http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/19686/story.htm

FEATURE - US big game hunting, easy style under the microscope

USA: February 4, 2003

DENVER - Which is more ethical: To track a big game animal in the
wild, not
knowing if you will be lucky enough to bag it, or to pay thousands of
dollars to hunt one at an enclosed game ranch where you're almost
guaranteed
of ending up with a beautiful set of antlers to show off?

The question is a big one in the multibillion-dollar U.S. hunting
industry
these days, and a lawmaker in Colorado even tried to get the practice
of
hunting deer and elk on enclosed game ranches banned, characterizing
the
so-called canned shoots as unethical.

Game ranch operators counter that letting somebody hunt an animal on
their
land gives them much needed revenue and is no different from a farmer
letting someone kill a cow on his farm.

The Colorado bill was easily defeated, but the controversy over game
ranches
continues. Supporters of the bill said they planned to take the
measure
before Colorado voters in 2004.

Most of the big game ranches focus on elk in Colorado, which has the
biggest
elk population in North America, although exotic animals like zebra
can be
found at ranches in Texas, a popular state for hunting big game on
private
land.

Hunters who do not want to hunt in the wild can pay $20,000 or more
for a
bull elk, the kind with large antlers. Some may be tired of
traditional
hunting, or are top business executives who do not have the time
needed to
bag an elk or may not be in good enough physical shape for the rigors
of
hunting.

While it is much easier to shoot an elk on a game ranch, nobody is
walking
up to a tame animal and shooting it either.

Hunters on an elk ranch with the help of a guide can get as close as
150
feet (45 metres) to the animal. The shooter still has to aim
carefully, but
getting that close and having a guide help find the animal make all
the
difference between being successful or going home empty-handed.

BREEDING FOR ANTLERS

The typical game ranch can be as big as 30,000 acres (12,140
hectares),
although some ranches are smaller. But the catch is that the area is
fenced,
meaning the animal cannot truly escape.

Hunters on game ranches are also more likely to find a bull elk with
large
antlers. "We breed for antlers. We feed them when they're babies," Ron
Walker, president of the Colorado Elk Breeders Association, said.
Walker,
who operates two game ranches, said the 119 elk ranchers in Colorado
only
earned about $4 million last year in total.

"We're not hurting anybody. We own the animals. We're not stealing
them," he
said. Walker said in the wild a hunter who is not an excellent
marksman may
injure an animal, but on the ranch if that happens an experienced
guide will
then shoot the animal. "We don't want wounded animals out there," he
said.

Colorado state Rep. Lois Tochtrop who introduced the bill to ban
enclosed
game ranches said she was disappointed it failed and was hoping anti-
hunting
groups do not try to mount a more stringent voter initiative.

The Colorado bill called for allowing "fair chase," meaning that the
animal
has a chance of escaping, a concept credited to President Theodore
Roosevelt, known for his love of hunting.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

There are economic issues too.

Hunters who visit game ranches do so without obtaining a hunting
license,
denying a source of income to the Colorado Division of Wildlife which
manages big game in the state. Colorado has about 300,000 elk. A
hunting
license for a bull elk with big antlers will cost $483.25 this year,
Colorado Division of Wildlife spokesman Tyler Baskfield said.

People who bag an elk on game ranches spend a short amount of time in
the
state and less money in the small towns that depend on the
multibillion
dollar hunting industry, Tochtrop said. "This is something that
impacts an
important industry in our state," she said.

Not true, countered elk breeder Walker. "We have a different
clientele.
These people won't hunt in the wild," he told Reuters.

But Tochtrop, who favors hunting, maintained that "true hunters"
supported
her bill. The Colorado lawmaker said she learned about fenced-in
ranches
during the recent rise in chronic wasting disease cases among wild
game,
which crossed the Continental Divide for the first time last year.

But she said her bill was not tied to concern about chronic wasting at
ranches because not enough information is known about the cause yet.

Susan Reneau, author of "Colorado's Biggest Bucks and Bulls" said the
Boone
and Crockett Club, founded by Roosevelt and his hunting friends in
1887,
does not recognize antlers from big game animals shot on game ranches.

She said she expected a voter initiative to be on next year's
ballot. "It's
going to come from pro-hunters, not anti-hunters," she said.

Story by Judith Crosson

REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

Copyright Notice: Distributed in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C.
Section
107.

2/15/03 Asbury Park Press

It's not deer, it's sprawl

Speeding cars, hunting, over-development, sprawl, "thinning the
herd." What
choice do deer have? Haven't we usurped most of their habitat? When
is enough
enough?
There are hunters who would jump at the chance to buy a permit to
kill deer
in our parks. Even more people would pay to keep these hunters out of
our
parks and keep our parks safe.

Instead of allowing hunting in parks, perhaps we should focus on the
problem
of sprawl, which is what is causing the so-called deer problem in the
first
place. Let us not fight over killing deer. Let us make a concentrated
effort
to reach our legislators and urge them to fight sprawl.

The problem is not the deer population. The problem is finding a way
to allow
them to exist in their natural habitat without men taking over.

Harry Scharmberg
MIDDLETOWN



"Live in peace with the animals. Animals bring love to our hearts,
and warmth to our souls."

  Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with
men. We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals."
Immanuel Kant

Be the voice for the voiceless, join our group today:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CorrectTreatment/

Dear Friends,

I have just read and signed the online petition:

    "BAN HUNTING IN LOUISIANA AND OTHER STATES
THAT ALLOW HUNTERS' TO THREATEN PEOPLE"

hosted on the web by PetitionOnline.com, the free
online petition
service, at:

    http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ohcx9j4k/

I personally agree with what this petition says,
and I think you might
agree, too.  If you can spare a moment, please
take a look, and consider
signing yourself.

Best wishes,

Colleen Klaum

PRINCETON: DEER POPULATION CONTROL PLAN APPROVED

  Township officials have won approval of a revised deer-management
plan after the original proposal was rejected last month. The revised
plan preserves the original's three main components: using
sharpshooters, an experimental deer contraception vaccine and a
capture-kill method that animal rights advocates have denounced as
cruel. The plan will not, however, allow sharpshooters to kill deer
on private property where the owners allow hunting. The
sharpshooters, using rifles with silencers, kill deer attracted to
undisclosed baited sites. Princeton has paid about $250,000 to White
Buffalo, a Hamden, Conn., company whose sharpshooters have killed 625
deer in town during the past two years. The capture-kill method,
which drew outrage from animal cruelty activists, was carried out in
areas that town officials deemed too close to populated areas to
discharge firearms.   (AP)

Article courtesy of the New York Times.

Fire Island Bus Trip

  (Constantine Dillon is the Superintendent of Fire Island National
Seashore)

September 7, 2001

Lee Frey, an energetic and dedicated project volunteer, greeted the Fire
Island bus
trip participants by explaining that there was a time when there were so
many deer
on Fire Island, the deer were pushing visitors off the boardwalks.
Recently, two
visitors were thrilled and amazed when they finally caught one glimpse
of a fawn.
This change on Fire Island has resulted, according to Lee Frey, from
“the
important steps” that have been taken on Fire Island to improve the
lives of the
deer as well as to satisfy the concerns of the residents of the
communities.

“The important steps” refer to the Fire Island Deer Research Project
that is
currently being carried out by the Humane Society of the United States
(HSUS), in
collaboration with the National Park Service (NPS)/Fire Island National
Seashore
(FINS or FIIS), the Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological
Survey
(USGS), Dr. Jay Kirkpatrick of ZooMontana, and a remarkable group of
Fire
Island residents who volunteer to monitor deer and put out bait to
attract deer for
darting.  The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation
(NYSDEC) is also involved.

The project was initiated to determine the feasibility of remotely
delivering the PZP
(Porcine Zona Pellucida) vaccine to a small group of free-roaming deer
and to test
the experimental birth control vaccine to determine if the vaccine can
control the
size of the deer population in the Fire Island communities.  PZP is a
naturally
occurring protein which, when given to  female deer, causes them to make

antibodies that prevent sperm from attaching to their eggs.  It does not
change the
composition of the deer eggs.  (PZP is produced from the frozen ovaries
of pigs
purchased from slaughterhouses.)  Not only was the vaccine successfully
delivered,
but the fawning rate was reduced by approximately 90% after a few years.

One of the major efforts of the Science and Conservation Biology Program
of
ZooMontana involves the humane control of wildlife populations by means
of
fertility control.  Consequently, ZooMontana has a Science and
Conservation
Center that is the world’s only dedicated facility for the development
of wildlife
contraceptives and methods of application.  This Center produces and
provides
quality control for the PZP wildlife contraceptive vaccine.  It also
distributes the
vaccine and serves as the repository for all records and data required
by the Food
and Drug Administration.  The Center and its staff coordinate and, in
some case,
carry out field-based applications of contraception to wildlife
populations.

The PZP vaccine is being used by the HSUS and its partners on deer at
six other
locations around the U.S., on wild horses in Maryland and the western
U.S., on
captive animals in dozens of zoos and aquaria around the world, and on
African
elephants in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

The successful use of a remotely deliverable immunocontraceptive on
free-ranging
wild horse at Assateague Island National Seashore, in Maryland, opened a
new
universe of possibilities for the humane, non-lethal control of the
wildlife
population.

Fire Island is a thin New York island that stretches for 32 miles along
the south
shore of Long Island.  It forms a barrier between Great South Bay and
the Atlantic
Ocean.  Visitors can enjoy the Robert Moses State Park, the Smith Point
County
Park, the Fire Island National Seashore (established in 1964), and the
seven-mile
long Otis Pike Wilderness Area, which is the only Federal wilderness
area in New
York State (designated by Congress in 1980).  There are 17 communities
on Fire
Island.  Three million visitors travel to Fire Island each year. Deer
apparently got
onto Fire Island by swimming to the island or by crossing a bridge or
walking over
ice.

Dr. Kirkpatrick, Dr. John Turner from the Medical College of Ohio, and
Dr. Irwin
K. M. Liu from the University of California at Davis selected Fire
Island as a test
site in 1992.  Saltaire Mayor Joel Carr understood that neither the Park
Service nor
the NYSDEC had an effective deer solution to offer,  so he seized the
opportunity
for immunocontraception.  He encouraged the project participants and
helped them
avoid bureaucratic and political pitfalls.  His successor, Mayor Martin
Berger, made
a major leap forward in community involvement.  He was the first
official of any
municipality in this country to have the quality of mind to resolutely
support public
baiting stations where deer can be monitored and vaccinated. As the
years passed,
other communities on Fire Island entered into the project.

All the baiting stations were initially at volunteers’ homes.  As times
passed,
HSUS/FINS also opened baiting stations.  It is important to realize that
baiting
stations are temporary and that the need for them diminishes as the deer
population
diminishes.  Corn is placed in containers for approximately three weeks
prior to and
for three weeks during the darting period.  This is done to make it
easier and more
efficient to locate and dart deer.

Some may incorrectly argue that it is impossible to successfully deliver

immunocontraceptives to free-roaming deer.  The fact that deer are
free-roaming is
not a problem since deer move around within a circle with only a 1/4
mile radius
from the spot where they are born!

On Fire Island, the PZP vaccine is given to female deer in a dart fired
from an air
pistol, a blowgun, or for the occasional wary deer, from a 22 caliber
modified dart
rifle.  80% of the time, the blow gun is used.  The rifle is used only
20% of the
time.  Darters are generally 10 yards to 50 yards from their target.
Rick Naugle,
HSUS Research Associate, Wildlife and Habitat Protection, Project
Coordinator,
assumed the lead in the darting process, but he has been joined by
others.  Among
them are Ernie Taylor and Steve Finn.  Rick has been working on Fire
Island for 8
years and is largely responsible for the significant reduction in the
deer population.
He will be available for any questions about the feasibility of
immunocontraception
in a particular area in November 2001, after the darting periods are
over.

Research on PZP is being carried out under the authority of
Investigational New
Animal Drug (INAD) files established with the FDA.

