Curmudgeon

There is a rationale I have heard a number of times on this forum that I need to address. It is the claim that if a practice is legal, that it is also ethical. I find this deeply flawed. Using this line of argument, going squirrel hunting with 10 rounds in the magazine of my 10-22 is unethical. (The SAFE Act says I can only have 7). On the other hand, using snare to restrain a bear in Maine is ethical. A hungry family killing a deer out of season is unethical. Unloading a semi-auto at a running deer during the season, wounding it and making only a modest effort to find it is ethical. It is quite easy to take this line of reasoning beyond hunting. It is quite legal to raise pigs and cattle in CAFOs. That is why commercial meat is so cheap. This is disturbing and unethical. For anyone who eats meat yet considers hunting unethical, the deer we kill each had a good life and “one bad day”. The confined cattle and pigs live a life of misery, wallowing in their own crap. We need a higher standard of ethical behavior than just legality.

I assume you mean the encon cops. We went through our first ever "deer check" on Thanksgiving Day on US 20. My wife was driving. The ECO checked the stickers then asked, "any deer or guns in the car mam?"

And, for those of you who care about human health and hunt with conventional bullets, a lead bullet in the hind quarter will fragment and contaminate the whole ham with Pb. http://www.huntingwithnonlead.org/

I wouldn't even want a deer someone else had fatally wounded. Yes, in NYS the first one to take the deer into possession (tag it) owns it. However, unless you are starving, what's the point? You didn't accomplish anything that wasn't inevitable. A gut shot or otherwise wounded deer is different.

Sorry, I thought irony was dead and all humor on this forum was at the 7th grade level.

Here's a photo of a hunter doing the classic fisherman pose trying to make his deer look bigger. He should have used 2 hands.

Down the rabbit hole again?

Here is some media coverage of the escaped wild boar in Delaware County. Besides the 2 links, I am trying to attach a pdf of a scanned article. I hope that works. http://www.watershedpost.com/2014/bad-news-boars-helicopter-crew-fights-ny-feral-swine http://www.catskillcenter.org/crisp/ Hancock Pig Article.pdf

Bureaucrats within DEC who would put their careers at risk in a cover up are as rare as wolves, cougars and wild elk in New York. Conspiracy theories.........................

Mike - see above

I think he saw a big deer and thought it was an elk.

As for your claim of DEC denial - read the June Conservationist - http://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/97131.html. The article states that eastern coyotes are genetically ~26% wolf.

This is a NYS coy-wolf. I have no idea how big it is.

I can't believe some think feral boar would be a good thing for NY. Sort of like genital herpes is a good thing. Those whores in Bangkok could help out there.

You know you are going to get the resident deer farmer upset again.

The same guy has 2 locations. The company is officially in Bethel but the fenced hunting enclosure is in Hancock. As far as "bring on the pigs", why don't you go to Spain and hunt something really wild? Or, take your crossbow to Hancock before the state bans the beasts. NYS is doing the right thing by banning wild boar from NYS. If landowners have rights, protecting our property from harmful invasive species should be on the list.

So, coyotes are big problem but wild boar and feral pigs are not? No wonder people harass and bait you. You aren't making any sense.

I'm going to try that.

Most of the eagles along the river are Bald Eagles. Goldens are upland birds. They show up in western NY mostly in the spring during migration. A few wintering birds will end up drifting around western NY. In the spring they move north and - because they won't cross big water - follow the lake shores and end up heading north once they clear the east end of Lake Ontario. There will be an article in the next Conservationist which will include a map of GPS tracked eagles.

FSW - This is just another knee jerk reaction. Think this through. This is a harmful, invasive species. My farmer friend in Hancock has already endured tens of thousands of dollars in damage from this guy's pigs. I hope he takes him to court. The caretaker of a seasonal home there showed up last summer to maintain the lawn and found NO LAWN, just pig damage. If your deer escape, they just pollute the gene pool. When these pigs escape they ruin the habitat for native plants and wildlife - including deer. They have no place in New York. From: http://feralhogs.tamu.edu/frequently-asked-questions-wild-pigs/ 28. How do they interact with other animals? Any they hang with or avoid? Most other wildlife species don’t associate with wild pigs. The less mobile (lizards, toads, snakes) may end up being their next meal, while others (e.g., white-tailed deer) typically vacate the immediate area when wild pigs show up. They can be competitors with native species for certain food supplies such as acorns and limit the availability of those food sources for less aggressive native species. I told a DEC guy last week that if I saw one while hunting, I would shoot it. He said that would do no harm. They just don't want the sounders broken up. That's why they put the no kill rule in place. BTW - A deer farm in Edmeston has lost 24 fallow deer and some whitetails. I was told that there are no rules re any whitetails with ear tags in Edmeston. They are Saskatchewan stock - more genetic pollution. The owner placed an ad looking for people to kill his feral fallows then pay for them.

Rarely, but it happens. There were Golden Eagles wintering in Harriman Park and the West Point Reservation the past 2 winters. Two years ago, one spent the entire winter near Storm King.

I took a shot at a deer running away from me once and only once. That was because the animal had already been wounded by someone else. I hit the femur with a 130 grain Barnes. You would have thought the femur was made of porcelain. It shattered into a thousand pieces. Ruined the hindquarter but the wounded deer was down. My policy is, never take a butt shot, however, what can you do to a wounded deer?

My springer got into a porkie. That dog would let me do anything to him EXCEPT pull out the spines. He put his teeth on my arm and squeezed - no pain, just a warning. We had to knock him out. The Barred Owls will spend time scavenging. This one only spent a moment. It may have been getting mice - which have been triggering the camera a lot. The Great-horned Owls seem to not scavenge. The come in and leave. I assume they are getting mice and shrews, and the occasional flying squirrel.

I was on the recent Citizens Task Force for 4F. While the deer population is too high overall, the unit is too big. You can find extreme differences across the unit.

Some more bone yard photos. I just put the deer remains out and am hoping for more good shots. Note the fisher is on the tree in the second photo.