The state Department of Environmental Conservation estimates that five hundred moose live in the North Country. Since moose tend to avoid census takers, the figure involves some guesswork, but it seems clear that the population is growing.
Do we have enough moose to start shooting them? Apparently, some hunters think so.
Dennis Aprill, the outdoors writer for the Plattsburgh Press-Republican, reports that the Onondaga County Federation of Sportsman’s Clubs is proposing that the state initiate a lottery in which the winners would be given a permit to kill a moose.
Aprill is not against hunting, but he writes in his outdoors column that this is an idea whose time has not come.
Moose are hunted in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, and the time may come when DEC will seek to establish a moose season in the Adirondacks. I’m guessing this will be controversial no matter how many of the animals we have.
I am not a knee-jerk opponent of hunting, but I can’t think of a single reason to allow anyone to kill a moose.
Instead of shooting moose in the Adirondacks, how about setting up an open season on the Onondaga County Federation of Sportsman’s Clubs? There are only a few hundred moose in the Adirondacks, and only a few thousand elsewhere in the northern states, but there are some 350 million people in this crowded country and 6.5 billion in this ov ercrowded world. The human species long ago exceeded its carrying capacity, we are taking over the habitat of most other mammals and birds. Doesn’t it make sense to restore some kind of balance between human beings and nature? Seems that an open season on the Onondaga sportsmen might be a good place to start.
Only kidding, you manly would-be moose hunters out there. But I hope you “sportsmen” get the point. Another possibility is declaring an open season on parked cars at the local mall. Killing a moose, which tend to stand and stare at the intrepid hunter, is just about as sporting as shooting a parked car at close range.
Just was wondering what made you post this article. It’s extremely interesting, I have been searching info about this since last Thursday. Thanks!
M. Lockner … the original article by Dennis Aprill prompted my post.
I was looking for a good present to buy one of my hunting buddies, I ran across a pretty good article on handheld GPS. Was wondering what people might think?