During the first five years of the project, Fire Island resident deer
monitors
identified individual deer by painstaking observation of  variation in
natural
markings.  Currently, “marking darts” are used.  They place a temporary
colored
dye spot on the animal’s hip when it is vaccinated.  Rick is using a
livestock marker
called Sharp Mark, which is a stain with vinegar.  It is non-toxic and
does not hurt
the does  who may lick at it.  Rick also uses a bit of Vaseline as a
lubricant.

After hitting the animal in the rump or hip, the darts pop out and are
retrieved in
the field.  Deer return to normal behavior within a minute or less after
darting.
Their discomfort is probably no worse than that from a hard slap or a
bite from a
deer fly.

The vaccine does not appear to harm deer in any way.  In fact, the deer
appear
healthier and live longer, but they do not increase the herd size.  PZP
has
prevented pregnancy an average of 90% of the time in treated animals.
If the dart
hits a hard spot on the doe and the vaccine is not delivered properly,
the doe could
become pregnant.  The vaccine can not pass through the food chain.
The deer on Fire Island  have been individually identified and have not
been
handled other than being remotely inoculated.  The feeling is that ear
tags are
dangerous since deer wearing them have suffered torn ears when the tags
caught on
brush.  Radio collars can also cause serious problems since the necks of
deer can
expand dramatically, but the collars can not expand.

Normally, each animal is darted twice the first year and then with a
single annual
booster inoculation.  It is the population of deer to the west of
Sailor’s Haven that
is targeted since the eastern end of the island is the Otis Pike
Wilderness Area.

Two types of data sheets are kept on each doe.  The one kept by the
monitors is
based on observations made at the baiting stations and tells the life
history of each
deer.  The actual inoculation data is kept by the researchers.

The annual budget includes air fare and auto transportation for the
scientists,
vaccine, adjuvants (a substance that enhances the deer’s immune
response), darts,
and miscellaneous equipment and drugs.  Lodging for the research team is
provided
by Fire Island residents.  Money was raised with a great deal of good
will through
private donations, fund-raising events, the sale of T shirts and
requests for
donations to the Saltaire Citizen’s Advisory Association, Fire Island
Association,
the Year-round Residents Association and the participating communities.
Most
communities responded with generosity.  The total cost of the project
for 5 years
was estimated to be $40,000.  The cost of the bait was originally paid
for by the
monitors, but some of the communities and various local organizations
began
contributing to this cost as well.

The cost of the Fire Island Study is low compared to other recent
efforts at deer
management.  The 1988/89 Fire Island Deer Hunt cost $60,000 and resulted
in the
death of 60 deer which translates into $1,000 to kill one deer.  The PZP
vaccine is
$20 per dose and is expected to reduce to $7 per dose.  Although it is
not
commercially available yet, ZooMontana is hoping that it will be soon.
The PZP
used on Fire Island is purchased from Billings, Montana or California.

(SpayVac), made by a Canadian company, has shown especially promising
results
with gray seals, some of which remained infertile for at least 6 years
after a single
dose.  Published data concerning the effects of SpayVac in other species
is limited
at this time, but there is considerable interest in further testing,
which is under
way.  It has proved in the past to be effective in fallow deer, small
European deer.)

State game agencies derive revenue from hunting and have traditionally
opposed
other management methods.  The NYSDEC was among the first state
agencies  in
the nation to allow a fertility control study when it issued the permit
for the Fire
Island deer project.  It was also the first agency to actually
participate in a
state-funded contraception study (in Irondequoit, New York).

There is a changing public attitude toward lethal wildlife control as a
management
tool.  A safe, humane and publicly accepted wildlife management vaccine
should
replace lethal methods since “the public demands it and the animals we
have
displaced deserve it.” (ZooMontana – Wildlife Fertility Control: Fact &
Fancy)

And, from Jay F. Kirkpatrick and Allen T. Rutberg, (Chapter 12,
Fertility Control
in Animals – The State of the Animals:2001): “The public’s tolerance of
invasions
of their parks and backyards by armed strangers is declining just as its
sympathy
for wild animals and its interest in non-lethal solutions to wildlife
problems are
rising.”….. “In our view, the single most formidable barrier to the
adoption of
immunocontraception as a wildlife management tool is the entrenched
culture of
wildlife use.  In the United States, this culture is most evident in the
wildlife
management establishment which includes the state wildlife management
agencies,
much of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, the hunting community, the
arms and
archery manufacturers, the trapping and fur industries, and the other
commercial
interests that profit directly or indirectly from the killing of
wildlife.” …..  “Almost
every attempt to get a state permit to conduct an immunocontraception
field study
on deer has exploded into a titanic political battle, with the state
agency leading (or
goading) the opposition.” …..  “The publications of the hunting industry
regularly
feature articles on how immunocontraception can’t work – it is too
cumbersome
and/or expensive, it is failing is this way or that, and of course, it
is inferior to
hunting in every way.” ….. “Interest in and support for wildlife
immunocontraception  on the part of the public, the media, and some
state
legislatures suggests that this obstacle will be overcome.”

Even though some view the use of human-imposed fertility control as
“unnatural,”
Kirkpatrick and Rutberg also point out that sport hunting is not
“natural” with the
use of all-terrain vehicles, laser sights, GPS units, and other 21st
Century gadgets
and gizmos and the ensuing disruption of the lives of the hunted
animals.  They
also point out that in the public’s eyes, wildlife contraception has
gone from a joke
to a pretty darned good idea.

  With hunting, the number of deer predictably increases every year.
Killing does
not work as a population control because the remaining deer will respond
by
reproducing dramatically.  In fact, studies have indicated that the
“twinning” rate on
hunted land is 38%  as compared to 14% on non-hunted land. This
phenomenon is
known as “compensatory rebound” and explains why sport hunting as a
management tool has resulted in an ever-increasing number of deer in
this country.
Therefore, hunting is not a solution to a problem, but a commitment to a

permanent problem.

In New Jersey legislation, fertility control is explicitly recognized as
a local
management alternative!  The question of how many animals need to be
treated
depends upon the goal.  For example, is the goal a 20% reduction or a
50% slowing
of the growth rate or  zero growth population?  The data on reproduction
and
mortality must be site-specific to the particular herd in question.

“The FDA classifies deer as food animals and has issued a separate INAD
for this
species. The first step in deer contraception is for the affected
landowners and local
legal authority (city, township, county, park board or some combination
thereof, to
agree to carry out a deer project). The second step is a review by The
HSUS, to
determine the scientific and ethical dimensions of the project (do these
deer really
need more management?). The third step is the preparation of a proposal
to the
FDA for each specific project.  This proposal is written jointly by both
the local
authorities and The HSUS. The proposal must also be reviewed by the
state fish
and wildlife agency, regardless of whether the deer in question reside
on public or
private property. The principal exception to the state authority is deer
residing on
federal lands, and even in this case the federal managers may decide to
seek state
approval if they so choose.

There are still two issues which cause considerable confusion. First,
may a deer
contraceptive project be carried out without FDA "approval", and second,
what
constitutes FDA "approval". The FDA itself imposes no requirement for
the
non-commercial PZP vaccine to be "approved", however, a state or local
agency
may require that there be some level of "approval" by the FDA prior to
its use. The
use of either a commercial drug for a purpose or a species other than
that for which
it was approved by the FDA, or the use of a non-commercial drug (as with
PZP)
both constitute an experimental use of the drug. In such a case, the
investigator
may choose to apply for an INAD to use the drug in deer (as we have done
with
PZP). Attainment of an INAD for this purpose does not imply "approval"
of the
drug by FDA in the same sense that commercial drugs are approved for
sale and
use. Under the INAD the FDA reviews research proposals for scientific
usefulness,
as well as

safety and environmental concerns. In turn, the INAD authorizes the
interstate and
international shipment of the vaccine for research purposes. The INAD is
also an
agreement that the investigators may pursue their contraceptive
research, will
collect certain data, follow certain procedures, and provide the FDA
with all these
data. An often heard objection to deer immunocontraception is that "it
is still
experimental and unproven". In its current form the vaccine will remain
"experimental" only because we have no intention of marketing the
vaccine in this
form, but it is certainly proven as a sound fertility inhibitor in this
species.

In addition to the regulations regarding the vaccine, the use of
delivery equipment
such as capture guns often requires additional local authorization
and/or training.
For example, the use of capture gun equipment within an NPS unit, even
to deliver
contraceptive drugs, requires special NPS certification. This includes
documentation of prior experience with the equipment, a certificate of
completion
of an NPS sponsored wildlife immobilization course or its equivalent,
current CPR
certification, passage of a qualifying test on the range, and a letter
of certification
from a superintendent of an NPS unit. In projects outside national
parks, special
training in a week-long program is required and sponsored by The HSUS
(see
Kirkpatrick and Turner 1995).” (ZooMontana – Wildlife Fertility Control:
Fact &
Fancy)

“Funding for applications of the vaccine to wildlife is provided by many
individual
communities, agencies, and organizations, including but not limited to:
The Humane
Society of the U.S., the Elinor Patterson Baker Trust, the Geraldine R.
Dodge
Foundation, the Bernice Barbour Foundation, the Leuthold Family
Foundation, the
Panaphil Foundation, Delta-Sonics, the PNC Corporation, the Leonard X.
Bosack
and Bette M. Kruger Foundation, the Park Foundation, the Thaw
Foundation, the
Murdock Charitable Trust, the U. S. Navy, the National Park Service, the
Bureau
of Land Management, the Rachel Carson National Estuarine Reserve, the U.
S.
Department of Commerce, the National Institutes of Health, the Fire
Island
Community Association, 70 different zoos in North America and Europe,
the South
African National Parks Board, and several anonymous donors. This list is
not all-
inclusive but provides a picture of the breadth of support for this
approach to
wildlife management.” (ZooMontana – Wildlife Fertility Control: Fact &
Fancy)




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Aun: Making sure Hollywood doesn't lose track of reality
Sunday, February 23, 2003
BY FRED J. AUN
For the Star-Ledger

New Jersey sportsmen are nervous enough, given the steady flow of rhetoric
from animal-rights groups and the steady loss of hunting lands. Now comes a
movie about a psycho who hunts the hunters.

The film, starring Tommy Lee Jones, Connie Nielsen and Benecio Del Toro, is
called The Hunted. It could be -- for deer hunters -- what The Blair Witch
Project was to curious young filmmakers bent on exploring haunted forests.


Del Toro plays a "renegade top special-forces assassin" and master of
camouflage who finds great satisfaction in murdering deer hunters. To track
the killer through the Pacific Northwest wilderness, the FBI enlists the
maniac's former mentor, a woods master and former Special Forces stud played
by Jones.

If the film succeeds in making Garden State hunters anxious, they can largely
blame Tom Brown Jr. The renowned tracker, who operates a tracking, nature and
wilderness survival school in Hunterdon County, was hired by director William
Friedkin as a technical advisor for the movie.

"Actually, Tommy Lee Jones' character is based on Tom," said Friedkin in a
press release. "He was never in the military and never had to kill anyone
himself, but he's trained the Delta Forces and the Navy SEALS to track, to
survive and to return to safety."

Brown, accompanied by one of his school's instructors, spent about two hours
a day, up to four days a week, working with Del Toro and Jones. In addition
to teaching the actors camouflage, tracking and survival techniques, Brown
made sure the dialogue and action was realistic. He also offered advice about
set design and special effects.

"We were real sticklers for detail because we wanted to make sure everything
depicted there could be done," said Brown in an interview. He said Friedkin
made him construct real-life examples of "man traps" and other Tracker School
specialties.

"Be it the logs smashing together (in a trap) or a snare for a leg, he had to
see it authentically before we made it for special effects and actor
friendly," Brown said. However, he noted he had little to do with
knife-fighting and other "stylized, Hollywood stuff" action scenes.

