hunting4 spun

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hunting4 spun Among those that value the great outdoors, few activities arouse such disparate feelings as hunting. For several in america, hunting produces in mind time spent in nature, parents teaching their children, and sometimes, given patience and skill, extra meat for your freezer. For others, hunting evokes thoughts of endangered species, the international bushmeat crisis, the danger of injuries from firearms, and ethical issues regarding eating meat. The reference to hunting might also give mind gun violence not directly associated with hunting. (See http: //www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/guns.htm for statistics on gun-related crime in the usa; see http: //www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00044112.htm for any study of hunting-related injuries over a six-year period in the state of New York City.) From an environmental standpoint, if managed well, hunting can replace missing top predators in a ecosystem (http: //www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/deerhuntastool.asp). Conversely, these top predators are themselves apt to be missing because of past hunting. Hunting also can employed to combat destructive invasive species including the nutria, a ravenous rodent eating its way through wetlands in the states, especially in the Gulf Coast (http: //www.wlf.louisiana.gov/experience/nutriacontrol/nutriacontrolprogram). In spite of the division involving the hunting and anti-hunting conservation communities, there exists some common ground. Few on both sides of the debate would dispute that overhunting, poaching, and unregulated trade in animal parts harm species and ecosystems and may also promote new vectors of disease transmission (see http: //www.bushmeat.http and org: //www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/ioz/projects/bushmeat.htm; on disease transmission, see http: //www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol11no12/04-0789.htm).

Transcript of hunting4 spun

Page 1: hunting4 spun

hunting4 spun

Among those that value the great outdoors, few activities arouse such disparate feelings as hunting.For several in america, hunting produces in mind time spent in nature, parents teaching theirchildren, and sometimes, given patience and skill, extra meat for your freezer. For others, huntingevokes thoughts of endangered species, the international bushmeat crisis, the danger of injuriesfrom firearms, and ethical issues regarding eating meat. The reference to hunting might also givemind gun violence not directly associated with hunting. (See http: //www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/guns.htmfor statistics on gun-related crime in the usa; see http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00044112.htm for any study of hunting-related injuriesover a six-year period in the state of New York City.)

From an environmental standpoint, if managed well, hunting can replace missing top predators in aecosystem (http: //www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/deerhuntastool.asp). Conversely, these toppredators are themselves apt to be missing because of past hunting. Hunting also can employed tocombat destructive invasive species including the nutria, a ravenous rodent eating its way throughwetlands in the states, especially in the Gulf Coast (http://www.wlf.louisiana.gov/experience/nutriacontrol/nutriacontrolprogram).

In spite of the division involving the hunting and anti-hunting conservation communities, there existssome common ground. Few on both sides of the debate would dispute that overhunting, poaching,and unregulated trade in animal parts harm species and ecosystems and may also promote newvectors of disease transmission (see http: //www.bushmeat.http and org://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/ioz/projects/bushmeat.htm; on disease transmission, see http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/EID/vol11no12/04-0789.htm).

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Poaching of animals for illicit sales is documented in the usa and also abroad. For example, somejoint law enforcement efforts in sniper scope past times decade have documented "extensive illegaltaking and trade in black bear parts that originated in Virginia, including Shenandoah NationalPark" (http: //www.dgif.state.va.us/newsroom/pr-010704-VIPER.html; see also http://www.appvoices.org/index.php? /site/comments/black_bear_parts_in_the_blue_ridge).

Globalization drives poaching by supplying usage of international demand (by way of example,traditional medicines in Asia from the Virginia case, and London markets for African game inanother: http: //news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1390125.stm).

Beyond opposition to poaching and trafficking, you will find positive common interests as well. Mostprominently, habitat preservation must provide some incentive for hunting and non-huntingconservationists to produce a deeper mutual work and understanding toward common goals. Forthis to take place, it is very important grasp the complex list of regulations, cultural norms, andpolitical and commercial interests that surround hunting in the usa.

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Environmental conservation has deep roots in hunting in america. Theodore Roosevelt, the presidentwho began the National Wildlife Refuge program and designated 53 refuge sites (http://www.fws.gov/refuges/centennial/pdf2/pelicanIsland_reffalt.pdf), was an avid hunter (see, forinstance, With the Brazilian Wilderness, his account of any hunting and collecting expedition to theAmerican Museum of Natural History (http: //hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015024018106)). AldoLeopold, one of the United States' most revered conservationists along with the key lobbyist for thewilderness aspect of the National Forest system, was actually a professor of game management andhunted throughout his life. (See http: //www.wilderness.org/AboutUs/Leopold.http and cfm://www.aldoleopold.org/About/leopold_bio.htm. A conversation with biographer Marybeth Lorbieckigives nuanced advice about Leopold's relationship with hunting: http://forestry.about.com/cs/foresthistory1/a/al_leo_lorb2.htm.) Many hunters today continue inside theconservation tradition throughout the Izaak Walton League, an environmental organization using astrong hunting ethics component (http: //www.iwla.org/publications/ethics/huntcard.pdf).

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While hunting and shooting sniper scope are express uses of various kinds of federal land in the usa(http: //www.fs.fed.us/recreation/programs/trails/shooting_mou.pdf), hunting is regulated sniperscope at the state level. Therefore, there are actually 50 different groups of rules of what animalscould be hunted how, when, and also by whom. There is certainly similar decentralization ofregulation of who may possess firearms and make use of these people to hunt. Given the market forfirearms to utilize in hunting, it must come as not surprising that probably the most prominent Websites listing state hunting agencies (http: //www.huntinfo.org) is among the National Shooting SportsFoundation (NSSF), a firearms industry trade association whose board members originate fromGlock, Smith & Wesson and other gun http://www.stickgames.com/games/sniper/ manufacturers.(Page 15 in the NSSF 2006 annual report http: //www.nssf.org/share/PDF/2006AnnualReview.pdfcarries a complete set of board members.) NSSF can also be one of many prime supporters (http://www.sportsmenslink.org/about/partners/outdoor_industry.asp) of the Congressional Sportsmen'sCaucus (http: //www.sportsmenslink.org/caucus/pdf/110thCaucusList.pdf), a team of senators andrepresentatives with an interest in hunting that commands a majority in each house in the U.S.Congress.