Kill the biggest and rarest for free!!!

[bergie]

Interesting Washington Post article on an innovative way to finance your next African safari. Don't exactly agree with the practice in the manner in which it is now carried out, should be based on market value rather than some "appraiser's" inflated valuation.click here

 

[Jseime]

hmmmm

that sounds like anti-hunter propaganda to me. if its true that would be pretty cool but i honestly cant see it.

 

[bergie]

Story has been picked up by lots of other papers, and is being given a much more negative slant by left-wing animal rights wackos. Senate held some hearings on it tuesday. The animal-rights movement is using this somewhat questionable but legal tax-reducing strategy to try and make hunters look bad.
Actually the Wyobraska is a pretty nice little museum in an old railroad depot. The town of Gering is located along the Oregan trail near Scottsbluff (both the town and the bluff) which along with Chimney Rock were major landmarks on the trail. Must have been pretty impressive after weeks of the flatness of the Platte valley

bergie

 

[LAK]

The taxpayer subsidies also encourage hunters to track down and shoot the largest, fittest and rarest of the world's animals, the critics say

Well, fittest (fittest?) and largest aside, I wonder what they mean by rarest. Since any animal on the endangered species list would be illegal to shoot in any country that controls hunting, and attempting to import the skins, horns etc of any protected animal at a minimum is going to get it confiscated at port of entry - and risk a heavy fine and or imprisonment. I suspect any animal mount they can genuinely refer to as rare is probably a very old mount from estate collections, etc.

Funny how the idea that anyone can find a way around having the fruits of their labors, or a portion thereof, stolen from them is met with such fervor.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Well, fittest (fittest?) and largest aside, I wonder what they mean by rarest. Since any animal on the endangered species list would be illegal to shoot in any country that controls hunting, and attempting to import the skins, horns etc of any protected animal at a minimum is going to get it confiscated at port of entry - and risk a heavy fine and or imprisonment.

Endangered species are only illegal to shoot in countries that agree to such conventions and enforce such conventions. There is no world law on this and many countries are willing to allow illegal hunts to occur because they generate review and often coincide by money under the table.

It would be nice if such illegally hunted animals were always caught on the attempt to import, but that simply isn't the case. Not every animal or animal product shipped into the US is checked. In many cases, the animals are declared, but as some non-protected species, usually one that is closely related so that your average inspector might not be able to tell the difference. For example, there are rare sheep in China that are protected and the differences are at the species and subspecies levels. Short of genetic testing or noting location of hunt, the ones illegal to hunt are not readily discerned from those illegal to hunt.

The USFWS Forensics Lab in Oregon does a good job of helping to stop the illegal importation of such protected species and parts, but the people effecting the crimes are quite creative.

 

[Art Eatman]

The title of the thread worried me, until I realized it wasn't about honest politicians...

, Art

 

[LAK]

Double Naught Spy

Endangered species are only illegal to shoot in countries that agree to such conventions and enforce such conventions. There is no world law on this and many countries are willing to allow illegal hunts to occur because they generate review and often coincide by money under the table

There are not that many countries left that do not control hunting - and the places where officials can be bought out to cut corners or turn a blind eye are going to continue to be just about everywhere.

There's too much concern for some obscure variation of wild goat in Mongolia - and not enough about what is happening to our own country and it's people as far as I am concerned. Don't get me wrong, there is a place for conservation, and we do not want to wipe out all the elephants, ibex and Senegal bushbabies. But we have controls in place to control illegally imported animals, and if they do not work all of the time I do not support diverting even a penny more from the public purse. That bag has too many gaping holes in it already.

And while hunting is being priced above the reach of many people, and we are all being steadily taxed to death, I would not consider depriving anyone of the means to do so on the cheap a worthy cause.