need to add title here

Pro-hunting: It's ethical when done right

June 10, 2012 11:59 AM

The Exotic Wildlife Association's Charly Seale says his organization has an ethics code for hunting. The hunts are not "canned" and it's a "fair chase" -- the animal can detect and elude the hunter.

Can hunting endangered animals save the species?
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by SamPatTucson June 11, 2012 3:36 PM EDT
Question for Mr. Seale or whoever speaks for him: absent hunting, why would half the animals on your ranch be gone in five years and all gone in ten? Would you kill them yourself if others don't pay to do so? Could you donate your stock to non-hunting preserves if you cannot profit from hunting on your ranch?
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by coll1032 June 10, 2012 10:12 PM EDT
everything deserves to live. you are murderers.
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by GOD_BLESS_TEXAS June 10, 2012 8:31 PM EDT
African Oryx "run wild" on BLM Public Lands in New Mexico, parts of far West Texas and Arizona. And are "huntable" with nothing more than a standard state hunting permit or drawn hunting tag/permit. It bothers me that the interviewer in this story never mentions why the Oryx species along with many other African animal species are on the verge of extinction or are in fact, extinct. More than likely 60 Minutes would blame it on hunters and the State of Texas.

I am a hunter and always will be. And like every hunter that I know personally, I too have an appreciation for wildlife, and its conservation. What happens when you take the hunter out of the ecological equation? I am not a scientist, but I speculate the end result is "over-population" of the species that is no longer hunted. Take for example the removal of the "hunter" called the grey wolf from states like Montana and Wyoming. What was the end result of that experiment? I believe it was the "over-population" of deer and elk, which eventually led to the re-introduction of the grey wolf back into the Montana and Wyoming ecosystems.

We are talking about a species, or multiple species, that are either extinct or on the brink of extinction in their native ecosystems in Africa. And why are they extinct or on the verge of extinction? Was it thousands of hunters traveling to Africa to shoot "trophy" animals that has led to their extinction? I seriously doubt it. Instead, I believe it to be a combination of factors. Factors like poaching, over-population, and lack of viable grazing habitat, likely caused by over-population.

My biggest fear with a story such as this, is not loosing the ability to legally hunt a non-native African species on a Texas ranch. Not in the least. My biggest fear is that the majority of Americans, watching this 60 Minutes episode and the "Liberal Media" in general, will take this story as "fact" and will not do the research or due diligence necessary to draw their own conclusions and apply thoughtful intellect to this topic or any topic that the media tries to shape public opinion through the use of misinformation.
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by phazlew June 10, 2012 8:00 PM EDT
Laura, Fossil Rim Ranch is NOT "just outside of Dallas", it IS "just outside of Fort Worth but REALLY it is in Glen Rose, TX for OVER 30 years! Please clarify it ON AIR. Thank you!
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by powderpig634 June 10, 2012 7:50 PM EDT
I think that the program as was, was fine being that we can't control population anymore we should eradicate all of these animals, to preserve our naturel balance,except for zoos
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by zxatlblue June 10, 2012 7:48 PM EDT
I think the lady trying to stop the sport shooting of the antelope might mean well, but if she causes the total number that are on earth to go down or plummet then she is wrong any way you cut it. She seemed h*ll bent on achieving her agenda weather or not it helped or not.
Now I tried to look at it from both sides but she just seemed to be blind to the other side and ,...........I hate to say this, she just seemed to be blind to any truth but her own......
Just look at the numbers if they go down due to her actions , its her fault and shame on her.
I encourage CBS 60 minutes to revisit this issue in s year or so. Then we will know the truth.
Thank you.
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by Eltigregh May 6, 2012 7:24 PM EDT
That's so true. She'd rather them all die in Africa than 10% be shot in Texas. Moron alert!
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by zydedragonfly January 30, 2012 1:04 PM EST
My biggest grip about this interview was the total lack of scientific references. No one including the conservationist bothered to explain why and how hunting these endanger antelope increase their populations and improve the health of the herd. The interviewer asked, admittedly agressively, several time how hunting helps, and as far as i'm concerned she never got an answer, so let me give an answer to that question. Hunting imporves the health and population of the heard the same what predators do (we replace the role of the natural predators). In otherwords, we remove the excess population and keep the heard form over-populating it's habitat, this prevents these animals form starving. This is a scientific fact, we see that in our native deer, elk, moose, etc population, regulated hunting actually keeps populations of herd animals at a health equilibrium, especially when you concider these animals have limited space. If you don't manage the herds, they will eat up the resources in their habitat and if you don't supliment that diet with food the animals will start to starve and be susceptible disease.

I am a Biologist, ecologist and conservationist, but NOT a hunter myself, but i'm prohunting for these reason. let me also say the reason we can't re-introduec these animals back into their native environments is because the habitat is no longer their and these animal compete with the human population and are susceptable to poaching (which is very different form regualted hunting). Those are the scientific justifications for hunting in this country.
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by 4CV January 29, 2012 8:11 PM EST
This woman is so stupid. Unfortunately the courts will side with her. Environmentalists and evidence show that hunting these animals in Texas has allowed them to stay off the extinct list. How can the courts listen to the non-arguments that she has (what were her arguments? I couldn't see any: it's better to make everyone die rather than kill 10% of the herd?). She says she loves these animals but she wants them to become extinct. How did the courts side with this? We are ruled by idiots!
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