mike rossi

We recently updated you on the $5 million lawsuit filed against HSUS, CEO Wayne Pacelle, ex-employee Scotlund Haisley, and others concerning a 2009 “raid” of South Dakota hunting dog breeder Daniel Christensen in which HSUS’s Emergency Services team helped execute a search warrant that was later tossed out by a judge. After two years of the lawsuit trudging along, the presiding judge told the parties to get the show on the road. There are a few court filings that bring new information to light. Among the filings are emails from former emergency services team members who resigned months before the Christensen raid took place. They paint a troubling picture. We wrote before about former HSUS animal rescue team members Ronnie Graves and Allan Schwartz. They spoke to radio host Carroll Cox about the reasons why they left the team and outlined questionable practices, such as HSUS personnel wearing badges—seemingly giving off the false impression that they were officers of the law. They had problems with Haisley’s leadership of the team. Among the court documents are copies of resignation emails for Schwartz and Meredith Shields, which go into depth about their issues. The allegations range from poor management in transporting animals from a puppy mill seizure to illegal, unsafe, or unethical actions such as overloading vehicles and driving through floodwaters. Read the emails in full to get all of the details. To us, Schwartz’s most damning line is this: “When the motivation for the work done becomes the publicity and accolades received, then we have lost sight of why we do what we do.” No kidding. These days, it seems that HSUS puts out a press release for every piece of litter it picks up. (Maybe Wayne Pacelle should contemplate Matthew 6:5. We’re sure HSUS’s religion department would help him.) Last but not least, there seems to be a little bit of prescience in his email to Scotlund Haisley: “I could no longer put my professional reputation on the line or risk being arrested or sued because you chose to bend or break the law and disregard response protocols.” Given that these emails were sent to Wayne Pacelle months before the South Dakota raid happened, we wonder if he wishes he had done something differently in the interim. If HSUS loses this litigation, that will certainly be a black mark on Wayne’s leadership

You want a prescribed fire, not a controlled burn. On request Fire Depts. will burn down old houses and call it a controlled burn. When you burn for habitat you dont want the fire to get too hot because it effects regrowth of plants, the fire dept has no knowledge about this and other "eco" things related to burning for habitat. I dont know how the dec regulates prescribed burns, but if they do allow it it would be wise to consult or hire a private wildlife biologist with prescribed burning experience. You might get referals through the ruffed grouse society. I dont know how much land you are working with, but as others posted, thick bedding or escape cover is a component of habitat, just like food. If you can meet the target species year- round needs for everything, you created prime habitat. At some point however, that thick bedding cover will mature into open forest with little value to deer. You can use fire, as well as logging and brush hogging to keep the plant communities at the age useful to deer or whatever your target species is. If you do burn, (here we go tell me Im full of it) you really dont need food plots because one of the benefits of burning is that the new growth is high protien, attractive, and palatable to deer. Good Luck and I would be interested in knowing the DEC regs on prescribed burns!

