On Thursday the Senate Agriculture Committee in Idaho shot down three bills that would have stripped the rights of Americans to run a good, clean, viable business of elk ranching. Another bill would have stopped allowing individuals to pay elk ranchers to enter their property and harvest an elk. A fourth bill was passed along to the full Senate that will require elk ranchers to get licensed.
This debate has been full of distorted facts in an attempt to persuade the Senate and the voters of Idaho that the wild elk population is in danger because of elk farms. The Idaho Elk Breeders Association did an excellent job in getting the right information to the legislators so their decisions could be based on fact not fiction.
The issue of hunting on elk ranches remains a passionate one because we are talking ethics. I, nor anyone else, should be in the business of trying to legislate ethics. Would we as Americans attempt to legislate that all citizens go to church on Sunday because it is morally good? Or on the other end, would we ban individuals from attending church because some didn’t believe in what they did?
Many of us have sat idly by while places like New York City have lobbied for legislation to force restaurants to prepare and serve “healthy” foods. We have sat idly by as “big brother” has told businesses they can’t allow smoking in their privately owned property. These are only a few of the things that for whatever reason, people in this country are beginning to believe they have a right to do. It’s time to stop this nonsense. Idaho has taken an important and courageous step toward that end.
The Idaho Mountain Express ran an editorial yesterday titled, “Sportsmen One, Girlie Gunners One”. Girlie Gunners are what the editor calls anyone who would enter a game ranch and shoot an animal. For one thing, it is abominable that the editors want to call many handicap people “girlie gunners”, who would never have the experience of sampling what many of us more fortunate do.
Shooting big game in a virtual corral isn’t sport. It’s a sanitized convenience for urban couch potatoes seeking a synthetic manly thrill without the discomfort of the hardships of the trail.
A girlie editor then I guess would have to be one who sits behind the sanitized convenience of a desk in a padded swivel office chair seeking the manly thrill of writing an opinion piece without first experiencing the discomfort of the hardships of hitting the trail and discovering the truth.
The editor finishes his “girlie” editorial by asking what they believe to be a rhetorical question.
What does the future hold? Will some fly fishermen of tomorrow plead for the comfort of making their trout catches in a warm state hatchery—or from a couch—rather than casting for hours in a cold stream as true anglers have for ages?
Wake up girlie editor. The future is here. Many of you casting stones at the sinners who dare defy what you believe to be the will of God and enter a hunting preserve, pick up your fly rods and head on down to the nearest stream to fish. I guess I should mention that this stream doesn’t naturally produce cutthroat trout but because you don’t have time to experience the “discomfort of the hardships of the trail”, you lobbied the fish and game department to keep that “glorified hatchery” full of “farm raised” trout for your convenience, all the while your children are sitting at home playing video games, one of which is probably a fishing one.
Tell me, what’s the difference? Would it be different if fishermen used guns to shoot the fish? Very few fishermen – and hey, while we’re at it, let’s not call them fishermen because real fishermen wouldn’t yank domestic trout out of the water like that – bother to take the time to go to where the native, wild cutthroat trout are. They don’t experience the hours of pursuing the trout that lie undisturbed in the remoteness of the wilderness waterways. They don’t expend the effort to beat through the briers and the bramble, ripping their clothing and tearing through layers of skin in order to use that fly they worked hours on to tie, to finally land that ghostly, illusive trophy trout.
I think that none of this would be an issue if elk lived in the water and elk hunters harvested their game with a fly rod. Out of sight, out of mind.
Americans on Thursday one the first round. There are still politicians who understand rights and care to know the difference between fact and fiction. Unfortunately, there are still people who believe the American way is to force their wills onto others.
Tom Remington
