They walk amongst us

[tntklundt]

I am at a loss of words when it comes to people that write letters to the paper like the one below. This was in Vancouvers paper yesterday.

Refuge riveted by hunters’ bullets

I was awakened at daybreak on a Saturday morning in October to a barrage of gunfire. The gunfire was coming from the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. It sounded like World War II. What it actually was were grown adults killing the tame refuge ducks. How can anyone live with themselves after participating in such an act of callous, heartless stupidity? How am I suppose to tell my 3-year-old great-grandson that the shooting we heard was people killing the ducks we had just gone down and admired the day before?

How can the management of the Ridgefield wildlife refuge not be able to protect their own wildlife? How can the hunters take these ducks home and brag to their wife and children that they have just killed tame ducks? I just don’t understand how this is a sport. How can we sit idly by and let this senseless slaughtering of ducks that are nesting on protected grounds of the refuge take place?

A refuge is supposed to be a place of safety, a place of peace and rest. Right is right, wrong is wrong, and killing ducks on a refuge is wrong. Wise up, be responsible, and stop the killing.

Byron Lathim

Ridgefield

[dontgetcrabs]

 

[PolarBear]

What a tard! It is idiots like this who vote the anti hunter and *censored*bag liberal politicians into office year after year.

[boneaddict]

Its all about perspective.  Its always a fine line.  What makes it worse is when they go back in a day or so and there are discarded ducks hanging from the bushes or fence or off the sign.  I saw that several times last year in the potholes and I am not even waterfowling.   or....less wasteful but still need to watch our image, piles of feathers or left over carcasses where someone decided to clean them and leave the remains.  It doesn't take much to tip the tide to anti hunting even in sensible people.  

[PolarBear]

You are right on Bone.  It is like the guys who clean their fish and leave the guts strewn across the boat ramp or all over the bank.  A couple of weeks ago I pulled up on a truck in Shelton that had a huge 4x4 blacktail strapped to a quad in the back.  The buck was displayed up higher than the cab, had a beer bottle shoved in it's mouth and the gut cavity was propped open for all to see it's bloody and dirty mess.  I'm all for being proud of your kill but have some common sense and only have the antlers showing, not the cavity and don't shove crap in it's mouth etc.  Also, don't leave your remains, i.e. gut piles on the side of the road, drag them into the brush.  Nobody, including hunters want to see carcasses, feathers, heads, whatever thrown all around.

[rasbo]

I rode my harley down to blue creek a couple of yrs ago,I wanted to see the place I hear so much about.I was disgusted.I walked down a trail and the garbage was unreal and the smell of human feces was about the area.Piles of crap and toilet papers just off the trail.I see the same garbage on the carbon river..What kind of pigs are these that call themselves sportsmen

[PolarBear]

Wednsesday I was driving towards Union and spotted a deer carcass on a pull out that only had the head, half hide, backstraps and hind quarters taken.  The rest was left to rot along the roadside.  I see a lot of that in rural Mason and Grays Harbor County.  It really pisses the average folks off when they see the waste and makes them believe that most of us hunters are that way.  The same with all the trash and poop left along the rivers from slob fishermen.

[tntklundt]

You know you would be wasting your time to try and talk to this guy. I am sure you wouldn't have to look hard to find he is a hypocrite that has leather whatever products and eats meat that has already been conveniently killed and wrapped for him.

[Skyhigh]

I am at a loss of words when it comes to people that write letters to the paper like the one below. This was in Vancouvers paper yesterday.

Hopefully the loss of words will subside and well wrote letter will appear.. Does not have to be directed at him but all the others that may actually may believe what he wrote..

[Skyhigh]

some education points.
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Hunters have been long-time Refuge System partners. Sometimes called the “first conservationists”, they have played a role in the conservation of the nation’s wildlife resources since the late 19th century. Hunters continue to support conservation by buying Federal Duck Stamps. The stamps are required for hunting waterfowl anywhere in the country and the proceeds from Duck Stamps sales are used to purchase and preserve wetland habitat, primarily in the midwest’s `prairie pothole’ region. Since the stamp’s inception in 1934, more than $700 million has been raised, purchasing more than five million acres.
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Hunting, trapping and fishing are considered by many to be a legitimate, traditional recreational use of renewable natural resources. The National Wildlife Refuge System Act of 1966, other laws, and the Fish and Wildlife Service's policy permit hunting on a national wildlife refuge when it is compatible with the purposes for which the refuge was established and acquired.

National wildlife refuges exist primarily to safeguard wildlife populations through habitat preservation. The word "refuge" includes the idea of providing a haven of safety for wildlife, and as such, hunting might seem an inconsistent use of the National Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System). However, habitat that normally supports healthy wildlife populations produces harvestable surpluses that are a renewable resource.

As practiced on refuges, hunting, trapping and fishing do not pose a threat to the wildlife populations, and in some instances, are actually necessary for sound wildlife management. For example, deer populations will often grow too large for the refuge habitat to support. If some of the deer are not harvested, they destroy habitat for themselves and other animals and die from starvation or disease. The harvesting of wildlife on refuges is carefully regulated to ensure an equilibrium between population levels and wildlife habitat.

The decision to permit hunting, trapping and fishing on national wildlife refuges is made on a case-by-case basis that considers biological soundness, economic feasibility, effects on other refuge programs, and public demand.

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Ridgefield NWR offers good duck and goose hunting within 20 miles of the Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area. Located on the shore of the Lower Columbia River, the 5,300-acre refuge contains intensively managed seasonal and permanent wetlands as well as grass and crop lands. Waterfowl hunting of duck and goose only is permitted on approximately 760 acres of spaced blind hunting area on Ridgefield NWR in accordance with state and federal regulations.

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[chim-chim]

What I dont understand is he is saying tame ducks how does he figure that they are tame what a jack azz

[boneaddict]

A basic well written point would be that refuge was paid for by hunter dollars, through organizations such as DU and also through stamp dollars etc.

[Whitenuckles]

What he said!

[nwlynx22]

I'm sure he is a DU sponsor with tons of money to give for those ducks. Supporting local and national business bumping up turmism in small and under funded farm communities. We waterfowlers are some of the best people around and it pains me to see this kind of thing being printed.