DuckSouth.com

These people have to be scewing the numbers some. I just dont really believe that the number of hunters has declined that much. You can bet when I have children that I will have them hunting for day 1.

I believe that hunting is a great American tradition and it has a very important role in keeping the number of wildlife in this country and these animal rights people ought to look at the numbers that correlate wildlife numbers to hunting. But I dont think the tree huggers would like what they find.

I agree with cookmducks. Take a kid hunting and fishing so our heritage wont get taken away by people like this and PETA.

The laws of supply and demand would refute those numbers. As the number of hunters go down, the cost of hunting land should decrease. When is the last time you saw a decrease in the cost of hunting land?

You have a point but then again, when was the last time you saw a piece of hunting land get converted into a subdivision? I will answer that , yesterday. If we as outdoorsmen do not do our part in passing the hunting tradition down to the kids, just like our fathers did for us, then if all hunting has ended by 2050 then we have only the mirror to complain to. And as much as I hate to agree with any tree hugger ,and trust me I have about 70 million reasons not to like environmental orgs, I have to believe what they have said to be true.

This plublication is actually good for the hunting community, it lets us know where the future stands and it also gives us an head start in changing it. But it is up to us, as individuals and groups. You can do as little as buy your kid or nephew/niece a greenwing membership, That simple act will open doors for them that you or I could not imagine. And believe me, I am listning to this as I right and see 5-8 children in my family that I have not made one step in attempting to take them hunting, and the sad part is that they have asked to go.

[ May 28, 2002: Message edited by: cookmducks ]

This is why I think the youth hunts are so important. It gets the kids out there and introduces them to the sport. I'm amazed at how anti-hunters are against shooting animals in the wild, but they don't realize the hamburger they just ate came from a cow that was led into a stall and shot between the eyes.

Wingman
ISAIAH 40:31

This article caught my attention. thought you might be interested as well.

The End Is in Sight,´ Says The Fund for Animals, as New Government Report Charts the Continuing Decline of Hunting in America

SILVER SPRING, Md., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Proclaiming that "The end of hunting is in sight," The Fund for Animals, a national animal protection group, is celebrating yesterday´s release of preliminary results from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) report showing that the number of hunters in the U.S. declined by 7% between 1996 and 2001. During the same five years, the number of wildlife watchers, people who enjoy wildlife without harming them, increased by 5%.

This latest in a series of reports issued every five years documents a continuing trend. According to the USFWS, in 1985 there were 16.7 million hunters in the U.S., while in 2001 there were only 13 million, a decline of 22% over fifteen years. This led Heidi Prescott, national director of The Fund for Animals, to comment that, "These are long-term trends, not just a blip in the numbers, and we´re delighted to see that more and more people are trading their guns for cameras."

The USFWS results showed the largest declines in "small game" (22%) and "other animal" hunting (31%). According to Norm Phelps, a program coordinator at The Fund and author of the report Body Count: The Death Toll in America´s War on Wildlife, "The decline is taking place primarily among hunters of small game. Since they kill many more animals than big game hunters, we can expect the total number of hunting victims to decline as well."

Michael Markarian, executive vice president of The Fund, noted that, "Hunters now make up only 4.6% of the population, compared to the 31% who are wildlife watchers. It´s time for the Fish and Wildlife Service and state wildlife agencies to start paying attention to their own numbers and stop catering to a tiny special interest group. Wildlife belongs to everyone, not just the few people who hunt."

Concluded Prescott, "Over a decade ago, T.A. Heberlein and E.J. Thomson, experts on hunting demographics at the University of Wisconsin, predicted that by 2050, sport hunting could well cease to exist. This latest report shows that they were right on target. The end of hunting is no more than a generation away."

The Fund for Animals was founded in 1967 by best-selling author and humanitarian Cleveland Amory (The Cat Who Came for Christmas, Ranch of Dreams.). More information is available on The Fund´s web site at http://www.fund.org .