Brown also acknowledged "some liberties" were unavoidable. For example,
Jones' character, at one point, gets up and frees a wolf from a trap. Brown
said it actually would take a person "weeks to gain a wolf's trust."

Nevertheless, Brown said the plot is not too far-fetched. "It could happen,
absolutely," he insisted. "There are people who are as highly trained as
Benecio's character in the movie. It's not that far off the wall. ... There's
people out there who are that good. Fortunately, they're not bad guys."

Of the two actors, Del Toro took the most work, Brown said. "Tommy Lee lives
on a ranch in Texas," he said. "He's already a great outdoorsman. He could
track before I taught him. Benecio took a little more training."

Still, neither actor emerged with Brown's ability to see the minuscule signs
that can be spotted only by an expert tracker. For the sake of the popcorn
munchers, the tracks followed by Jones were exaggerated.

"I manufactured tracks that Tommy Lee would follow," Brown said. "To me, they
looked like dinosaurs in peanut butter. But that's looking at them through
trained eyes compared to the general public and they are the people we have
to shoot for."

The good news for real hunters -- unless a homicidal madman as skilled as Del
Toro's character comes lurking -- is that the movie bad guy doesn't take the
easy route and knock off hunters with a rifle. Instead, the stealthy villain
sneaks up and offs them with a knife.

If that part of the film brings more chills to deer hunters than four hours
in a cold tree-stand, they again can point -- fingers only, please -- at
Brown. The movie features a nasty-looking new knife, designed by Brown,
called the Tracker Knife. This $299 item, for sale by Brown "can chop, split,
carve, score, scrape, saw, notch and drill wood, bone and even antler," said
Brown's spokesman, Dan Hirshberg. "It can be used to gut and skin an animal,
then scrape the hide. It can be lashed to a pole for use as a spear and it
can be thrown much like a tomahawk."

Apparently, it can also come in handy by someone bent on grisly murder. But
remember, Tracker Knives don't kill hunters. Psychos played by Benecio Del
Toro kill hunters.




Copyright 2003 The Star-Ledger.

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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Why Hunting Is Not a Sport
By David Cantor - Djcgside@...

Claims by hunters, officials, and outdoors columnists that hunting is a
sport
have long caused segments of the public to accept that notion.  Yet an
activity is not necessarily a sport just because those who practice it claim
it is or because authorities reinforce the notion.

It is very much worth questioning whether hunting is in fact a sport --
since
hunting is a life-and-death matter with irrevocable results and many people
deplore the deliberate killing of wildlife legally owned by all of us in
common.  The relevant facts lead to the conclusion that hunting is not a
sport.

Consider activities universally accepted as sports, and you can see they
share several qualities.  Team sports like soccer, football, hockey, rugby,
and basketball and sports of mainly individual effort like pole vaulting,
shot put, marksmanship, skiing and tennis involve only participants who
choose to take part and understand the object, skills, rules of the sport.

That cannot be said of hunting since key participants -- the nonhuman
targets
of the human participants -- do not know they are participating and do not
choose to do so.  They do not know the object is to kill them or the rules
or
regulations that govern hunting.  Animals may sense danger, but that is a
far
cry from knowing they are participating in a sport.  The more accustomed to
human presence an animal is, the less "sporting" some hunters consider it to
shoot that animal, but that does not mean shooting animals is a sport -- it
just means hunters choose to use that terminology.

Even in the most violent of sports, killing participants is never the
object.
Even though some people believe boxing should be illegal due to brain and
other injuries often inflicted and deaths sometimes caused, inflicting
injury
or causing death is not the object of boxing.  Hockey players, though
castigated or ejected for undue violence, seek to get the puck into the
opposing team's goal and prevent it from entering theirs, not usually to
harm
or kill opponents.

In those sports as in others, all participants know their sports, know the
risks, and choose to participate.  Not so with hunting, in which the aim is
to kill nonhumans forced to participate unbeknownst to them and in which
severe wounding without death or with slow, agonizing death often occurs.
Of
course, no veterinary "trainers" rush onto the field to help wounded Canada
geese, deer, mourning doves, or others while an aggrieved audience hopes for
the best.  After all, killing is the objective.

The only way around this argument that hunting is not a sport is to claim
human beings are the only participants -- that the animals are not
participants.  In support, one would have to claim hunting could take place
without animal "quarry" or that animals are not conscious beings capable of
participating in anything.  Both would be patently ridiculous assertions.
The first contradicts the definition of hunting.  The second contradicts
scientific knowledge that animals are in fact conscious beings and that they
participate in many things, such as seeking food and cover, watching for
predators to protect self and social group, building nests, raising young,
and more.

If, by calling hunting a sport, hunters simply mean they have fun doing it,
sure, that fits one definition of "sport."  But that would acknowledge
hunting should not be respected like sports involving challenge, competition
and sportsmanship including all participants' knowledge and consent.  And
killing for fun, smacking of the utmost disrespect for life, is always
discouraged in a civilized society.

That is not to say some hunters, wildlife officers, elected officials, and
members of the press do not honestly believe hunting is a sport.  But they
are seriously mistaken.  They misunderstand as countless people have always
misunderstood things.  But in the case of hunting, their error is a basis of
terrible suffering in animals and of distress in people who care about
animals.  Therefore, it must be understood that hunting is not a sport.

David Cantor, executive director of Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc.,
lives and works in Glenside, Pennsylvania.  He has advocated for animals and
published articles and letters on animal protection since 1989.

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HLSsucks/


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Excellent post!  I forwarded it to Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC).
They produce some of these outdoors shows on tv. These kinds of shows just
disgust me. They kill a beautiful animal and then stand beside it and say what a
beautiful animal. Yes, it was a beautiful animal but you have just killed it. To
me something is very wrong with this mentallity.
  Colleen Klaum <purrrrshia@...> wrote: Why Hunting Is Not a Sport
By David Cantor - Djcgside@...

Claims by hunters, officials, and outdoors columnists that hunting is a
sport
have long caused segments of the public to accept that notion.  Yet an
activity is not necessarily a sport just because those who practice it claim
it is or because authorities reinforce the notion.

It is very much worth questioning whether hunting is in fact a sport --
since
hunting is a life-and-death matter with irrevocable results and many people
deplore the deliberate killing of wildlife legally owned by all of us in
common.  The relevant facts lead to the conclusion that hunting is not a
sport.

Consider activities universally accepted as sports, and you can see they
share several qualities.  Team sports like soccer, football, hockey, rugby,
and basketball and sports of mainly individual effort like pole vaulting,
shot put, marksmanship, skiing and tennis involve only participants who
choose to take part and understand the object, skills, rules of the sport.

That cannot be said of hunting since key participants -- the nonhuman
targets
of the human participants -- do not know they are participating and do not
choose to do so.  They do not know the object is to kill them or the rules
or
regulations that govern hunting.  Animals may sense danger, but that is a
far
cry from knowing they are participating in a sport.  The more accustomed to
human presence an animal is, the less "sporting" some hunters consider it to
shoot that animal, but that does not mean shooting animals is a sport -- it
just means hunters choose to use that terminology.

Even in the most violent of sports, killing participants is never the
object.
Even though some people believe boxing should be illegal due to brain and
other injuries often inflicted and deaths sometimes caused, inflicting
injury
or causing death is not the object of boxing.  Hockey players, though
castigated or ejected for undue violence, seek to get the puck into the
opposing team's goal and prevent it from entering theirs, not usually to
harm
or kill opponents.

In those sports as in others, all participants know their sports, know the
risks, and choose to participate.  Not so with hunting, in which the aim is
to kill nonhumans forced to participate unbeknownst to them and in which
severe wounding without death or with slow, agonizing death often occurs.
Of
course, no veterinary "trainers" rush onto the field to help wounded Canada
geese, deer, mourning doves, or others while an aggrieved audience hopes for
the best.  After all, killing is the objective.

The only way around this argument that hunting is not a sport is to claim
human beings are the only participants -- that the animals are not
participants.  In support, one would have to claim hunting could take place
without animal "quarry" or that animals are not conscious beings capable of
participating in anything.  Both would be patently ridiculous assertions.
The first contradicts the definition of hunting.  The second contradicts
scientific knowledge that animals are in fact conscious beings and that they
participate in many things, such as seeking food and cover, watching for
predators to protect self and social group, building nests, raising young,
and more.

If, by calling hunting a sport, hunters simply mean they have fun doing it,
sure, that fits one definition of "sport."  But that would acknowledge
hunting should not be respected like sports involving challenge, competition
and sportsmanship including all participants' knowledge and consent.  And
killing for fun, smacking of the utmost disrespect for life, is always
discouraged in a civilized society.

That is not to say some hunters, wildlife officers, elected officials, and
members of the press do not honestly believe hunting is a sport.  But they
are seriously mistaken.  They misunderstand as countless people have always
misunderstood things.  But in the case of hunting, their error is a basis of
terrible suffering in animals and of distress in people who care about
animals.  Therefore, it must be understood that hunting is not a sport.

David Cantor, executive director of Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc.,
lives and works in Glenside, Pennsylvania.  He has advocated for animals and
published articles and letters on animal protection since 1989.

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HLSsucks/


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Haribol,

          Jim

"Radha-Krishna prana mora jugala-kisora, jivane marane gati aro nahi mora."


"The divine couple, Sri Radha and Krsna, are my life and soul. In life or death
I have no other refuge but Them."

http://www.geocities.com/veggieman48880/eating_meat_is_murder



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

You got that right.
Colleen-Catwoman

  veggieman <veggieman48880@...> wrote:
Excellent post!  I forwarded it to Michigan United Conservation Clubs (MUCC).
They produce some of these outdoors shows on tv. These kinds of shows just
disgust me. They kill a beautiful animal and then stand beside it and say what a
beautiful animal. Yes, it was a beautiful animal but you have just killed it. To
me something is very wrong with this mentallity.
Colleen Klaum <purrrrshia@...> wrote: Why Hunting Is Not a Sport
By David Cantor - Djcgside@...

Claims by hunters, officials, and outdoors columnists that hunting is a
sport
have long caused segments of the public to accept that notion.  Yet an
activity is not necessarily a sport just because those who practice it claim
it is or because authorities reinforce the notion.

It is very much worth questioning whether hunting is in fact a sport --
since
hunting is a life-and-death matter with irrevocable results and many people
deplore the deliberate killing of wildlife legally owned by all of us in
common.  The relevant facts lead to the conclusion that hunting is not a
sport.

Consider activities universally accepted as sports, and you can see they
share several qualities.  Team sports like soccer, football, hockey, rugby,
and basketball and sports of mainly individual effort like pole vaulting,
shot put, marksmanship, skiing and tennis involve only participants who
choose to take part and understand the object, skills, rules of the sport.

That cannot be said of hunting since key participants -- the nonhuman
targets
of the human participants -- do not know they are participating and do not
choose to do so.  They do not know the object is to kill them or the rules
or
regulations that govern hunting.  Animals may sense danger, but that is a
far
cry from knowing they are participating in a sport.  The more accustomed to
human presence an animal is, the less "sporting" some hunters consider it to
shoot that animal, but that does not mean shooting animals is a sport -- it
just means hunters choose to use that terminology.

Even in the most violent of sports, killing participants is never the
object.
Even though some people believe boxing should be illegal due to brain and
other injuries often inflicted and deaths sometimes caused, inflicting
injury
or causing death is not the object of boxing.  Hockey players, though
castigated or ejected for undue violence, seek to get the puck into the
opposing team's goal and prevent it from entering theirs, not usually to
harm
or kill opponents.

In those sports as in others, all participants know their sports, know the
risks, and choose to participate.  Not so with hunting, in which the aim is
to kill nonhumans forced to participate unbeknownst to them and in which
severe wounding without death or with slow, agonizing death often occurs.
Of
course, no veterinary "trainers" rush onto the field to help wounded Canada
geese, deer, mourning doves, or others while an aggrieved audience hopes for
the best.  After all, killing is the objective.

