Friday 8 August 2014

Moose hunting in ontario: the answer is simple

Adult moose hunting tags have been drastically diminished this year throughout a large portion of ontario's regularly hunted moose regions. These areas have shown lowered moose densities, based on the statistics of the provincial government. Given these findings, Ontario's government made changes.
As a hunter, fisherman, and trapper, I have very little to say on the subject. I only have one very simple, rational, logical, moral and proper thought, STOP SELLING CALF TAGS.
Ontario hunters have managed to halt many regulations including the abolishment of calf hunting.
The "solution" i am being given is "kill fewer adults, but kill all the babies you'd like"???? 
Please explain to me how killing fewer adults is the solution to our moose population problem. please.
To explain my position, i will use fishing as my example. You see, where i live, i am not allowed to kill, keep or eat ANY musky (muskellunge) unless it is over three feet, This makes sense to me, young fish are protected to insure the future of the population. Furthermore, as a pickerel (walleye) fisherman, i can only keep one fish OVER 18.1 inches, safeguarding the breeding portion of the adult population.
In ontario, if you want to hunt an adult moose, you are put into a lottery, if you're chosen then you can kill a cow or bull (depending on your lottery pool results.) HOWEVER if you want to kill a calf (baby) moose, you only need to buy a tag.
Adult moose hunting is heavily regulated, but as a licensed hunter you can kill a baby moose no problem. just pay a fee, there's no lottery, because ontario doesn't care how many baby moose are killed. These moose are killed without a mandatory reporting law. if i kill a turtle for food, i have to report it but if i kill a baby moose i don't. mhmmm.....
Dear Ontario,
stop killing calf moose. It is a VERY simple management equation, killing babies=fewer adults. 
thank you for your time.

Thursday 7 August 2014

Fur Trapping: A vegan's necessity


Where I live, the muskrat and beaver trapping season is generally from October to may, it varies slightly within regions, but largely encompasses these months. This season is often discussed as a "winter season" although it tends to extend far beyond the melting of snow, and far prior to the freezing of lakes, depending on where you live.
This trapping season lasts longer than almost any hunting season, i am curious if you have ever wondered why? There is a very simple reason.
Commercial plant farmers live their lives, make their wages, and feed their families based on the quantity and quality of their harvests. These harvests are intensely affected by environment as well as regional fauna. If a beaver builds a damn, or muskrat eat a crop of corn. Farmer's lose out.
To combat this fact, farmers will sign off on trappers using their property to get fur. A seasonal haul of 2000-4500 muskrat would be a respectable number (depending on the year and area) for any single trapper.
The harvesting of furs here is regulated, however there is no mandatory census on the trapping of muskrat and beaver. Furthermore trapping is only regulated by season, not quantity.
The point i am trying to make, is that fur trapping where i live exists ONLY to benefit plant eating humans and farmers. If you have any problems with the fur trapping industry, i am asking you to sincerely consider the fact that without trapping, plant farming in a commercial sense, would not be feasible as it exists today. Serious trappers spend the entire year getting permission to trap on private farmland, because they know trapping is a mandatory part of farming. If you are a good and locally recognized trapper, you will receive the right to trap on a given farm. Trapping is so important that all lands are saturated by them. Trapping territories will divide themselves straight up the middle of a creek. This is the current state of trapping here but the reason for this situation was created long ago.
You see, mowing down natural environments to create farms, also created ecosystems that can only support a very small sampling of native species. Muskrat, beaver, raccoons, opossum, and deer tend to thrive in these environments in my area, If they aren't controlled by trappers (and hunters for deer and raccoons also,) then these crops of incredible produce would not be feasible. If you are a vegan, please understand that you HAVE to support reasonable and ethical trapping and killing. Trappers sell the furs to make a living. But, they only have a job as fur trappers so you can eat corn, peas, and beans.
As a vegan, you are aggravating two very serious situations:
1- Abuse and rape of wilderness lands so they grow only what you deem necessary.
2- Since your farms can only support some species (occasionally to excess) you need trappers to control those numbers. 

The statistics and reasons are incredibly simply. If you eat from a crop, than you euthanized countless generations of flora and fauna in the area the you've decided to farm and, if you want those unbalanced environments to exist WHILE still supporting your crops, then you need trappers to handle the lopsided ecosystem you created.
 How does that stop animal abuse? It doesn't. 

Moreover, if your local farmer feels that ANY animal is affecting his farm's yield, he is welcome legally, to kill anything that he considers a nuisance. A person's commercial farm is a money factory, not a moral one. Find me a Moral farm and you will find me an untouched wilderness.
Farming is animal abuse. Farms are not natural.