A few Bad apples spoiling the bunch

[Pheroze]

Hunters using "irresponsible hunting practices," caribou board says

Some hunters in the territory are using disrespectful practices this year. One experienced hunter says its the worst he's seen in 50 years.

cabinradio.ca

It's an interesting article but the headline is misleading. Education and training are identified as the key solutions to preserve the hunting traditions.

 

[Randy F]

Hunters using "irresponsible hunting practices," caribou board says

Some hunters in the territory are using disrespectful practices this year. One experienced hunter says its the worst he's seen in 50 years.

cabinradio.ca

It's an interesting article but the headline is misleading. Education and training are identified as the key solutions to preserve the hunting traditions.

“Snowmobiles chasing caribou, people shooting into the herds, hunters using the wrong calibre of rifle required to make a clean kill and/or not retrieving their kills, pollution, and outright dangerous hunting,”

Geez Really?! How long would it take to educate fools stupid enough to chase with snowmobiles, shoot into herds, leave kills, and leave garbage behind? I’m sure I’m not the one patient enough to educate people like that. Not without a baseball bat anyway.

 

[DieJager]

Agitprop...

 

[crs]

Game wardens in Choppers!

Tell authorities to enforce the law! Whining and complaining does no good - put crooks in jail!

 

[Hank2211]

It's not made clear in the article, but they're talking about native subsistence hunters. To these hunters, hunting is not a sport. It's about getting your regular supply of meat to feed your family in as efficient a manner as possible, using the tools you have at your disposal. Head out, get the meat, and get back as quickly as possible. It's cold out there.

Having spent a lot of time in the NWT, I can tell you that many people use rifles that are old, decrepit and in many cases outright dangerous. These have been handed down from father to son and are tools, like a hammer and saw, and not works of art. Many have either very poor optics or no optics at all. The hunter will do what he (and it's almost always a he) has to do to get as close to the animal as he needs to in order for whatever rifle/optics and caliber combination to work. If that means chasing an animal on a skidoo until he's 20 yards from it, so be it.

You might also note that populations densities are very low in the NWT. Unless you are prepared to go to two decimal places, the population density is 0. In an area of 442,000 square miles, the population is around 45,000 people, so the actual population density is around 0.04 persons per square km (sorry for mixing up units, but you get the picture). There are a small number of "towns" which together have the majority of that population (Yellowknife, the capital has about 18,000 people and the next largest town is Inuvik with about 3,500), so unless you live in one of those towns (and a larger one at that) anything firearm related can be very hard to come by and very expensive.

I'm not defending these practices, only pointing out that "fair chase" is something applicable to sport hunting, not feeding one's family. Having said that, the laws are in place for a reason, and it's good to see that they're being enforced.

 

[Randy F]

It's not made clear in the article, but they're talking about native subsistence hunters. To these hunters, hunting is not a sport. It's about getting your regular supply of meat to feed your family in as efficient a manner as possible, using the tools you have at your disposal. Head out, get the meat, and get back as quickly as possible. It's cold out there.

Having spent a lot of time in the NWT, I can tell you that many people use rifles that are old, decrepit and in many cases outright dangerous. These have been handed down from father to son and are tools, like a hammer and saw, and not works of art. Many have either very poor optics or no optics at all. The hunter will do what he (and it's almost always a he) has to do to get as close to the animal as he needs to in order for whatever rifle/optics and caliber combination to work. If that means chasing an animal on a skidoo until he's 20 yards from it, so be it.

You might also note that populations densities are very low in the NWT. Unless you are prepared to go to two decimal places, the population density is 0. In an area of 442,000 square miles, the population is around 45,000 people, so the actual population density is around 0.04 persons per square km (sorry for mixing up units, but you get the picture). There are a small number of "towns" which together have the majority of that population (Yellowknife, the capital has about 18,000 people and the next largest town is Inuvik with about 3,500), so unless you live in one of those towns (and a larger one at that) anything firearm related can be very hard to come by and very expensive.

I'm not defending these practices, only pointing out that "fair chase" is something applicable to sport hunting, not feeding one's family. Having said that, the laws are in place for a reason, and it's good to see that they're being enforced.

That could very well be true for the majority of the people they're talking about except for the mention of "not retrieving their kills". Also you wouldn't think the natives would leave all the garbage behind.

But I understand what you're saying and wish they would've made that clear if that is in fact the case.

Either way, it sure doesn't reflect well on the general population of hunters.

 

[Hank2211]

In my experience, it's the natives who leave the garbage behind, not the visitors.

When I was drilling up there we took a native leader on a tour of our facilities. That evening at a dinner, he pointed out to an Inuit leader that he was surprised that we wouldn't even let our employees who smoked (outside) put their ashes, let alone their cigarette butts, on the ground. And that every time we stopped a truck (and left the engine running because of the cold) we put a mat under the engine to prevent fluid dripping onto the ice. He said he wished his people were even half as concerned about garbage.

You can see this if you visit these communities.

 

[Randy F]

In my experience, it's the natives who leave the garbage behind, not the visitors.

When I was drilling up there we took a native leader on a tour of our facilities. That evening at a dinner, he pointed out to an Inuit leader that he was surprised that we wouldn't even let our employees who smoked (outside) put their ashes, let alone their cigarette butts, on the ground. And that every time we stopped a truck (and left the engine running because of the cold) we put a mat under the engine to prevent fluid dripping onto the ice. He said he wished his people were even half as concerned about garbage.

You can see this if you visit these communities.

Well done to you and your company.

 

[Hank2211]

Well done to you and your company.

Thanks, but we weren't special. Every company active in the area did the same.