The only way around this argument that hunting is not a sport is to claim
human beings are the only participants -- that the animals are not
participants.  In support, one would have to claim hunting could take place
without animal "quarry" or that animals are not conscious beings capable of
participating in anything.  Both would be patently ridiculous assertions.
The first contradicts the definition of hunting.  The second contradicts
scientific knowledge that animals are in fact conscious beings and that they
participate in many things, such as seeking food and cover, watching for
predators to protect self and social group, building nests, raising young,
and more.

If, by calling hunting a sport, hunters simply mean they have fun doing it,
sure, that fits one definition of "sport."  But that would acknowledge
hunting should not be respected like sports involving challenge, competition
and sportsmanship including all participants' knowledge and consent.  And
killing for fun, smacking of the utmost disrespect for life, is always
discouraged in a civilized society.

That is not to say some hunters, wildlife officers, elected officials, and
members of the press do not honestly believe hunting is a sport.  But they
are seriously mistaken.  They misunderstand as countless people have always
misunderstood things.  But in the case of hunting, their error is a basis of
terrible suffering in animals and of distress in people who care about
animals.  Therefore, it must be understood that hunting is not a sport.

David Cantor, executive director of Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc.,
lives and works in Glenside, Pennsylvania.  He has advocated for animals and
published articles and letters on animal protection since 1989.

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HLSsucks/


---------------------------------
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Haribol,

          Jim

"Radha-Krishna prana mora jugala-kisora, jivane marane gati aro nahi mora."


"The divine couple, Sri Radha and Krsna, are my life and soul. In life or death
I have no other refuge but Them."

http://www.geocities.com/veggieman48880/eating_meat_is_murder



---------------------------------
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"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HLSsucks/


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From: New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance <njara@...>
To: NJARA Action Alerts! <njara@...>
Subject: Action for the Deer
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 2003 08:46:00 -0500
Dear Colleagues,

In December 2001, a legal team petitioned Mercer County Superior Court of
Chancery to issue an emergency order to reverse Princeton Township's hiring
of a contract killer to slaughter local deer. The Princeton "animal
protection" legal team has on many occasions been publicly identified (in
press and in practice) as Carl Mayer, Bruce Afran (attorney of record for
the 12/01 legal action) and Falk Engel. New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance
(NJARA), known statewide for its unwavering commitment to prevent animal
suffering, injury or death, was a key plaintiff.
Consequently, we are outraged to learn that Princeton lawyer Falk Engel has
shifted allegiances from the real animal protection community to the
Hunters Advocate Group (HAG). HAG presented a bowhunting plan to Princeton
last month (see full plan below), listing Engel as counsel and a contact
for the plan itself.
Shocked by this betrayal, NJARA and the League of Animal Protection Voters
condemned both Engel's pro-killing position and bowhunting. Bowhunting is
recognized as unspeakably inhumane by every animal protection organization.
To divert attention from the real issue of attorneys switching sides and
promoting killing---bowhunting in particular, Engel responded in the press
by name calling, attempting to label any dissenters as "outer periphery of
>militant fringe extremists." Bruce Afran called deer a "resource," and
declared that we should recognize the rights of hunters to "use this
resource."
While the HAG plan submitted to Princeton might be moot in Princeton this
year**, it clearly demonstrates a pro-bowhunting position and claims to be
"a good faith concession by animal protection advocates." The plan is being
promoted to offer, "a model for safe, effective, and responsible deer
management throughout New Jersey."
The promotion of this plan is dangerous on many levels, most significantly
because it claims to have the support of the animal protection community.

You can view JPEGS of the actual plan at
www.HonorAndNonViolence.com/pp1.html
ACTION NEEDED:
We are calling all deer activists across NJ to:
1) Speak out against the Hunters Advocate Group plan and work to oppose
bowhunting, net and bolt and any other form of lethal deer management;
2) Crosspost this letter far and wide;
3) Add your voice to ours: Hit reply, sign your name after those listed
below and send it back to us.
Sincerely,
League of Animal Protection Voters
New Jersey Animal Rights Alliance
** The Fish and Game Council recently voted to allow Princeton to go ahead
with the same plan as last year, including the netting and bolting of deer,
but with the added provision that they will look to open up public land to
bowhunters.

_________________________________________________
CONTROL MANAGED HUNTING:
A PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP IN COMMUNITY
BASED DEER MANAGEMENT
OFFERED BY THE HUNTERS ADVOCATE GROUP
_________________________________________________

CONTROL MANAGED HUNTING: A PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP FOR
COMMUNITY BASED DEER MANAGEMENT OFFERED BY THE HUNTERS
ADVOCATE GROUP
DEER MANAGEMENT: FRAMING THE PROBLEM....
New Jersey's wildlife is a valuable natural resource in which all of us, as
citizens of this State, share not only pride, but also an ownership
interest. We the people own these animals, and by law, our State's Division
of Fish, Game and Wildlife and our Fish and Game Council stand as trustees
who protect this asset; managing its ecological balance and vitality while
mindful of the fact that it is in the end the people's resource which has
been placed in their trust.
Our verdant land has been kind to the people who take pride in calling New
Jersey their home: Thousands of residents here enjoy the sight of
White-tailed deer grazing peacefully in our woodlands, as springtime fawns
affirm our common determination not to be a State characterized by a
predominance of highways and shopping malls. While deer offer visual
pleasure to many, we also understand that those same herds of White-tails
once nourished the children of the Lenape nation, as they assured the
wintertime survival of the first Dutch and Swedish settlers here more than
three centuries ago. Each year, from Sussex to Cape May, many a
Thanksgiving table is graced by venison- a valuable gift from a treasured
land.
Both those concerned with animal protection and New Jersey's hunters share
a common understanding that is rooted in an intuitive common sense so clear
as to transcend philosophical differences: Our deer are a valuable natural
resource that no entity has the right to gratuitously destroy by the
manifestation of mere political will. We own these animals and our licensed
hunters pay fees for the right to access them for their use. We also
understand that deer herds must be managed in a state of ecological balance
to assure their proper and healthy perpetuation.
Historically, responsible hunting has been the proven and proper method of
game management, and it has worked successfully. Today we face
developmental pressures resulting in land use intensity which often hinders
traditional hunting. That, combined with ill-conceived political currents
directed against hunters, diminishes hunting opportunities and thereby
complicates wildlife management tasks. The foreseeable consequence of this
combined trend is that many towns find themselves searching for a deer
management solution.
The Hunters Advocate Group is unique in that it brings the shared
intellectual understanding of both hunters and animal advocates-- that our
deer are a resource, not a threat-- into the realm of public policy. We
believe that New Jersey's Community Based Deer Management Act was not
intended to destroy the rights of our hunters, but rather, that its intent
is to place hunters in the vanguard of deer management.
. . .  AND CRAFTING A SOLUTION

Few people understand wildlife management needs better than the hunters of
our State, many of whom have decades of experience in the field. Extensive
consultation with these experts and with key voices among animal protection
advocates, has led the Hunters Advocate Group to develop a pilot program
that promises to offer a model for safe, effective, and responsible deer
management throughout New Jersey. Our plan is built upon the philosophy of
a public-private partnership that protects the rights of hunters by
harnessing their skills to serve the deer management needs of the
municipality. We call it Control Managed Hunting, and we would like to
introduce you to this promising new concept which we are offering to
Princeton.
WHAT EXACTLY IS CONTROL MANAGED HUNTING AND WHY DOES IT WORK?
Traditional individual hunting works in many communities because they have
enough open space for adequate hunting opportunities. Many towns, such as
Princeton, have sufficiently intensive land use and severe hunting
restrictions which act to diminish the effectiveness of such methods. What
is needed is a focused, coordinated approach--what we call strategic
hunting.
In this process the town is divided up into zones in which all hunting
lands are identified. All hunters are registered with a central
coordinator, who assigns them to specific areas. Hunters log their time in
the field, record how many deer they see, how many shots they make, and how
many deer they take. This allows the coordinator to closely monitor deer
populations in each zone. We take the hunters' field data and combine that
with deer-auto accident locations to run a weekly data base during hunting
season. On the basis of that we continually reassign hunters to guarantee
equalized hunting coverage throughout the township.
The efficacy of the system can best be illustrated as follows: Individual
hunting is like an army that takes to the field marching and shooting in
random fashion. Control Managed Hunting takes that army and places it under
a tactical command structure that assigns each unit a specific mission,
thereby maximizing the force's overall effectiveness. In this way deer
populations can be efficiently managed, and, having a sizeable number of
hunters in the field, all with central coordination and control for an
entire season, permits us to generate an ongoing field data base from which
we can draw much more accurate deer population estimates than was hitherto
possible.
A map of Princeton showing the layout of lands and land use intensity.
Private hunting lands would be plotted upon such a map and then zones would
be drawn to serve as a data reference for coordinating hunting activities.
At the same time deer-auto collision sites would be entered so as to
provide a comprehensive reference source.
Based upon hunter field time/deer taking numbers, hunters can be
coordinated from zone to zone to properly manage a balanced hunting program.

By referencing all of the data together, we will be able to plot not only
hunting activities, but we will also have the ability to determine
high-priority areas for road reflector placement.
MAP

WHAT ARE THE "PUBLIC" AND "PRIVATE" COMPONENTS OF THIS PARTNERSHIP?
This program is public in that it requires the township to endorse the
program in lieu of alternatives. The township must decide which public
lands it wants to make accessible to recreational hunters. Most
importantly, the governing body must require all township hunters to
register their name and present hunting sites with our coordinator. This is
the only way in which we can implement centralized hunting management.
Obviously the program is open on an equal-opportunity basis to all licensed
N.J. hunters. On a bi-weekly basis Hunters Advocate will provide township
authorities with a data base update. Thus public officials will be
continually apprised of the program's progress.
The private component is very simple: The Hunters Advocate Group is not a
business. We do not charge a fee. Hunters are private individuals who hunt
recreationally, and they pay only their state-mandated hunting fees. The
hunters own the deer they kill. If the program succeeds we may request a
token tee after the first year for processing paperwork.
WHAT ACTION IS REQUIRED BY THE FISH AND CAME COUNCIL?
The Council is needed only to grant a waiver from existing Fish and Game
regulations. The basis of our program operates entirely within existing
hunting laws, and therefore requires no action by the Council. If Princeton
wants to request a season extension for example, that would require Council
approval.
HOW WILL PUBLIC SAFETY BE ASSURED?
One emphatic element of our program are the most stringent safety
guidelines. This is a bowhunting program operated under rules that may be
viewed as onerous by some, but we feel strongly that safety must come first
and foremost to assure the success and public acceptance of our approach.
Notably:
1- We will not accept any rifle hunting, with any type of rifle, because of
the range of such firearms. For the same reason we will not allow rifled
shotguns or shotguns firing sabot rounds.
2- All archers must take a skills test administered by Hunter Advocate. New
archers must hunt with a "buddy".
3- All archers are to shoot from tree stands only (except for a few rare
exceptions). This creates the smallest possible zone of danger (about 30
yards range), assures a fast humane kill, and permits the archer to have
optimal situational awareness of his shooting environs.