[ May 28, 2002: Message edited by: Duckmen ]

That is the excact reason why it is important to get children involved in hunting. If we do not increase the involvment in hunting with our youth then I would have to agree with them, after all if any of us are alive in 2050 then we will be at least 70yrs for the youngest on the site with an estamated group average age of 30-40 then your looking at us being 80-90.

Well,
I will tell you one thing it is going to be one hell of a fight to stop the hunting in the Mississippi Delta if they go and figure the total around here it is going to be over 50%. I guess they are getting there totals from Alaska or some place like that I just dont understand. If it was not for us hunters who would be the conservationist. The Peta when they are no more animals to look at because the numbers are so high that there is no food for the animals to live.
john


shoot'm in the lips [img]images/smiles/icon_cool.gif[/img]

I have been saying this for the last several years that the next generation of kids our kids will decide the fate of hunting in this country.

OK, say that hunting did cease to exist. In just a couple of years the numbers of animals would skyrocket. Oh, they have more animals to watch than ever [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] These high numbers wouldn't be possible if the hunting groups were still "slaughtering these poor harmless creatures"
Then, just a couple of years after these high #'s are still around, the herds and groups of animals start to get diseases within their groups. Malnutrition kicks in. Vechicle insurance rates are through the roof."Oh I still love to go watch the animals but they're so skinny, diseased and ugly"
Just like one of the above post said, hunters
are the animal conservationist

For all of those out there who are praying for a shorter season and a lower limit so people will stop duck hunting......

Read the article and change your tune. I'll support lower limits and a shorter season in the interest of the ducks but not as a mechanism to push people away from the sport.

Think about it fellas...I think the message is pretty clear.

I disagree, I don't want to push people away for selfish reasons, I believe in supply and demand, and the costs that go along with it.
I would like to see those leave the sport that think everytime one goes it's all about them.
No consideration for habitat, rules, ethics, etc... Unfortunately I see more and more of these entering the sport.
Let's face it some could give a **** about the experiance of the hunt or the beauty of hunting weather they kill or not. Or teaching values, ethics etc...
Too many people hunt because of , I hate to say this, things like robos made it easier. It's the cool thing to do. I've spoken with alot of people around the area I hunt who quit because they felt robos or whatever were not working so it was too hard or not worth their time.
These are the people I like to see leave the sport. If it takes it takes a couple of shortened seasons or no seasons to rid the very people anti-hunters like to use as poster children than so be it.

softcall and damnyankee are both right.

hunting needs the numbers to support our actions and combat those that would like to see our actions stopped. however, the anti's love using the bad apples to make stereotypes.

the answer is to introduce more people to the sport, but to do so in a fashion that teaches the right way to go about this sport. i know i'm stating the obvious here, but we each have a duty to strenghthen the sport, in a variety of ways. support du and delta, be an ethical sportsman yourself, and finally, insure the life of the sport by bringing in new blood.

i won't be twenty-one for another month, but i've already got to use more than one hand to count the number of good, ethical hunters that would not be involved in the sport had i not introduced them. there's another that is dying to go with me this year and i still don't even have kids yet. if every one of us replaced ourselves with five who were just like us, the sport would not have to sweat or deal with skybusting jerks and their toys.

don't limit yourself to introducing only kids to the sport. yes, they are the key, because they'll be around. but bosses, neighbors, co-workers, roomates, girlfriends, wives, in-laws, anyone who can help make the sport better are all needed. the future depends on them.

mottlet

I think it is a statistic tang. Think about it. What is the biggest population increase in the country? It's in minority groups, African Americans, Mexican Americans, and Orientals are going through the roof as far as the poulation is concerned. In some areas they are no longer the minority but the majority. These races most typically don't hunt. I am not saying they aren't welcome to hunt, or they don't belong hunting, but they don't seem to have a lot of the heritage to hunt. I know a few blacks that rabbit hunt and deer hunt, however in 20 years of duck hunting I met my first black duck hunter last year. They just don't get out and hunt. So they skew the statistics. It could be that some of the same numbers still hunt, but the population is growing such that the statistics don't show that. Also, if you konw what your are doing with statistics, you can make them say anything you want them to. All that said, we need to stand up and keep our hunting alive, I know I will never not hunt.