Hunters’ Contributions To Wildlife Substantial

Wed., Sept. 3, 1997

Patrick Prentice Special To Opinion

More and more people in today’s society are against hunting and hunters. Because we live in the United States, they are free to feel that way and, fortunately, I am free to hunt.

I have trouble accepting efforts, mostly uninformed, that try to stop me from enjoying a sport that is an American tradition and my right as a citizen. There is no reason for free Americans to accept anyone’s efforts to stop them from doing something that is legal and managed.

Without the sport of hunting and the management it finances, there would be very few animals in the wilds for anyone to enjoy. I know few non-hunters who contribute time or money to the enhancement of wildlife, while all true hunters I know contribute both to ensure there will be wildlife for future generations.

Last winter, for example, the Priest Lake Sportsman’s Club fed 156,000 pounds of food to more than one-third of Priest Lake’s deer population, as well as numerous elk and moose. This was no small commitment. When you start a feeding program, it must be carried out daily until spring.

For almost four months - regardless of work, holidays or vacations - many of our members donated an hour or two a day to fight 200-plus inches of snow to feed wildlife.

When I told this to a woman I was guiding for trout on Priest Lake, she said the only reason anyone would go through so much effort was so there would be animals for hunters to kill. But there is nothing further from the truth.

True hunters love animals and harvest them according to regulations established by trained game managers who realize that without a controlled harvest, the whole population would be in jeopardy.

I know of no species that has become extinct because of managed hunting, although many have been eliminated or threatened because of people killing animals for fun or profit. These killers are not hunters - they’re poachers. I place them in the same category as society’s other criminals.

Because of proper game management, including hunting, there are more deer now for everyone to enjoy than when Columbus landed.

I am proud to be a hunter, proud to be part of a fraternity of ethical individuals who enjoy wildlife in many ways, a group that knows wildlife through interaction with animals in their natural surroundings and that devotes time and money to the enhancement of wildlife species so they can exist for all to enjoy. I challenge all non-hunters to equal my commitments.

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