4- All hunters must carry full liability insurance.
5- Only licensed N.J. hunters may participate.
6- All participating landowners will get a hunting safety packet from us,
and all hunters on private lands must notify the owner of exactly when they
will be hunting (specific time in, time out). We will provide an informed
consent form to landowners who wish to waive the 450 foot rule.
WILL HUNTERS ALREADY HUNTING PRINCETON ACCEPT THIS PROGRAM?
The Hunters Advocate is a group run by and for hunters. We have received
broad based support from hunters throughout New Jersey because they
understand that Hunters Advocate works to protect their rights and
interests. Hunters presently working tracts of private lands are not
impacted by our plan. All we ask is that they provide their names, hunting
locations, and harvest numbers so that we can coordinate that within our
data base.
NUMERICAL PROJECTIONS DEMONSTRATE VIABILITY:
Based on Princeton's 2002 deer count of 680 head, and using the 2000
hunting numbers (the last year before hunting lands were denuded by White
Buffalo), the mathematical viability of our Control Managed Hunting project
can be readily shown:
Present herd size:
      680
Hunters take on private lands (as in 2000):           -230
Hunters take on newly opened lands (estimate):     -46
Approximate road kill (2002):                                   -145

Remaining herd size without spring 2003 fawns:  259
While the numbers suggest an excessive deer reduction, we believe that the
spring 2003 fawns will actually bring the population close to the 350 range
recommended by the Division of Fish, Game, and Wildlife. An added advantage
of our managed hunting program is that if we begin to see data suggesting
excessive deer depletion during the season, there will be time to take
corrective measures.
WHAT ARE THE BOTTOM LINE BENEFITS OF CONTROL MANAGED HUNTING?
Our plan is unique in that it offers a win-win situation for everyone,
simply because it meets the needs and interests of every constituency
involved in the deer debate. We have been able to do this because Control
Managed Hunting is a policy developed by forging a compromise between
hunters and animal protection advocates, and, at the same time the plan is
demonstrably viable as a deer population control strategy. A few salient
points of benefit are worth iterating:

* IT ENDS POLITICAL CONTROVERSY-
Our hunting plan represents a good faith concession by animal protection
advocates who grasp that their common stake in a shared resource fuses, in
some measure, their own aims with that of hunters. Neither group wants to
see the gratuitous, wholesale destruction of our wildlife.

* IT IS PROTECTIVE OF HUNTERS NIGHTS-
With our approach a new model can be offered to communities in New Jersey.
It is a model that makes the Division of Fish, Game, and Wildlife partners
with New Jersey hunters in a shared responsibility for managing our
wildlife resources. Commercial deer killing has wrought a strained relation
between the two, and we can and now must, end that adversarial process.

* IT ENDS DEER LITIGATION-

By rejecting commercial deer extermination and returning to traditional
hunting practices Princeton removes the legal basis of opposition to its
previous deer management plan. We can end costly litigation and control
deer populations at the same time in a single, bold step.

* IT PROTECTS OUR CITIZENS FROM DANGEROUS RIFLE FIRE-
As our own evidence shows, the use of high-powered, long-range rifles in a
densely populated town creates unacceptable risks to the public safety. A
bowhunter shoots 30 yards, a distance he can visually monitor with ease.
Rifles shoot over 500 yards in a level path (at night yet), which creates a
danger line 16.6 times as long, and brings far greater destructive impact
energy to bear.

* IT RETURNS BADLY NEEDED TAX REVENUES TO PRINCETON-
Control Managed Hunting is a windfall for the property taxpayer. Princeton
has spent about one-half million dollars for deer litigation and commercial
deer killing. When divided by "net deer killed", that amounts to over $1000
per deer- an absurdly high cost paid to deprive hunters of their game. By
embracing a hunting program, that money can now be used for vital social
services and civic projects- or a property tax rebate.
The Hunters Advocate Group is ready to meet with Princeton officials, or
those of other towns, to discuss implementational logistics of our Control
Managed Hunting plan. The broad resources of Hunters Advocate bring
expertise in hunting and wildlife management, weapons safety, law and
public policy, and political consulting to the table. We are here to offer
solutions- and we look forward to doing that for you.
YOU CAN CONTACT EITHER OF THE FOLLOWING PERSONS:
Robert Kubiak; Director, The Hunters Advocate (609) 259-5588 Fax Line:
259-5533
Falk Engel; Counsel (609) 883-1076
A publication by:       THE HUNTERS ADVOCATE GROUP
                          2 SHARON ROAD
                          ROBBINSVILLE, NEW JERSEY 08691

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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----- Original Message ----- From: judy@AnimalVoices
February 24, 2003

Hunting access: When farms are sold,
new owners, values dictate who gets to hunt
By RON TSCHIDA Chronicle Staff Writer rtschida@...

GLENDIVE -- In Dawson County, an eastern Montana expanse of rough coulees and
sprawling wheat fields along the Yellowstone River, nearly one in five residents
is 65 or older. In Daniels and Sheridan counties, in the state's northeast
corner, nearly one in four is 65 or older. Many of Montana's rural counties hold
an aging population.

While that demographic detail may not seem of much relevance to sportsmen, it
has implications that could change the face of Montana hunting.

Already, elderly landowners are putting property up for sale, and the most eager
buyers are well-heeled recreation buyers.

When hobby ranchers buy properties for their exclusive playground, resident
hunters find themselves locked out of ranches and farms they grew up hunting on,
the places that were opened to them with just a knock on the ranch house door.

"I'm seeing farms and ranches where the owners are to the point where they're
starting to tip over," says Dawson County rancher Lowell Stevenson, in blunt
fashion. "They're dying out. And the land is being sold and it's being bought by
out-of-staters."

The new owners aren't particularly worried about paying for the land based on
wheat and cattle prices, Stevenson says.

"They don't care what the land sells for," he says. "If it's got hunting on it
they'll buy it at any price."

By some estimates, the next decade will bring a watershed change in land
ownership in the Rocky Mountain West.

"I would expect somewhere between 50 and 60 percent ownership turnover of land
in the next 10 years," says Roy Roath, an associate professor of range science
at Colorado State University.

He points to a CSU survey a few years ago that found the average mountain state
rancher was in his early 60s.

Low beef and grain prices in recent years coupled with a drought entering its
fifth year in parts of the West are also taking a toll.

"It's tougher and tougher to be a rancher now," Roath says. "It just is. The
economic things are against you. Even in the good years, they're only slightly
above cost. Livestock alone won't make a ranch profitable."

On the other hand, land prices continue to escalate, spurred by demand from
recreational and investment buyers.

That makes it even harder to keep ranches in the hands of traditional operators,
says Dave Johnson, a Bozeman-based real estate broker at Hall and Hall. The
ranch brokerage firm, with eight offices from Albuquerque, N.M. to Missoula,
does business throughout the Rockies.

Johnson says ranchers have an incredibly deep connection to the land.

"'Lifestyle' is too trite," Johnson says. "It's deeper than that. It's life."

Most would like to keep the land in the family, passing it to their heirs. But
the next generation can't afford to buy the land based on its productivity, and
inheritance taxes often force a sale after a rancher dies.

Pressured by slim profits, tempted by fat purchase offers, more ranchers are
selling out.

And if present trends continue, the new owners often won't be traditional farm
operators.

A joint project of the Bozeman-based Yellowstone Heritage Foundation and the
Colorado-based Center of the American West is trying to put some numbers behind
the anecdotes.

Using methods formulated by University of Colorado geographer Hannah Schneider,
the study is looking at ranch sales in counties around Yellowstone National
Park, including seven Montana counties.

The study defines a ranch property as one of at least 400 acres operated
primarily for agriculture.

In Park County, Montana, for example, about one out of four such properties
changed hands from 1990 to 2001. Only 10 percent of buyers were traditional
ranchers. Nearly two out of three buyers, 63 percent, were "amenity buyers,"
says Julia Haggerty, who is doing the research.

Amenity buyers are sometimes called conservation buyers, because they often are
interested in preserving land as open space. They're more interested in the
scenic and recreation values -- the fishing and hunting -- than in the number of
cows the land will support.

And privacy is a prime motivator for their purchase.

"These folks don't need their neighbors, so to speak, and don't even understand
the need to communicate," Roath says.

"The whole value sets are different," he says. "I can tell you what happens here
in Colorado. As soon as the non-resident owner buys the land the 'no
trespassing' signs go up. The first thing you see is the overhead sign
announcing, 'I'm here, I have made it.' The next thing you see is the 'no
trespassing' signs."

The interest from nontraditional buyers hasn't escaped the notice of Hall and
Hall, whose fall 2002 newsletter included the cover story, "Hunting for a
hunting ranch."

And while recreation buyers have been active in the western third of Montana for
some time, there is increasing interest in plains land.

"Things are different in Glasgow," Roath says. "But their time's coming."

When even remote ranches are targeted by nontraditional buyers, hunters will
find private land access still more dificult.

And although 35 percent of Montana is federal and state land, private land has
always played a big role in Montana hunting. According to FWP harvest surveys,
70 percent of deer and 80 percent of antelope are taken on private land.

But where private land fits in the future of Montana hunting is an open
question.

Stevenson, the Dawson County rancher, is 53 and the third generation to farm the
land his grandfather homesteaded in 1908.

His ranch, about five miles from the Yellowstone River, isn't going to get any
bigger. The last piece of neighboring property he tried to buy sold for at least
twice what it was worth as crop and pasture land, he says.

And the money keeps getting bigger, not only for land sales but for hunting
rights.

The money offered for a few three- and five-day hunts, says Stevenson, is more
than some ranchers make from a year's calf crop. People are willing to spend
several thousand dollars for the chance to shoot a trophy-class mule deer or
whitetail. Elk bring even more.

"My view on the future of hunting, I expect it within my lifetime to be gone
except for the wealthy," Stevenson says.

Land will be sold just for the hunting and other land will be exclusively leased
for hunting.

"Money is no problem" he says. "There is so much money in this country out there
we can't compete with them.

"You have a whole generation that's still on the farm and when they're gone, and
this will happen in the next few years, the land will be sold and it won't be
local people buying it," Stevenson says. "And the whole face of eastern Montana
will change just as it's changed in the Bozeman area."

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2003/02/24/news/landownertrendsbzbigs.\
txt

Photos and articles ©2003 the Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Letters to:
Editor, Bozeman Daily Chronicle, P.O. Box 1188, Bozeman, MT 59771.
Or email citydesk@...
Or Web email:  http://bozemandailychronicle.com/letters/

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

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----- Original Message -----
From: Joanne Pisani
Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2003 6:07 AM


http://www.injersey.com/news/c-n/story/0,2111,693734,00.html

Group planning to sue Bernards over hunt

Published in the Courier News on February 22, 2003
By BERNICE PAGLIA
Staff Writer
BERNARDS -- Opponents of a plan to kill deer say the township approved the
plan without public input and that two members of a deer control task force
had a conflict of interest in the matter.
Rosemary Grace, president of Bernards Deerkeeper, said the group plans to
sue the township over the issue.
But first the group must receive permission to file the lawsuit, because it
is taking action more than 45 days after a Dec. 19 public hearing.
The state Division of Fish and Wildlife approved the hunt earlier this
month. A hunting club and professional hunters with Deer Management Systems
of Hampton, along with bow hunters, were to carry out the plan. The
township's goal is to reduce its deer population to 20 per square mile.
Grace said the 18-page plan was posted the night of the meeting and only
minutes elapsed before the vote. She said there was no discussion before the
vote and her request to see the plan in advance had been denied.
The group alleged the task force that decided on the plan was a public
entity and violated the Open Public Meetings Act by avoiding public
participation. In addition, the group said two members of the task force had
a conflict of interest because they were members of an organization
ultimately hired to shoot the deer.
Grace said the group was taking action "because we believe the deer control
issue must be resolved through public referendum rather than be the product
of a back-room deal."
The group's attorney, Stuart Lieberman, said it appeared the township
delegated the deer issue to a "specially created task force" specifically
for the purpose of avoiding public participation as required by the Open
Public Meetings Act.
Mayor William Holmes said Friday he had heard about the proposed lawsuit,
but said, "I have not seen it, nor talked to our attorney."
He declined further comment, referring inquiries to township attorney John
Belardo.
Bernice Paglia can be reached at (908) 707-3137 or bpaglia@....
from the Courier News website www.c-n.com

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

This says the doe was 212 years old, but I'm quite sure that's a typo.

-----------------------------------------------

Doe succumbs despite massive rescue attempt
Friday, February 21, 2003
By PHILIP SEAN CURRAN
Staff Writer

CARNEYS POINT TWP. -- A doe, walking on the thin ice of the Deepwater Canal,
fell through and drowned Thursday after struggling to save herself,
authorities said.