The New head of the DOI President Obama on Wednesday will nominate Recreational Equipment (REI) chief executive Sally Jewell to head the Interior Department, according to a White House official who asked not to be identified because the public announcement has not yet been made. The choice of Jewell, who began her career as an engineer for Mobil Oil and worked as a commercial banker before heading a nearly $2 billion outdoors equipment company, represents an unconventional choice for a post usually reserved for career politicians from the West. But while she boasts less public policy experience than other candidates who had been under consideration, Jewell, who will have to be confirmed by the Senate, has earned national recognition for her management skills and support for outdoor recreation and habitat conservation. In 2011 Jewell introduced Obama at the White House conference on “America’s Great Outdoor Initiative,” noting that the $289 billion outdoor-recreation industry supports 6.5 million jobs. Jewell, who is being nominated to succeed Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, would take over at a time when many conservationists are pressing Obama to take bolder action on land conservation. Salazar devoted much of his tenure to both promoting renewable energy on public land and managing the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. On Tuesday former interior secretary Bruce Babbitt gave a speech at the National Press Club calling on the president to set aside one acre permanently for conservation for every acre he leases for oil and gas development. “It’s that simple: one to one,” Babbitt said. “So far, under President Obama, industry has been winning the race as it obtains more and more land for oil and gas. Over the past four years, the industry has leased more than 6 million acres, compared with only 2.6 million acres permanently protected. In the Obama era, land conservation is again falling behind.” Facing congressional opposition and budget constraints during Obama’s first term, Salazar emphasized the importance of enlisting private sector, state and local support to protect major landscapes through America’s Great Outdoors Initiative. Jewell emerged as a strong advocate of the policy, and is likely to continue such efforts. While public lands protection has traditionally enjoyed bipartisan support, this issue has become increasingly polarized, and the 112th Congress was the first one since 1966 to fail to designate a single piece of wilderness. Environmentalists such as Babbitt have urged Obama to use the Antiquities Act, which gives presidents the executive authority to set aside land as national monuments, to protect ecologically valuable areas in the West. Jewell has pushed for land conservation both in Washington state, where she lives, as well as nationally. She is a founding board member of the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust, which focuses on a stretch of land spanning from Puget Sound across the Cascades, and helped lay out a plan for the National Park Service as a commissioner on the “National Parks Second Century Commission.” Wyss Foundation president Molly McUsic, whose group focuses on land conservation, wrote in an e-mail that Jewell “understands the full economic potential of America’s resources.” “She knows the oil and gas business from having worked at Mobil and in the banking industry, but also understands the growing economic potential of America’s $646 billion outdoor recreation industry,” McUsic added. “She knows that to grow the economy, development of energy resources must be on equal ground with the protection of places that drive tourism, travel, and recreation.” While Jewell is more closely identified with the Democratic Party than the Republicans, she made a high-profile appearance with Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) back in 2008 when he was running for president. McCain spoke with Jewell and others at an environmental policy roundtable outside of Seattle, during which the senator argued that he had stronger environmental credentials than either Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton, who were both vying for the Democratic presidential nomination at the time. Other contenders for the Cabinet position in recent weeks included former Washington governor Christine Gregoire (D), Interior Deputy Secretary David Hayes and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.).

This was just posted by the NY Senate on youtube. I suggest watching the whole video, but in segments, since it is over 7 hours long. For example I watch one hour an evenening for 7 days. Do not skip over discussions which do not interest you because you can get a feel for each assembly and senate members attitude which is valuaeble intell. I would like to discuss this in segments as well. Particularily interesting is questions to DEC commissioner Martens from Mark Grisanti. Grisanti is the chairman of the senate environmental conservation committee. Grisanti refused to forward S-6968, the NY Dove Bill for two years allowing the bill to expire to the delight of the HSUS. The stated justification of the dove bill was to increase the states conservation fund. Grisanti did not discuss doves, but he did say that the conservation fund is so large that license fees should be reduced. No he didnt say use the money, he said lower fees so the fund depletes. The kicker is the next thing he asks about is the possible loss of federal conservation funds. If you know anything about these federal funds you know that these are grants which a state or organization applies for on a somewhat competitive basis. The state or organization's conservation funds are matched three to one. For example if the state applies one million dollars toward a project, the FWS chips in an additional 3 million. So Grisanti wants to drain the states conservation fund, but yet wants federal grants? This is just an "illusion of action" because the state cannot access its share of federal wildife funds unless it has an approved project proposal and its share of matching funds. Another point is concern with the hatcheries and the state pheasant farm. I hunt released pheasant and am glad that this program is in good shape, despite that NY got sued a few years ago by the HSUS to abolish released pheasant hunting - yeah I know nobody heard about that, but I will be reporting on that at a latter date.What is remarkable about the hatchery/farm concern is that state and federal conservation funds can create natural hatcheries/farms by habitat enhancements - a fundemental purpose of such funds. Our state has become so disconnected to that and the way this topic flowed it should have biologists shaking their heads. Please watch this entire video in segments and participate in productive discussion in the next several weeks.

