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Well there is no doubt from what you have found, that this guy was hard to get along with.
As for the greed part........well that still remains to be seen. I guess I can liken it to a farmer who is about to have a $20,000 prize angus bull put down because some of the cows in the herd tested positive for TB.........but state, provincial or federal regulations are only going to pay $1200 per animal.
He was obviously running a hunting preserve with some of his production animals...............but where have we seen that before?
Ever heard of the 'Sanctuary' or some of the others in the midwest?
Sadly we are missing the point of all of this by focusing on the one guy and the disease in his herd. Fingers should be pointing at state and provincial wildlife and agriculture agencies.
There are some very basic questions that should be asked:
l1. Why did they allow the farming of 'native' species in the first
place?
- they might be behind fence, but animals do escape from time to time and game farm animals can still visit throught the fence and touch noses, swap soliva, and wild bucks and bulls routinely try to fight with the farmed animals through the fence during the rut.
2. Why did they approve hunt farms to begin with, especially of native species?
- this has been nothing but a can of worms from the very beginning. Hunters claim they hate hunting behind fences, yet there seems to be thousands of them willing to pay for it. If the government thought it was not ethical they should have denied licences for it in the first place.
3. Once the problems with TB and CWD became obvious, why did they not pass a bill to kill this industry, pay the farmers a reasoanble buy out package and get rid of the industry completely?
- Could it be money? Instead of admitting their mistakes and dealing with the issue they hope instead to pass regulations that are so restrictive they will eventually 'starve' the producers out of existence.
History is filled with examples of grave errors that have been made by allowing exotic introductions and or the commercial farming and inter- provincial/state/international trade in captured or farm raised wildlife.
They never seem to learn............................
Where I live the province use to allow hunt farms. Real hunters screamed about it and the provincial wildlife federation eventually forced the government to ban 'fenced' hunting. The velvet antler market is weak, they are not allowed to sell uninspected elk meat.....ie it is ok to buy an elk tag and go and kill a wild elk, but you can't go and buy an elk from a farmer, shoot it and take it home. If you want an elk it would have to be killed at a licenced facility where it would get inspected (but not the wild elk that has been visiting through the fence with the farm elk)...............however, because of the CWD and TB issues, most abattoirs will not accept cervids for slaughter. The land owner can only kill 3 elk a year for his own personal consumption. The elk can not be sold or moved to other elk producers property or to the next province which does allow fenced hunting.
Bottom line.......our governments open the doors and allow these practices in the first place, then when things go wrong, they back away and leave the producers holding the bag. There is something fundamentally wrong about this.
No I do not have a game farm................I raise horses and cattle.
I do not agree with game farms and never have.......but I still do not agree with the way both the US and Canadian governments have been handling the problems with these facilities.
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