By the time a two-man rescue squad got to her, the 212-year-old animal was
already dead.


The carcass was removed and taken to be disposed of, authorities said.

Authorities were not sure what time the animal fell through the ice.
Witnesses said that shortly before 4 p.m., they said saw the deer trying to
raise her head above water.

Police and fire and rescue squads converged en masse on the scene on county
Route 540 between Hawks Bridge and Cedar Crest, forming a long row of cars,
ambulances and fire trucks.

Fresh tracks showed the deer had made it near the middle of the canal before
the ice gave way.

A nervous group of onlookers stood in hope the animal might survive in
32-degree water.

Looking for a sign of life from the deer, Kelly Naugle of Carneys Point said
softly, "Head up."

Almost on cue, the deer did just that.

Ed Shimp, animal control officer for Carneys Point, said the deer had a
chance to survive -- if she could keep her head above water.

Meanwhile, authorities from the Carneys Point Fire and Rescue Squad faced
hazards of their own. The canal, with its three-inch thick ice, was too thin
to walk on.

A crew of Mike Hanna and Bill Cahill, wearing red suits, took on the task of
rescuing the animal. It was a physically-exhausting operation.

Hanna, sitting in the front of their rubber boat, used a "plaster blaster" to
break through the ice, while Cahill, sitting in the back, helped guide the
boat along.

Authorities on the scene said that while they wanted to rescue the animal,
they were not going to risk the men's lives to do it.

For nearly an hour, the men moved inch by inch on their way to the animal.

"It's not even moving," said one police officer who was standing in
ankle-deep snow.

Still some held out hope.

A helicopter from Channel 6 hovered over the scene and relayed the image of
the rescue.

At about 5:15 p.m., Hanna and Cahill reached the deer. They gave no sign --
either that she was alive or dead -- and tied a rope around the animal. The
work was far from over, however.

Crews standing on land dragged the animal through the icy water. The two
rescuers, who later lay exhausted on the ground afterward, returned safely.

Around 5:30 p.m., the rescue operation was over, and rows of motorists backed
up on 540 began moving out.

They drove past -- of all things -- a traffic warning sign with a deer on it.

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Subj:    [WPN] DEER: Hunting or Sharpshooting is likely in Valley Forge
Nat'l Historic Park
   Date:    2/26/2003 11:05:04 AM Eastern Standard Time
   From:    Mud45@...
   To:    WildlifeProtection@yahoogroups.com
   Sent from the Internet (Details)




PLEASE CROSS-POST
THIS IS  A NATIONAL WILDLIFE ISSUE THAT AFFECTS ALL U.S. CITIZENS!
In a startling announcement, Deirdre Gibson, Chief Planner for Valley Forge
Nat'l Historic Park (VFNHP) announced that "It's going to be pretty clear
that to restore the natural balance we will need to manage the deer." The
term "Manage" means killing. This is particularly shocking because just a
few months ago, a fully-funded deer contraception program sponsored by
H.S.U.S., major universities, and foundations was turned down by VFNHP
management stating, "I must deny your research application because the
project would disrupt natural processes (i.e. altering deer reproductive
potential) which
is generally not permissible under National Park Service park management
policies.... The National Park Service does not intervene in natural
biological or physical processes..."

For the full article in todays Phila. Inquirer go to:
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/local/5262849.htm

Does the National Park Service not consider death a natural
biological/physical process?

VFNHP NEEDS TO HEAR FROM YOU and the pro-animal community.
2 meetings will be held today at the Upper Merion Twsp Building (Freedom
Hall) at 175 W. Valley Forge Rd. (Rte 23) in King of Prussia, PA at 3-5 pm
and again at 7-9 pm. IF YOU CAN'T ATTEND but want to give them your
anti-hunting/sharpshooting , pro-contraception feedback - call the VFNHP
office  at 610-783-1000. Ask them to send you a copy of the questionnaire
immediately - the deadline for feedback is March 7th.Tell them you are
strongly opposed to hunting and/or sharpshooting and that you want the
contraception program to be used. Or send a letter to:
Mr. Arthur Stewart, Park Supervisor
VFNHP
PO Box 953
Valley Forge, PA 19482-0953
Call 1-866-6ANIMAL for more information. Thanks- Barb Riebman

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

You can also e-mail the park:   vafo_gmp@....

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

across the snow-covered frozen landscape run the tracks of deer.
where do they go when it's 20 below?
squirrels have nests and groundhogs have dens.
goats and horses (usually) have at least a drafty barn to break the
chill wind.
but who cares for the deer?

and when the chilly rain soaks their coat, does anybody rub them dry
with a warm blanket and feed them warm mash?

all they can do is keep moving, keep moving.
to stop and rest is to freeze solid in a matter of minutes.

cant feed nor shelter em, its against the "Law".
but mooks and other "sportsmen" can raise killer dogs all year long.
and when the killer dogs get loose and kill some child on a
playground, its a small fine and a slap on the "human" wrist.
but feed or shelter a deer without a federal permit and its serious
jail time, jack.

welcome to Amerika, where ghouls rule.
and the only earth that the meek inherit is the earth of the landfill.

...

Hi Impster,

It's been a really rough winter here in NJ and the deer show it.  Quite
a few very small fawns that don't grow.  Yesterday, I saw a really boney
doe.  Putting out 100 lbs of corn a week.  But it doesn't go far with 2
dozen deer looking to eat twice a day.  Supplemented the corn with
fresh-baked Italian bread from my kitchen and reduced-priced ripe food
that I get from the supermarket.  Been looking the other way while they
eat their way through my shrubs.  If only the neighbors could help out a
little by throwing out stale bread or ripe fruit, but they don't.  How
can people just ignore these poor creatures that have been so misplaced
by urban sprawl.  Sometimes I think the animals have more heart than
most of us.


Imp Ster wrote:

>  across the snow-covered frozen landscape run the tracks of deer.
> where do they go when it's 20 below?
> squirrels have nests and groundhogs have dens.
> goats and horses (usually) have at least a drafty barn to break the
> chill wind.
> but who cares for the deer?
>
> and when the chilly rain soaks their coat, does anybody rub them dry
> with a warm blanket and feed them warm mash?
>
> all they can do is keep moving, keep moving.
> to stop and rest is to freeze solid in a matter of minutes.
>
> cant feed nor shelter em, its against the "Law".
> but mooks and other "sportsmen" can raise killer dogs all year long.
> and when the killer dogs get loose and kill some child on a
> playground, its a small fine and a slap on the "human" wrist.
> but feed or shelter a deer without a federal permit and its serious
> jail time, jack.
>
> welcome to Amerika, where ghouls rule.
> and the only earth that the meek inherit is the earth of the landfill.
>
> ...
>
>
>                    Yahoo! Groups Sponsor
                         ADVERTISEMENT


>
> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
> friendsofdeer-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

lucky deerskis!

i have been raiding the breadbox at our local food bank for deer
bread weekly.
all the heavy multi-grain stuff piles up, gets crushed and would go
to waste that the local human animules wont touch (cause it
aint "white enuff" ah rekon)...
so deer and goat and i get dozens of relatively-fresh loaves of
expensive rye, pumpernikkl, whole-grain wheat, oat, bran, etc.
there are huge piles of french batons and sourdoughs that i cant even
make room for in my car.
perhaps you can make a deal with a local bakery warehouse to plunder
their outdated returns which often end up in landfill anwyay.
we must be the only nation on the planet that dumps so much packaged
food.

will be planting mucho corn around the woods edge this year.
gonna stick it in the ground a kernal at a time to be sure it sprouts
and the deerskis (or birdskis or squirrelskis) dont nibble it first.
and once it gets tall, more hidey-holes too.

bless you Pat for being one of the few who care.

...

Thanks David C. for bringing this to our attention- Barb R.
FROM ©Packet Online 2003 Reader Opinions
Copyright © 1995 - 2003 PowerOne Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Deer birth control topic of upcoming public forum
By: David Campbell , Staff Writer  03/04/2003As of Monday, 137 deer have
been killed.

    Anthony DeNicola of White Buffalo will hold a public forum March 12 to
inform residents about the pilot immunocontraceptive study in Princeton
Township's deer-management program.
    "We're trying to create a public forum where everyone is welcome," Mr.
DeNicola said. "We want to educate the public and create a dialogue."
    The forum is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 12, at Township
Hall. Nina Austenberg, director of the Humane Society's Mid-Atlantic Regional
Office, also will be present at the meeting, Mr. DeNicola said.
    Mr. DeNicola is expected to give a half-hour slide show presentation on
the history of fertility control and the research methods and objectives of
the program, which is taking place in the southeast corner of the township.
The goal is to immunize up to 75 does in the next two years. A
question-and-answer session will follow.
    Mayor Phyllis Marchand said, "I think this is a wonderful opportunity for
residents in the community to hear a real scholar in wildlife management and
to learn more about our premier program of immunocontraception."
    Mayor Marchand added, "We all would love to see nonlethal means employed
in the future for the control of wildlife overpopulation."
    As of Monday, a total of 137 deer have been killed this year in the
lethal component of the township's program, which resumed Feb. 20.
    On Thursday, 21 deer were killed, 16 by the net-and-bolt method and five
by sharpshooters from elevated tree stands, according to a spokesman for the
state Division of Fish and Wildlife.
    White Buffalo culled 24 deer on Friday, 13 by net-and-bolt and 11 by
sharpshooting. On Saturday, 23 deer were killed, 13 by net-and-bolt and 10 by
sharpshooting.
    A total of 69 deer were killed between Feb. 20 and Feb. 26.
    An observer from the Humane Society is expected to monitor White
Buffalo's field immunizations and controversial captive-bolting methods on
Saturday and Sunday.
    White Buffalo is focusing its immunocontraceptive efforts on Sundays when
culling is not permitted. One doe was inoculated with the experimental
vaccine SpayVac on Feb. 23. No deer were immunized this past Sunday, Mr.
DeNicola said.
    The township's goal is a herd of about 320 deer, compared to an estimated
herd of 1,600 in 2000 before the start of the cull in 2001. Last winter,
White Buffalo killed 303 deer with sharpshooting and captive bolting, in
which deer are lured to netted bait sites and dispatched with a
slaughterhouse device that discharges a retractable bolt to the animal's
head. In 2001, White Buffalo sharpshooters killed 322 deer.
    Township officials have said their deer-management program is a safe and
humane means to reduce deer-car collisions, the spread of Lyme disease and
damage to gardens and the ecosystem caused by deer overpopulation.
    In a suit pending in the state Appellate Division, foes claim the lethal
program violates state animal-cruelty laws and that the use of high-powered
rifles in the township poses a hazard to residents.

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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off i go to the burg to stock up on critter chow for the month.
the bumpkins big trip to town.

nearing the interstate, i suddenly see a huge chunk of woods missing.
the latest unkind cut of suburbian developement chews a 10 acre hole
in the woods.
oh well, no biggy eh.
its not like i havent been driving past the same chunk of woods for
nigh on 30 years now.

but anyway.

then inexplicably about a mile down the freeway, traffic slows.
in the broad daylight of late afternoon, the mangled remains of a
mature doe divert the bumper crop of weekend traffic.
a car pulled off the left shoulder.
the cell-phone yammering yuppette who clobbered her yakked franticaly
into her implant while 2 other cars stood by further down, witless
witnesses no doubt.
a large dent in the front bumper the only evidence of impact.

what was she running from...

not solitary hunters with rifles or bows this time.
but gangs of mooks with chainsaws and bushhawgs.

deer probably heard the racket, faded fled back into the deeper
woods, then returned later to its beloved woodland birthplace to find
it gone destroyed and lost beyond accounting.
nothing left but a few ragged clearcut hills stubbled with thrashed
underbrush crisscrossed by the tracks of strange metal beasts, the
foul stink of diesel and humankind heavy in the air.

wandering sorrow madness lost loss

may we hope she never knew what hit her.
her troubles are over now.

and ours are just beginning...

