Who Moved My Cheese?

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Clint Stennett, Minority Leader in the Idaho Senate, was one of the senators who on Thursday voted for the bill that would have stopped hunting on game preserves in Idaho. The bill was defeated in committee. On Friday he laments his defeat through an editorial in the New West – Boise.

Mr. Stennett begins his piece with a paragraph that would have made an excellent beginning to a very good hunting article for one or several on my online hunting magazines.

I can still recall the late October day when I harvested my last bull elk. After four full days of glassing and stalking, we could not quite put it all together. On the morning of the last day of the season, my wife and I had hiked 1500 feet up the mountain. It was 8 a.m. and we were in a foot of new snow. We had lost first light, but before we called it off I suggested that we look over the next ridge. We belly crawled to the ridge line and at 245 yards, we found a six-point bull. I have harvested a half a dozen elk in 38 years of hunting. Each one is burned in my memory as the one I just described. It is this type of fair chase hunting on public lands that many Idahoans dream about and hope for as they head into the back country each Fall for their annual hunt. This type of hunting is our heritage, our ethic and our culture.

From here, he wants readers to believe this has all been taken away from him because the Senate Agriculture Committee didn’t vote in his bill to ban hunting on these elk ranches. Mr. Stennett isn’t handling this very well it seems and I think he needs to stop and look around for a minute because he’s not the one whose right to hunt was almost taken away through a law proposed to the state of Idaho.

Mr. Stennett acts like the victim. There is absolutely no reason on earth why he can’t once again pick up his rifle and belly crawl over the next ridge and shoot himself another elk, providing of course he can get a permit to do that.

Mr. Stennett, it were the elk ranchers who you tried to victimize by stripping them of their rights not you. Stop trying to turn this around and making it out to be something it isn’t.

Tom Remington

Erik

Stennett’s editorial sounds like the hunting version of Al Gore’s 2000 speech on prescription drugs. Pure fiction. Stennett makes some wildly outrageous claims in his piece, the most inflammatory one is this: “Unfortunately, this week the legislature has done nothing to protect our hunting traditions.” Oh please. Like elk ranchers are infringing upon people’s right to hunt? This is ridiculous! Elk ranchers didn’t ask for this debate, and they certainly didn’t deserve to have to defend themselves against the lies that Stennett and Langhorst told the media, legislature, and general public. Why do these elected officials continue to insist private elk ranches are a threat to wild herds, hunting traditions, and ethics? Laws are made to protect people and property. Elk ranchers have proven they are not a threat to either, yet the lies and promises of future restrictive laws continue. The Fish and Game are also culpable; I heard of more than one instance of wildlife biologists spouting their personal opinions in a public setting. Perhaps if these state employees did a better job of managing our wild elk herds, Stennett and others wouldn’t be so worried that the rack of a farm-raised elk is bigger than theirs. It’s pretty clear that jealousy is also one of his motivations. Stennett is right about one thing; 2007 was a disappointing legislative session. It’s sad the government he is a part of was proactively trying to limit the personal property rights of some Idahoans. Luckily, the good guys won!
http://www.blackbearblog.com Tom Remington

Well said, Erik! Thanks

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