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Alaska is the only state of the 50 that differentiates between SPORT & SUBSISTENCE hunters; “subsistence” is presumed to mean “need”, as in “I cannot afford to buy meat; I can afford ammo”, & thus the hunter is allowed to use hunting methods that are illegal in other states, often these methods are deemed unsporting or outright cruel.
The creation of a new category of huntable land, owned by the Feds but administered FOR HUNTING by the state of Alaska, has only muddied the legality & jurisdiction issues.
Among other methods that would never be permitted outside Alaska:
- spotlighting bears or wolves IN THEIR DENS, with their young.
- shooting swimming caribou from speedboats on the water.
- aerial hunting of predators, particularly wolves, using helicopters & light planes.
- shooting predators over BAIT; most controversial, using human foods, not natural foods.
- hunting predators during their breeding seasons, thus orphaning young to die.
More details here:
Hunters in Alaska ask: Who has the right to tell them how to hunt?
The use of human foods as bear-bait raises the terrible prospect of habituated bears seeking food in human communities; a hungry grizzly is perfectly capable of coming thru a house wall, to get more bacon. In autumn, a bear’s drive to find concentrated calories is intense, & they will travel many miles to reach a known or possible source of some high-fat, high calorie, delicacy.
I find the idea of hunting any animal while they are raising their young to be absolutely repellent; this runs counter to everything I was taught, as a young hunter. No one, short of absolute starvation, should even consider killing a nursing mother, a father feeding his mate & his pups, or a hibernating bear with her cubs.
That’s an outrage.
As someone noted in the article, declaring war on predators in the so-called “Federal preserves” is intended to create an artificial game park, where only humans can prey on the game they want.
Loss of predators is devastating to any biome; if we haven’t learned from the disaster of a predator-free Yellowstone National Park, we are hopeless eejits.
The reintroduction of wolves had completely unexpected & extremely beneficial effects on HUNDREDS of species that we know of - & quite possibly thousands more, of whom we will never know. Everything from cutthroat trout to carrion beetles, elk to coyote, & streamside willows or cottonwoods, has profited by wolves returning.
I hope this legislation dies aborning, but if it passes, I also hope that a lawsuit from one or more of the conservation nonprofits will kill it forever.
- terry
.
Alaska is the only state of the 50 that differentiates between SPORT & SUBSISTENCE hunters; “subsistence” is presumed to mean “need”, as in “I cannot afford to buy meat; I can afford ammo”, & thus the hunter is allowed to use hunting methods that are illegal in other states, often these methods are deemed unsporting or outright cruel.
The creation of a new category of huntable land, owned by the Feds but administered FOR HUNTING by the state of Alaska, has only muddied the legality & jurisdiction issues.
Among other methods that would never be permitted outside Alaska:
- spotlighting bears or wolves IN THEIR DENS, with their young.
- shooting swimming caribou from speedboats on the water.
- aerial hunting of predators, particularly wolves, using helicopters & light planes.
- shooting predators over BAIT; most controversial, using human foods, not natural foods.
- hunting predators during their breeding seasons, thus orphaning young to die.
More details here:
Hunters in Alaska ask: Who has the right to tell them how to hunt?
The use of human foods as bear-bait raises the terrible prospect of habituated bears seeking food in human communities; a hungry grizzly is perfectly capable of coming thru a house wall, to get more bacon. In autumn, a bear’s drive to find concentrated calories is intense, & they will travel many miles to reach a known or possible source of some high-fat, high calorie, delicacy.
I find the idea of hunting any animal while they are raising their young to be absolutely repellent; this runs counter to everything I was taught, as a young hunter. No one, short of absolute starvation, should even consider killing a nursing mother, a father feeding his mate & his pups, or a hibernating bear with her cubs.
That’s an outrage.As someone noted in the article, declaring war on predators in the so-called “Federal preserves” is intended to create an artificial game park, where only humans can prey on the game they want.
Loss of predators is devastating to any biome; if we haven’t learned from the disaster of a predator-free Yellowstone National Park, we are hopeless eejits.
The reintroduction of wolves had completely unexpected & extremely beneficial effects on HUNDREDS of species that we know of - & quite possibly thousands more, of whom we will never know. Everything from cutthroat trout to carrion beetles, elk to coyote, & streamside willows or cottonwoods, has profited by wolves returning.
I hope this legislation dies aborning, but if it passes, I also hope that a lawsuit from one or more of the conservation nonprofits will kill it forever.
- terry
.
