animals around them. To say otherwise is crap!
Tom Remington