...

In New Jersey, two bills take different approaches to expanding hunting.
Assembly Bill 3064, introduced by Assemblywoman Rose Marie Heck (R-Bergen) would
allow the Fish and Game Council to authorize Sunday hunting.  Another New Jersey
bill, Senate Bill 62, introduced by Senator Walter Kavanaugh (R-Morris and
Somerset), would permit bowhunting on Sunday for deer. It was assigned to the
Senate Economic Growth, Agriculture, and Tourism Committee. Please contact your
Assemblypeople and state Senator and urge them to OPPOSE these bills. Find your
legislator by looking at http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp If
you live in the districts covered by Heck or Kavanaugh, tell them that you will
remember their anti-animal views on election day.

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

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Hi everyone! There will be a demonstration held in Wallkill at the Wildlife
Refuge March 15 to expose the true nature of the work they do to the public that
believes they are there to save animals instead of being a breeding facility 
for hunters. Please check out these sites for more info.

Any questions or comments contact

Jake

veganomad@...


EDUCATE TO LIBERATE..
Our Webpage
http://scar.punchoutdesigns.com/

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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From ITHACA JOURNAL March 31, 2003

Cornell U vets go undercover to sterilize deer

By JESSICA KELTZ
Journal Staff

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------


IRINA PERESS/Journal Staff
In an operating room at the Cornell University College of Veterinary
Medicine,
technician Samantha Koba, left, graduate student Joe Church, and
anesthesiologist Lysa Posner, prepare a sedated deer, captured
Saturday morning
in the Village of Cayuga Heights, for reproductive system surgery as
research
technician Peter Mattison, holds her.



IRINA PERESS/Journal Staff
Early Saturday morning Peter Mattison, right, a research technician,
and Paul
Curtis, an extension wildlife specialist, both in the Cornell
University
Department of Natural Resources, start to collapse a trap around a
doe in a
Cayuga Heights backyard.




Communities with too many people to allow hunting, but too little
development to
crowd out wildlife face a unique problem: too many deer.

In Cayuga Heights, and in suburbs all over the country, deer cause car
accidents, destroy gardens and sometimes overpopulate to the point of
starvation
and disease.

A Cornell University pilot program done in conjunction with the
Village of
Cayuga Heights seeks to test a solution that would skirt no-hunting
laws. Since
fall, Cornell scientists have been busy trapping deer in yards,
bringing them to
the College of Veterinary Medicine for sterilization, and setting
them free.

Early Saturday morning, natural resources professors Paul Curtis and
Gary Goff,
and research technician Peter Mattison headed out to Cayuga Heights.
Seven deer
traps had been set the night before in yards where homeowners had
granted
permission. Mattison checked them that night, so he said any trapped
deer would
probably not be caged for more than a few hours.

A young doe, about a year old and pregnant, was found frantic in the
third trap
they checked. They administered drugs within seconds to stop her from
moving and
had her to a veterinary operating room at Cornell in about ten
minutes.

From there, the procedure is essentially the same one a human would
receive,
Mattison said. The deer remains awake -- although immobile -- until
just before
surgery, at which point it receives nitrous oxide on top of the
relaxants and
narcotics administered by injection on the homeowner's property.

A team of two Cornell veterinary surgeons and three veterinary
technicians
perform the surgery in about half an hour. They use a laparoscopic
procedure,
making three small incisions in the deer's underside and inserting
tubes into
them, then inserting surgical instruments through the tubes to make
cuts in the
deer's fallopian tubes, which will prevent future pregnancies. The
deer's
pregnancy makes the procedure more difficult but not impossible, and
does not
put her fawn in danger, Curtis said.

Technicians shave patches of the deer's ears and clip them with tags,
and also
put a radio collar on her. The collars, which cost about $200 each,
make her
easier to find and will notify them if she has not moved in four
hours, which
happens only if the animal dies, Curtis said.

Both the collars and tags are numbered, but the collars are reused
because of
their expense, Curtis said. For that reason, community members who
spot tagged
deer are encouraged to report the ear tag numbers to researchers at
http://www.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/chdp/chdp.html. The tagging systems
also prevents
researchers from capturing the same deer more than once, Mattison
said.

After surgery, the researchers lay the deer down in the truck bed
that brought
her there and wait for her to come to. In most cases, they wait for
the deer to
begin to struggle, then rush back to the site of her trapping to set
her free,
with Mattison riding in the truck bed to ensure her safety.

In this case, the deer shows no signs of waking up almost three hours
after the
first drugs were administered. The researchers take her back to the
Tyler Road
yard where they found her and administer antibodies, then set her
free.

"We want her to be able to run when we let her go," Curtis said.

She stumbles at first, a reaction Mattison described as normal,
a "combination
of drugs and panic," but then gets up and hurries back into the woods.

The deer "tend to lay low" for a few days after surgery, but show no
signs of
serious harm, Curtis said. He said keeping them at the veterinary
school
overnight would traumatize them and do more harm than good.

Curtis has experience with sterilizing deer, having conducted a
similar project
in the Seneca Army Depot in Romulus. In that experiment, deer were
shot with
chemical contraceptives, reducing herd size by 90 percent by the
project's end.
But that was a controlled population -- deer cannot enter or leave
the fenced-in
depot, he explained. This study marks the first time anyone in the
United States
has tried to shrink a non-contained deer population through
sterilization, he
said.

Mattison said about 220 deer live in Cayuga Heights. When and if the
population
reaches 600 some of them would be starving, at which point the
population would
thin itself, he said.

"You want to address the problem before it gets to that point," he
said.

Mattison said deer are actually better suited to living in the
suburbs than in
the woods, and not only because they have no natural predators there.
They graze
on the edge of wooded habitats, and seem to adapt to the presence of
humans, he
said.

The deer project has funding to continue through fall, with the state
Department
of Environmental Conservation picking up the field work costs and an
anonymous
Cayuga Heights donor paying for the surgeries. Researchers cannot set
traps and
bring deer to surgery as often as they would like because operating
rooms at the
veterinary college are often full and the college does not have enough
anesthesiologists, he said.

Curtis said they will not know for at least three years whether the
procedure is
shrinking Cayuga Heights' deer population.

He explained that some trapped does are pregnant, so they will still
give birth
to one fawn. Then, even if they are not becoming pregnant, the herd
size will
stay stable for at least a few years because only so many deer will
die in a
given year. And if not enough deer are sterilized, the program could
make very
little difference.

Originally published Monday, March 10, 2003

Subject: Trenton Times: Princeton deer herd thinned by 200

Princeton deer herd thinned by 200


Tuesday, March 11, 2003
By ROBERT STERN


PRINCETON TOWNSHIP - Close to 200 deer have been killed here and eight others
have been treated with an experimental birth-control vaccine since the
township began the third year of its deer-management program Feb. 20.

A public forum on the birth-control component of the program is scheduled for
7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the municipal building on Witherspoon Street.

Anthony DeNicola, president of the township's deer-management contractor,
White Buffalo Inc. of Hamden, Conn., will be the key speaker at tomorrow's
meeting to go over details of the deer birth-control vaccination effort.


White Buffalo has killed 194 deer so far, and the eight female deer
vaccinated through Sunday night have been treated with the experimental
SpayVac birth-control vaccine, said Mark Johnson, the township's animal
control officer.

That component of the township's deer-management plan was introduced this
year on a trial basis to complement the program's lethal methods:
sharpshooting and the net-and-bolt system of trapping and euthanizing deer.

The township is the only place in New Jersey that uses the net-and-bolt
method and the first municipality in the state to attempt to use a
birth-control vaccine on wild deer to keep its deer population in check.

Both the net-and-bolt system and the vaccination program rely on luring deer
to bait sites, where nets stretched on poles are dropped onto the animals
from above.

Under the net-and-bolt method, White Buffalo personnel restrain each deer as
much as possible and kill it with a 4-inch retractable metal bolt fired at
its head from point-blank range with a device typically used in
slaughterhouses.

Animal-protection advocates and even Gov. James E. McGreevey have decried the
net-and-bolt method as barbaric and inhumane.

Hoping to quell such criticism, White Buffalo this year has invited at least
one representative from the Humane Society of the United States - the
nation's largest animal-protection organization - to accompany its personnel
in the field.

-- -- --

A Humane Society observer watched White Buffalo at work this weekend, said
Nina Austenberg, director of the Humane Society's mid-Atlantic region.

Austenberg declined comment on the observations because she and the monitor
have not been able since then to touch base.

Township officials, DeNicola and state wildlife experts have said that White
Buffalo takes great care to minimize the stress deer suffer as a result of
being trapped in a net.

State wildlife biologist Susan Martka has said the firm typically kills a
deer within 20 seconds of trapping it.

White Buffalo uses the net-and-bolt method in the more densely developed
parts of the township - areas that lack the state-required minimum 450-foot
buffer from buildings for firearms to be safely discharged.

Although the animals die under the net-and-bolt method, they aren't subject
to as much stress as in the fertility-control component, DeNicola said.

"There's actually further struggling on their behalf in that (the
birth-control) project," he said.

This year, for example, 80 seconds was the longest it has taken White Buffalo
to put down all the deer captured simultaneously in a net, DeNicola said.

By contrast, treatment with the birth-control vaccine puts a deer under
stress for three to five minutes - the length of time it takes to tranquilize
the deer, DeNicola said.

Once tranquilized, the deer receives the birth-control vaccine, is tagged and
fitted with a radio collar so it can be monitored under a partnership program
with Rutgers University.

The vaccine has proven effective for three years in a captive deer population
under a test program at Penn State University, DeNicola said.

-- -- --

A key challenge for the township's program is to find out if a free-roaming
deer population can be kept in check effectively with the birth-control
vaccine, which would require periodic booster shots after the initial three
years.

Under its deer-management plan, the township hopes to administer the vaccine
- which is designed only for female deer - to 75 deer over the next two years
and monitor their progress.

That aspect of the program is taking place in the southeastern corner of the
township, in an area where neither sharpshooting nor netting-and-bolting are
taking place.

White Buffalo is donating the time and material for that aspect of the plan -
at least this year - at a cost of about $10,000, said DeNicola, a
Yale-educated wildlife biologist.

But he said White Buffalo has had a difficult time luring deer to one net
site near Tamara Gund's Roper Road home because Gund leaves out turkey
feeding stands low enough to the ground for deer to reach.

Johnson and DeNicola said they have tried to work with Gund in recent weeks
so her turkeys, but not the deer, get food - by placing the feeders on
specially made elevated platforms.

Gund, a steadfast opponent of the lethal deer-management efforts, repeatedly
moved the feeders back to the ground, Johnson said.

As a result, he issued her a summons for violating the township's
deer-feeding ordinance on Saturday.

Gund is the first and so far only person to receive a deer-feeding summons
since Superior Court Judge Linda R. Feinberg upheld the township's ordinance
against deer feeding in December.

Gund, who did not return a telephone call for comment yesterday, could face a
maximum $1,000 fine and a 90-day jail sentence.

DeNicola said there are some eight to 15 deer that have grown so used to
finding food on Gund's property that they have made it their home.

He said he hasn't asked if Gund would be willing to allow White Buffalo to
set up a netted bait site in her yard for the birth-control program because
he assumes she wouldn't agree, given her alleged unwillingness to cooperate
on the deer-feeding issue.

-- -- --

White Buffalo holds a $160,930 contract this year for running the township's
deer-management program, envisioned as a five-year plan to reduce the
township's deer population from an estimated 1,300 to 1,600 in 2000 to 320 in
2005.

Township officials say the plan is needed to reduce the number of deer-car
accidents and the spread of Lyme disease and to protect gardens and the local
ecosystem from excessive damage they say stems from too many deer.

White Buffalo killed 625 deer in its first two years of work here, leaving
the township's deer population at about 680 in December.