A team of scientists has just completed a comprehensive analysis of 108 years’ worth of data on the size of horns and antlers among 25 trophy categories in North America and discovered that, over the past century, size of trophy horns and antlers for most species has declined slightly. The team of six biologists—from Idaho State University, the University of Montana, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and the California Department of Fish and Game, led by Dr. Kevin L. Monteith, now at the University of Wyoming—analyzed 22,000 records of trophy categories of big game from North America, including mule deer, mountain sheep, and moose. Publishing their results in The Wildlife Society’s newest Wildlife Monographs, the authors found a small (less than 2 percent) but consistent decline in horn and antler size across most trophy categories over the past century. Through careful analyses, the biologists ruled out several potential causes of the declines, including climate change, habitat alterations, and the “sociological effect” of increased interest among hunters in submitting trophies to the record books. Instead, the analyses provided moderate support for intensive harvest of males as the most likely explanation for the declines, which lowers male age structure, allowing fewer animals to reach trophy status prior to harvest. The findings have potential implications for management of many species, although the small declines in size of trophy horns and antlers may be of little importance relative to the benefits of hunting as the cornerstone of wildlife management in North America. Nevertheless, the authors offer several recommendations to managers concerned about balancing overall opportunity to hunt with opportunity to harvest large males. The authors were “initially quite surprised” by the results, says Terry Bowyer, who oversaw the analyses at Idaho State University. Yet he adds that no other study has spanned the time (108 years), geographic extent (all of North America), and range of ungulate species (25 trophy categories), or amassed such a huge sample size (22,000 animals), using precise official horn and antler measures of the Boone and Crockett Club. “There is little doubt that our findings are real,” he concludes. “We hope our research will be of value to fish and game agencies charged with the management of these important natural resources.”

This may be of interest if you want to sharpen up that shorthair's delivery: http://youtu.be/t2TqwC1KSwU And being "calm-assertive" with a Lab pup: http://youtu.be/0XCm9WasD4g

Even if it isnt vulgar, but I wont buy stuff like this unless the proceeds go towards legal action.

There use to be a en con law that stipulated you can shoot a cat in the act of stalking a bird. It was rumored that that law was abolished. One of these days I will look into it. Shooting a cat here and there isnt going to solve it anyway, societies attitude needs to change. People mown about coyotes, but whats the ratio of cats to coyotes, 1,000 to one; 100,000 to one, who knows?

Behind the scenes shot of ABC's Steve Holmer being interviewed by Washington DC CBS's Bruce Leshan regarding the recent cat predation study. Piece to air tonight on WUSA 9 in the 5:00 hour.

I did read that (below). Here is the link: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/50514.html Regulations for 2013 Under regulations planned for 2013, any person who has migratory game bird hunting privileges in New York, including a valid Harvest Information Program ("HIP") confirmation number, may take snow geese and Ross' geese (a smaller but nearly identical species) in the Western, Northeastern, Southeastern, and Lake Champlain Waterfowl Hunting Zones from January 16 through April 15, in addition to the regular snow goose hunting seasons in each zone. Although these season dates appear in our annual regulations brochure, a delay in the finalization of the state regulations will result in actual special season dates of January 23 - April 15, 2013. Areas where large numbers of snow geese occur at this time of year include the Finger Lakes region, the St. Lawrence Valley, and the upper Hudson and Champlain Valley regions. A special season was not implemented on Long Island, because relatively few snow geese occur in huntable areas there during the spring.

Dont take my word for it because I am not sure, but I think LI doesnt have the spring season, and the reason it does not is because few travel through on the spring north migration?

Proly didnt survive hoss...

Yup.

Should an Indiana couple go to jail for saving Bambi? That's the question surrounding the case of Jeff and Jennifer Counceller, who rescued an injured fawn and nursed it back to health at their Connersville, Ind., home. The couple now faces the possibility of jail time and fines after state officials charged them with a misdemeanor for harboring the animal. Jeff Counceller, a police officer in Connersville, and his wife were charged with unlawful possession of a deer, a misdemeanor that punished to its fullest extent could put the Councellers in jail for up to 60 days and cost them up to $2,000 in fines. (ABC News) The couple rescued the deer more than two years ago after finding it on their neighbor's porch. The Councellers said the deer had sustained injuries, and they wanted to nurse it back to health. "I could feel all of the open wounds all along her back side and she wouldn't stand up," Jennifer Counceller told ABC News. They brought the deer home and named her Little Orphan Dani. The Councellers said an Indiana Conservation Officer stopped by their home and discovered the deer this past summer. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources wanted to euthanize Dani, saying she might be dangerous and a threat to people. "I was devastated. I spent a year and several months nursing her into adulthood, getting to the point where she was able to go out on her own," Counceller said. On the day Dani was to be put down, the Councellers said she inexplicably escaped from their backyard. Even though Dani disappeared back into the wild, the Councellers' legal problems didn't go with the fawn. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources said it couldn't comment on pending litigation but that it did discourage people from taking in injured wildlife. This case could go to court next month, and if charges aren't dropped, it will be left for a jury to decide whether the Councellers broke the law. "No matter what the law is, we did what was right for the animal," Counceller said. Meanwhile, the story has caused uproar on the Internet. A Facebook support page has more than 6,400 "Likes" in support of the couple. An online petition to drop the charges already has more than 3,800 signatures. Rick on Change.org wrote, "An act of humanity should not be rewarded with a sentence." Michelle on Facebook wrote, "They are being punished for having compassion and showing kindness." The Councellers' case could go to court next month. Also Read

