Wolf hunting season? really? (2015, home, purchasing)

[openmike]

Get me outta here ! Wisconsin is a nice state with really really different folks . ( really really) different. I'm an animal lover not
an activist. I live I'm a rural area where hunting is popular
I have no problem with clean shot deer hunting via rifle, but
bitterly opposed to any bow hunting due to arbitrary targeting
poor location albeit wounding deer causing excruciating suffer
ing of the animal before dying. As for shooting bears I prefer to
introduce the hunter to my version of a triple gainer a round
house then ...
.

[cheese plate]

See, and I only really respect bow hunters. Where's the "sport" in driving deer with a concentrated line of hunters out into the open where they're blasted from a long distance by high powered scoped guns? As for wolves, they've quietly been here and in Minnesota (and the UP) in numbers for decades - these are the only areas of the country where the grey wolf even existed and you never heard a peep. Now that they're filing down the Rockies and are a "danger" to ranchers in Idaho, it's national news?

I can't for the life of me understand why someone would get excited about going into the woods and blowing away a pack of dogs, but the reason the season keeps getting bounced around here is that the wolf population is healthy.

[timberline742]

I have a lot of respect for bow hunters too. But the wolf hunts I believe are on hold in the upper midwest.

Judge protects Midwest wolves after 1,599 killed in three years

[openmike]

Timberline and Cheese plate excellent responses I followed up with Timelines website suggestion which was informative and revealing. I appreciate smart people as they mentor me ! Hug a wolf ! Kiss a cow! Save the bear! Kill what you NEED to eat!

[Rynldsbr]

Originally Posted by openmike

... I appreciate smart people as they mentor me ! Hug a wolf ! Kiss a cow! Save the bear! Kill what you NEED to eat!

Wow. I appreciate a lot of people, many who differ from me in opinion, but there are a whole lot of issues with the original post and the responses above. Hug a wolf?!? No thanks. They have the capability to eat me. Kiss a cow? Maybe lick my lips as a 1/2# burger approaches. Save the bear? Do they need saving? Most reports indicate a healthy and growing bear population across WI and UP forestland.

I don't hunt in a crowd and don't "drive" deer. I don't own a scope on any of my rifles. However, I do hunt. I do eat what I hunt. I used to own hounds, bird dogs, and various breeds used for hunting. In fact, I still own two dogs which I love very much.

You see, being an animal lover and being a sportsman are not mutually exclusive. Good hunting practices work as effective game management techniques and allow for a healthy food chain, promote natural cycles in the ecosystem, and minimize disease and starvation due to lack of forage in natural habitats.

As for the comment about going into the woods and "blowing away a pack of dogs", that is one of the most ridiculous oversimplifications (and misnomer) I have ever heard.

[cheese plate]

Well, your pets are directly descended from wolves, which live in packs. You don't eat them, so there must be a thrill in blowing them away. Please explain that for me.

I agree with the rest of your post for the most part, I don't have anything "against" gun hunters, but I have more respect for bow hunters (in contrast to what was written in the OP).

[NomadStephanie]

As a lifelong animal lover and someone who cares about the environment, I have no problem with deer hunting. I believe it's much more ethical than purchasing meat that was factory farmed (which I am guilty of too often).

I do have a problem with people who hunt animals not for food, and not even for the challenge of hunting, but out of hatred and wanting to kill as many of a target species as possible. It strikes me that the hatred of wolves is disproportionate to their impact on humans. I cringe to see hunting "derbies" held for wolves, which have recently even been approved on federal wilderness land in Idaho; aerial hunting; and trapping. I've read stories in the last year of wolf packs in national lands thrown into disarray due to the killing of the alpha male or female (or both), and how the wolf who inspired many by showing up at the Grand Canyon was later killed. I think if more people understood more about the lives of wolves, they would have a little more respect; their social lives are complex, even political, and the loss of the "wrong wolf" can disproportionately affect the pack. They live a lot of virtues we respect in theory: loyalty, devotion, courage, intelligence. One of my favorite all-time episodes of nature was this one ( LOBO THE WOLF THAT CHANGED AMERICA - YouTube ), which detailed the transformation of a man who started as a dedicated wolf hunter, and whose experiences changed him into a defender of wolves.

All this said, I don't disagree with the idea of there being any wolf hunting at all. In areas where they indeed have a "healthy population," if wolf hunts serve social and ecological purposes, I can accept it, even if I personally am saddened any time I see a wolf killed. However, it seems that people who hunt wolves disproportionately want to kill them in high numbers. This means that opening up wolves for hunting runs the risk of quickly turning a healthy wolf population into an unhealthy one. People still irrationally hate wolves and accuse them of being so destructive they shouldn't be allowed to exist. Even when government compensates farmers and ranchers who lose animals to wolf predation, and even as methods of nonlethal wolf deterrents grow in numbers and effectiveness, ranchers and farmers claim that wolves are a major threat to their livelihoods. I've heard people in the UP blame the wolf population for their failure to take home a deer that hunting season. As someone from SW Virginia, this is funny to me--I see much fewer deer down here than I do in the UP, and we have no wolves at all. And of course, there's the boogeyman of them attacking humans--which anyone who knows much about wolves, knows is something that almost never happens.

[Stone1]

Deer hunting is something most everyone understands as the meat is eaten and even the hide is used. The other thing often overlooked is that in many area's if hunting was not allowed, the deer populations would grow very large which leads to increased car-deer accidents, which sometimes result in the death of a person as well as the deer. Crop loss to farms would also increase and is already notable in areas with healthy deer populations.

Bears are hunted and the meat consumed by some but I think they hide is the popular item. Bears in WI are usually shy but I have known of them to become aggressive and actually pursue a human. This is rare and they usually avoids humans. The bears do help control the deer heard as they will eat the fawns if they find one. The bears, like deer also put a huge dent in a vehicle when hit.

Wolves are dangerous critters, they are sort of killing machines, they often kill family pets and farm animals. The WI DNR has a web site which shows the locations in which wolves have killed family pets (not livestock) they also show the counties and number of wolves legally killed by hunters. A few short years ago one of the wolf packs near Ft. McCoy was felt to be a danger humans and the pack was reduced or eliminated; sorry I don't recall what was actually done with them. I have a friend who lived in northern WI and he feels the deer population is so thin due to the increased wolf population and the wolves killing the deer.