The program's third year could run through April 15 with as many as 250 deer
killed this year, DeNicola said.

http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-0/104738041532631.xml?times

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

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Two Upstate NY protests of National Wildlife Refuges are scheduled for this
Saturday, March 15th, 2003.  Hunting and trapping are permitted at each of them,
although they are "sanctuaries".

1)   MONTEZUMA National Wildlife Refuge
        9:00am - 12:00noon
        CONTACT:  rondaroaring@...
        (Montezuma is near Syracuse,
         approx. 1 hour east of Rochester)
        HEAVY TRAFFIC - GOOD EXPOSURE.
        We're going to be standing near the entrance
        - on Rts. 5/20 near the northern end of Cayuga Lake.
        Park about 300-500 feet east or west of the entrance
        in the emergency lane as far over to the right as possible.
        Come with a sign.   Ronda

2)   IROQUOIS National Wildlife Refuge
        9:00am - 12:00noon
        CONTACT:  felger5@...
        (Iroquois Headquarters is in Genesee County,
          approx. 1 hour west of Rochester)
        Entrance to Iroquois at Route 77 and Casey Road.
        LIGHT TRAFFIC - MINIMAL EXPOSURE.
        Come with a sign.


If you would like to go, PLEASE CONTACT the PERSON INDICATED ABOVE, at WHICHEVER
LOCATION YOU CHOOSE TO ATTEND, for further information.

The media is expected to be there.  This is part of a national effort: protests
at many of the refuges nationwide that do permit hunting and trapping.  Thanks
to Ronda Roaring, NYSCA, for bringing this about.

Lois Baum
President, ARAUNY

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/0/029369-8180-036.html

Indianapolis Star, IN

SPORTS

Penned deer issue rages on
Both sides present arguments on topic that continues to divide supporters,
opponents.

Brad Thurston holds shedded antlers he recently found at his managed deer
ranch in Owen County. -- Don Mulligan photo

By Don Mulligan
Indianapolis Star
March 16, 2003

Late last month, the Indiana Deer Farmers Association fired off a "cease and
desist" letter to members of the Coalition for Ethical Hunting, demanding
the end to false statements regarding the deer production industry.

The Feb. 27 letter was partly in response to a pamphlet the coalition had
recently distributed, which outlined their stance in strong opposition to
the practice of hunting big game animals behind high fenced enclosures.

This issue about whether the penned deer hunting industry should be allowed
to exist in Indiana has been debated on many fronts for the past several
years.

On March 3, the coalition and others who oppose penned deer hunting,
suffered a loss when House Bill 1977 passed out of the Indiana House of
Representatives.

That bill, originally about defensive driving, had language regarding the
management and distribution of game breeders' licenses inserted by Rep.
William Friend, R-Macy.

But despite the years of debate and mountains of supporting documents
compiled by both camps, the issue continues to divide hunters, farmers,
wildlife enthusiasts, scientists and now legislators.

A sampling of the more compelling arguments made by both sides:

Opposes penned hunting

The Coalition for Ethical Hunting originally consisted of several hunting
and wildlife-minded organizations from around the state. Two of the more
outspoken groups, the Indiana Deer Hunters Association (IDHA) and the
Indiana Wildlife Federation (IWF), say their opposition to what they call
"canned hunting," has three prongs.

First, the question of hunting ethics. "Our system of hunting in the United
States is based on fair chase. Hence, the reason we empower game agencies in
every state to outline the ways in which we are allowed to pursue game,"
says Doug Allman, spokesman for the IDHA.

Hunting big game behind a high fence from which it cannot escape is not a
fair chase, Allman said.

Also, there are currently no restrictions on how small the enclosures can
be, Allman said. And the deer industry doesn't want there to ever be a
minimum size requirement.

Many of the deer in the pens were raised and bottle fed by humans, he said,
producing semi-tame animals who no longer possess the natural instinct to
flee at the site or smell of humans.

Disease potential is also an issue. The coalition is concerned about the
ability of captive herds of deer and elk to transmit Chronic Wasting Disease
(CWD) and other transmittable diseases more rapidly than wild animals.

"Any disease is more likely to migrate to a new ecosystem if carriers are
moved long distances unnaturally," said Paula Yeager, executive director of
the Indiana Wildlife Federation. "Epidemics in wild animals are easier to
catch and control since they can't move a thousand miles overnight in a
horse trailer."

The only live test for CWD involves rarely used invasive surgery on the
animal, she said. Typically, CWD is only diagnosed upon autopsy of the
animal.

Penned animals are more likely to transmit communicable diseases among
themselves than wild animals, Yeager said, because they are normally stocked
into penned areas at much denser rates than in the wild. That makes constant
contact between animals commonplace.

She cited an Indiana Department of Natural Resources document on the
prevalence of CWD, which currently has been identified in wild elk herds in
only two states. But it has been found in captive elk herds in 10 states and
Canadian provinces.

Coalition members also maintain penning wild game privatizes and
commercializes it. They cite a recent study by Valerius Geist, a world
renowned deer biologist from Calgary.

"The commercial ranching of wildlife for its trophies conflicts with
fundamental policies of wildlife conservation as practiced on this
continent," Geist said.

Supports penned hunting

Brad Thurston, a member of the board of directors of the deer farmers
association, sits on several national committees that monitor wild animal
health. He also owns 1,000 wooded acres in Owen County, which he manages for
wildlife and hunting purposes. About 160 of those acres are high fenced and
house around 100 deer.

"I raise deer in a pen first and foremost because I love whitetail deer, and
enjoy simply seeing what a mature whitetail looks like," he said.

Eighty percent of free ranging whitetail bucks in Indiana die before they
are two years old, Thurston said. By contrast, the first buck he raised
lived 16 years. Most live seven or eight years.

Thurston does not agree with the coalition's assertions that privatization
of wildlife is contrary to sound management policy. He said privatization is
an important tool, and has been used throughout history by wildlife agencies
to control game populations and generate revenue.

"Wildlife today is held in a public trust -- it is owned by no one, but
managed by the department of natural resources. Wild animals become
privatized, however, when a hunter buys a tag from the state, harvests an
animal and converts that animal to private ownership," Thurston said.

Thurston sees his choice to pen deer and hunt them as a private property
rights issue. To fence and protect one's property and investment, be it
cattle or deer, is a basic right, he said. Like a cattle farmer, he grows
animals that have no way of mixing or breeding with wild stock.

The deer in his pen are designated as livestock by the state, which means he
pays property tax on every one of them. At the same time they are governed
by wild game laws, which are set up to control populations of wild deer.

"We think the IDNR should have a hand in the operation of captive deer
hunting ranches, but the current laws are not applicable to our situation.
We therefore have requested that the Board of Animal Health take over the
monitoring of these operations since they are better equipped to understand
and handle what are essentially livestock farming issues," Thurston said.

As for the disease issue, Thurston said evidence shows CWD is a disease of
wild deer.

Distributed in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107.


"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-nj--princeton-deerhun0321mar21,
0,1053382.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

Newsday
March 21, 2003

Princeton's deer hunt coming to a premature end

PRINCETON TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- The township's deer hunt will come to a
premature end because milder temperatures and the loss of snow cover has
made it too difficult to lure the animals away from natural grazing sites.

The state had granted the township a permit that allowed professional
sharpshooters to hunt in certain areas through April 15. However, officials
with White Buffalo _ the Hamden, Conn.-based firm that has conducted the
hunts for the past three years _ said they expected to stop culling deer as
of Friday.

White Buffalo's sharpshooters have killed 280 deer since the hunt began Feb.
20, The Times of Trenton reported in Friday's editions. Anthony DeNicola,
the company's president, said 19 female deer have received an experimental
birth-control vaccine that was part of the township's controversial deer
management plan.

Animal rights activists and other had strongly criticized the plan, claiming
it was unsafe and a violation of animal cruelty laws. They particularly
objected to a capture-and-kill method that was carried out in areas that
were deemed too close to populated areas to discharge firearms.

It called for deer to be lured to baited sites, where they were netted and
killed with 4-inch metal bolt administered point-blank to the head from a
device typically found in slaughterhouses. Since the hunt began, 143 deer
were killed by the net-and-bolt method and 137 were shot by sharpshooters.

White Buffalo had killed 625 deer during the first two hunts, leaving the
township's deer population at about 680. However, township officials hope to
have the herd reduced to 320 by next year.

Distributed in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107.

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HLSsucks/


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From: "sbg" <veganvirago@...>

letters to the editor
Echoes-Sentinel
Vincent Paterno, Editor fax: 908-647-7679
256 Mercer St, Stirling, NJ 07980
vpaterno@...

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7424595&BRD=1918&PAG=461&dept_id=5
06420&rfi=6

Watchung council votes to apply for deer hunt

By JASON GOEMAAT , Staff Writer 03/20/2003


Staff Writer

WATCHUNG - By a vote of 5-1, with Catherine Ilchert as the lone dissenter,
the Borough Council approved organizing and submitting a deer hunt
application to the state during its Thursday, March 13 meeting.

The approval sets the wheels in motion for a vote on awarding a deer hunt
contract in the coming months. And that vote can't come soon enough for some
residents who voiced frustration over the amount of time it's taking to
organize a hunt - or the pain of some other residents adamantly opposed to
it.

"You're repeating the same broken record I heard last year and the year
before," said former Mayor Anthony Addario, concerned the application vote
not be used as a delay tactic.

"If you delay this and procrastinate till the next election, there's a price
to be paid," said Addario. "You either accept one (a hunt) or the other.
There's nothing more to discuss...and I think you're hiding behind a curtain
that you want to hide, so you don't have to make a decision to say yes or
no."

The former mayor noted, "We're not reinventing the wheel. Other towns have
done this successfully." He pointed out the Watchung Reservation in Union
County didn't do a deer hunt this year because it had carried out successful
hunts the past six years.

Addario concluded by saying, "It's time to say we're going to do it, or
we're not going to do it and then be man enough or woman enough to take the
heat that goes with it. And if you can't take the heat, get out of the
kitchen."

Review, OK Needed

The resolution states Nov. 14, 2003 to April 15, 2004 as the time period for
a hunt, but an application won't be submitted without final review and
approval from the council. Residents stated their desire for that review to
come sooner rather than later.

"I want to know when this council is going to vote on awarding the
contract," said Lynda Goldschein, referring to a contract for deer hunt
vendor.

Mayor Albert Ellis responded the council didn't have a set date for such a
vote, but the council was working on a "time frame" with the state Fish and
Game Association to get permission for a hunt to be granted at one of the
association's monthly meetings.

"I would say within two or three months we should have that all together and
be able to vote," said Ellis said. "Probably less."

'Goal' Of Deer Hunt

Before the vote was taken, Ilchert asked questions to understand the "goal"
of the deer hunt in terms of number of deer to be hunted and the number of
years it would take.

"I was wondering if we had a three-year plan, a five-year plan," said
Ilchert.

Ellis responded the application could only be for one year and a
municipality has to renew its application every year.

Franklin said it's hard to make a projection of how many deer will be hunted
until the hunt is implemented. "There are things that affect this, a lot of
variables that affect this which prevent you from should we say going out on
a limb to make a prediction," he said.

Franklin said variables included whether a "mild or severe" winter is
occurring, whether or not there's snow covering the ground and whether the
baiting sites are frequented by the deer or not.

"It's very difficult to nail down a specific projection until you see what's
going to happen," said Franklin.

Speed Limit Lowered

In other matters, the council voted to change the speed limit on Washington
Rock Road from 30 to 25 miles per hour.

In 1996 the council voted on a change to 30 miles per hour. The road signs
always represented 25.

Borough Engineer Rich Moody said it was changed back because the combination
of road conditions, steep grade and sharp turns make 25 the only limit the
borough could "support."

"Live in peace with the animals, animals bring love to our hearts and warmth to
our souls" Colleen Klaum

"He who is cruel to animals becomes hard also in his dealings with men. We can
judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." Immanuel Kant

Help us close down Huntingdon Life Sciences:
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