Bull. If you "know someone" you will get a job even if you cant spell your name. And that is in general, not just LE or NY goverment.

What are you talking about? Offcourse you cant vote an anti trapping lawmaker out of office in NYC, but in other areas a focused sportsmens vote hits hard. Cant impeach? Why did Spitzer, Patterson others quit? Clinton almost got oustead. Why did Interior director Salzar and USGS director McNutt suddenly "resign" their cabinet level posts this month? We, not the so-called "protected groups" are the biggest minority in this country - that is true. However, when your in Rome, you do as the Romans do... The baby is born into the family, not the family born into the baby... Maryland and Virginia didnt want DC as a liability- so they severed the cancer. NY, Illinois, and other places can cut out thier respective cancers, NYC, Chicago... Change, or change back, is possible, but it doesnt come easy.

I meant Grisanti, not DiFransico. DiFransico actually sposored the dove bill, Grisanti who chairs the encon committee had the power to move the bill or keep it on the shelf, he chose to shelf it. Sorry for the inaccuracy, we realize the seriousness of this. However, we cannot and do not plan on doing this indefinetly. Others need to step up - or send us money. When hydrofracking becomes a reality in NY we are moving out of state anyway.

We can beat them… But only with diligence, stamina, cooperation, and determination. The recent sweeping gun legislation as well as the blatant disregard for property rights, human health, and environmental welfare which is a product of the federal and state governments’ swift advancement of hydrofracking throughout the northeast and other sections of the nation; has also swiftened the learning curve of sportsmen. Combined with a tradition of organization well before the internet, we know have the internet as a communication and information tool. We should not waste any more time courting antagonistic and turncoat politicians until we ascertain the mathematical possibility of voting them out in various districts. In addition to voting records, the assembly and senate chairs of committees of significance to sportsmen’s issues, i.e. Environmental Conservation and Agriculture need to be scrutinized for their willingness to put friendly bills on the shelf to expire as well as give top priority to hostile or divisive bills. For example: NY State Senator John DiFrancisco, the senate encon committee chairman, “shelved” S-6968, the “dove bill” for two years so that it would expire and he did not have to confront mainly out of state, electronically signed and mailed, form letters, generated from the website of the Humane Society of the US, who are currently facing federal racketeering charges and are being sued by the State of South Dakota for interfering with its hunting and farming industries. In calculating this mathematical possibility we need to include our children who will be reaching voting age by election time and be sure to properly indoctrinate them. The importance of recruiting new hunters must redirect its emphasis to target VOTING AGE people! As we have concentrated on youth seasons, we must immediately develop recruitment programs for this demographic and include education on topics such as the law making process, grassroots lobbying, constitutional law, supporting friendly nonprofits, and the importance of a focused vote. In the aftermath of the new gun law proposals, and in the case of NY, the new gun laws passed with uncanny speed, and Obama’s movement to give gas/oil companies control of the nation; by now, each and every one of you should be an expert on the law making process and know how and to whom to write letters to. If not you need to get with it. You should also be registered to several sportsmen’s internet forums or message boards. You should have a facebook account and know how to use it. Please get involved, including but not limited to forwarding and cross posting this message onto websites, forums and social media accounts. To reach the old school, print it out and post it on your club’s board as well.

