AS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Forest and Bird, Issue 31, 1 October 1933, Page 6

AS IN NEW ZEALAND.

From the following remarks by Dr. Wm. T. Hornaday of The Permanent Wild Life Protection Fund, it appears that game birds are in a similarly precarious condition in the United States of America to that in New Zealand, and owing to much the same causes—over-shooting, etc. “Our studies have convinced us that state by state our upland game birds are reaching the vanishing point; that the often claimed abundance’ of killable game is usually false; that all North American game birds are being killed much faster than they are breeding; that ‘the sportsmen’ are NOT saving the game, and ficvcv have done so that now nearly all state game commissions are afraid to further stop shooting; that the decent and game-saving sportsmen are only a powerless minority; that it is this year impossible for the conserving sportsmen to organize and function; that the non-migratory upland game birds will be the first to become extinct; and finally that nothing save bold and drastic work by i the Federal Government, through the Department of Agriculture and strongly backed by the President, ever can or ever will SAVE the waterfowl and marsh birds on a basis of low-limit shooting confined to the annual increase. “During the past thirty-three years, the greatest measures initiated for wild life salvage have been put over by Congress and the Federal Government. It would be a pleasure to enumerate the various Acts and Regulationsbut it is unnecessary. It is enough to say that every one of those nation-wide and wholesale measures has been amply approved and sustained by the American people—even though certain drastic reforms were forced upon certain states that were too mean to make them by their own initiative. “You have observed, in 1930 and in 1931, how two great and necessary measures were driven through desperate situations by the overwhelming force of the President, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and about 25 supporting states. In the matter of the 30-day waterfowl open season of 1931, while 27 states registered their support in advance, four states opposed that measure, and 17 maintained stony silence regarding it. Now, it seems that no one denies the fact that that emergency movement saved some millions of birds for breeding that otherwise would have been SHOT by sportsmen!

“I am now thoroughly convinced that in view of the many different forces now actively destroying American game; in view of the well-declared and unquestionable difficulties and failures in regulated farm breeding of game to shoot; and in view of a dozen other evils now bearing down upon our remnants of game, the day has come wherein it is the duty of the Federal Government to again intervene, firmly and boldly, and put more checks upon game shooting (1) by the total stoppage of baiting game to entice it up to the guns, and (2) by the total stoppage of the use of decoys, unfairly to lure geese and ducks down to the very muzzles of the hidden batteries of guns—‘so close that it is impossible to miss.’ But we will say little here about the bad sportsman ethics involved in those two killing methods, and will base our request for these two reforms upon their necessity for the preservation of adequate breeding stocks of waterfowl.

“Of course it is probable that the stoppage of those two toodeadly practices, whenever carried out, will give rise to protests from the gunners whose deadly methods are stopped. But does any criminal ever praise the law that stops his operations? Of course some of the ‘shooting stands’ of Massachusetts might go out of business. Of course some of the goose-selling ‘clubs’ of Illinois and California might be reduced. Every reform measure necessarily re-forms the objectionable practices that it seeks to abate.

“Beyond all question, less killing of waterfowl in the professional ‘clubs’ that now monopolise the wild flocks of certain states will have the effect of making fair shooting in thousands of other localities wherein there now is none. Shall a few persons always be permitted to monopolise the shooting privileges that belong to all the licensed sportsmen of the states concerned ?

“The killing of game by the aid of baiting and the use of decoys never will be voluntarily discontinued by the states whose hunters most extensively practice those deadly and unfair methods. As usual, the Federal Government must act —as it had to do to reduce those hag-limits and open seasons.”