Clarification: the bark collar and the shock collar have different functions. The barker comes in two models: one which produces a shock and another which emits a spray. Use both. Some dogs (even some thick skinned dogs) will burn open sores into thier skin - those dogs are not suitable for shock bark collars. Use the spray collar if you have more than one dog or you have an idiot nieghbor who lets his dog wander over to your dogs fence enclosure. Reason: your dog may associate other dogs with the shock and develop a fight drive. In response to your question: the bark shock collar helps in the process of conditioning the dog to the shock training collar. But avoid it if the above might occur. FYI: the process of collar conditioning is not a difficult one anyway, although the bark collar helps. Even if you do not plan to use bark shock collars as an adjunct to preconditioning your dog to the shock training collar; they should be used to control excessive barking along with bark spray collars. I am not aware of any issues (other than above) with them interfering with watch dogs or hounds from barking when it is appropriate.

Not sure we disagree too much here. I wean pups off treat dependency real quick while introducing the prong , bark, and shock collars. If I had to give up one tool choosing between treats and shock collar, I would forgo the treats and keep the collar. Heres why: The training sequence is: 1) Teach 2) drill/repetition 3) discipline. You can do numbers 1,2,3 with a collar; but only number 1 with treats. In treat training it is the dog who actually controls the situation - if overdone it is the dog which actually trains the human, quite common and quite sad. Even after number 1 is completed with treat training it is necessary to complete it again with negative reinforcement, ie. prong and shock collars. Here is why: Treat training only teaches the dog how to obtain a reward without teaching the dog that there is a consequence for not complying with a command. Nevertheless I incorporate treat training during the initial teaching phase because this phase is basically "demonstrating" to the dog what you want the it to do. It works with any age dog, but as I indicated earlier one of the strongest drives of a just weaned pup is to learn how to obtain food. Treat training exploits that attitude in a newly-wean in a big way.

Funny, because I use both treats and shock collars. A young pup is learning how to get food - thats why treat training works so rapidly. But when the pup gets a little older - and something competes with the dogs interest in the treat, the dog needs to understand negative reinforcement otherwise punishment is meaningless.

At 4 months of age and the intention of making her a family dog, your first step is developmental training which includes socialization AND dominance. Develpomental training also refers to introducing gunfire, water, snow, brush, ect... In the case of other than hounds it would also include boats, decoys, calls, bells, beeper collars. You should be getting any breed use to its truck kennel, electric collar - yes start collar conditioning that pup now, also get both types of bark collars , a shocker and a sprayer. Learn how to properly use the prong collar as well and introduce that as well. That dog should meet many new people and new dogs before it is 6 or 7 months of age, I mean like several hundred. Guests in your house or close toy your house, ie. 500 feet from your yard, do not count - especially if she has alpha tendencies. Get her on basic obiendience yesterday and make sure she gets daily exercise. Put her on a premium feed like Purina One. Supplement her diet with chicken basted rawhides (not cheap imports from the dollar store) and Composure Liquid MAX available over the counter through Vetri-Science Laboratories. Do not feed human food and do not free-feed, always control her access to food. Worry about the field training a little later. If you dont have the time to do all this send me a PM and we will see what we can work out.

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has a message for New York gun owners: Come to Texas, and bring your guns with you. "Texas is better than New York, and New York just gave us another excuse to say that," Abbott, a Republican, said on Thursday, after ads extolling Texas appeared on several media websites. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, signed sweeping gun-control legislation earlier this week expanding the state's ban on assault weapons and putting limits on ammunition capacity in the wake of last month's school shootings in Connecticut. Abbott, a possible candidate for governor of Texas in next year's election, used campaign money to buy ads on websites of news organizations in New York City and Albany. One ad says in classic Western script: "WANTED: Law abiding New York gun owners seeking lower taxes and greater opportunities." Clicking on the ad leads to a Facebook page touting the virtues of Texas, including the fact that the state has no income tax so "you'll be able to keep more of what you earn and use that extra money to buy more ammo." Abbott told Reuters the ads are a "way to tweak our liberal friends up in the Northeast." "It is tongue in cheek, but there is a deeper message here," he said. "Texas really does stand as the last bastion of ultimate freedom in this country. Over the last decade, more than 4 million people moved to this state, and one reason is freedom and one reason is economic opportunity." Abbott has said he will file a federal lawsuit to throw out any nationwide gun restrictions implemented by Congress. A Cuomo spokesman did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

You can tell the politicians that: They are making society's problem OUR problem. They are forcing us to sacrifice without any other involvement. Were is OUR say on dysfunctional families, the education system,movie ratings, video games, paint ball, football, basketball, music, pop culture, fashion and drug use? If they can pool us in the ills of society, they can give us decision making involvment about it.