No More Civil War

[Dan Andrews]

No More Civil War

Have you heard the archery hunters arguing whether the deadly accurate crossbow should be allowed in the archery season or the shotgun season? How about the shore vs the boat fisherman's right to territory in the harbour argument? Why do Sportsmen partake in this unsportsmanlike conduct?

You will never hear an Animal Rights Advocate (ARA) arguing whether hunting with longbow, fishing with down rigger or clubbing a baby seal is the cruelest practice. In their view all hunting, fishing and trapping is cruel and should be illegal. I've never heard of an ARA discussing Grey areas within their circles. Where do they draw the line? Do they object to the extermination of rats from their homes? No one really knows because they are too focussed on us to argue amongst themselves.

Not so long ago there were no ARA groups and a respected man was as good with his shotgun as he was with his golf club. Sporting clubs were competing for territory and stature. Today that's just not the case and the young volunteer is intimidated by the old man's shoes. We are now fighting to recruit enough blood to maintain a quorum. Name one organization that has figured out a way to attract high numbers of young members to replace their aging population. I'll give you one. PETA!

When a sportsman isn't happy with another hunter, angler or sporting organizations decisions, they need to refrain from complaining publicly. The ARA will surely do that for us. Sportsmen should follow appropriate channels to file his complaint. The sporting club itself is the place to go. All parties involved should be consulted to rule out communication errors and if no common ground can be found but no laws have been broken, then agree to disagree because even you have made moral decisions that others just don't understand. Did the shot gun hunter who complained archers were receiving an unfair number of tags consider the number of deer or the saturation of gun hunters already? The herd needs thinning but safety is first and foremost.

Cutting up fellow sportsmen over differing opinions is eroding away our image and rights. ARAs base propaganda with twisted facts and keying in on emotion and don't require our help to make them look bad. However I'm sure they appreciate our battles within to help them make us look bad. It is now more important than ever to rebuild our sporting organizations with solidarity if we want to keep our rights to a natural harvest. How can we expect to do this when we continually kick new comers in the shins for thinking different. We need to turn criticism into diplomacy, treat inexperience with apprenticeship and welcome a new generation of ideas and morals. Oh ya and one more thing. Except that we'll all make mistakes and hopefully learn from them the first time around with the guiding support of fellow sportsmen.

Dan Andrews

[longmayyourun]

I would certainly agree that "safety is first and foremost", be it hunting in a crowded bush area, or being buzzed by a power boat when fishing in a canoe. All sportsmen will certainly not agree on all issues. An angler is not necessarily a hunter for example.

Sometimes anglers are within the law, but not showing courtesy. In this case I will speak up. If I am fishing offshore at Queenston for example and a boat fisherman buzzes the shore I will let them know my displeasure in a firm but polite way.

Sometimes also, we have to teach the young or inexperienced courtesy. For example not walking and crowding out a person that catches a fish, when there are other areas of the shore to fish. This can be done in a polite way, and most will understand if it is explained to them politely. The one thing you do not want to do is avoid confrontation or argument, since some can't be told they are wrong, and you want to defuse, not escalate a situation. Just walk away.

Your analogy to golf and fishing is good Chile. Young or inexperienced golfers may know the rules of the game, but not the unwritten rules, for example driving a ball when people are an the fairway. Letting other golfers play through. etc..

These are learned in time.

Perhaps education on the unwritten rules is the answer. This is where sportman clubs come in, or the media.

Whirlpool.

[FishyWishy]

Whirlpool,

You forgot people not giving courtesy when another angler calls "Fish On"

[Dan Andrews]

I was more or less referring to groups of anglers such as fly fisherman publicly pointing out that they disagree with lets say kayak fishing claiming it's not fair to fish or something. Just a made up scenario there.

Although a crossbow is far more accurate than the long bow (also arguable these days) there's no reasonable argument for the long bow community to claim its an unfair advantage or try to have the crossbow season separated. When hunters and anglers publicly condemn each others, it gives ammunition to the real threat to our sport. ARA's!

Sometimes these boards get different groups arguing about certain ethics or closed seasons etc and I just think (my 2 cents) that it should be done at the meeting level, but under civilized 2 way discussion atmospheres. For the record I hate jet ski's and ATV's but I'll never participate in a bid to ban them. I'd rather push the education and awareness programs like the way they do for the wild turkey seminars. It's legal to shoot a bird off its roost but its too easy so they make you understand its not considered sportsman like.

If I see a poacher or litterbug fisherman, YES! I will call them out (cautiously) but standing on shore with a fishing rod claiming the seal hunt is cruel and should be ended is a bad idea and brings it one step closer to my stream.

[FishyWishy]

Chili,

I 100% agree with your point of view here.

Sportsmen/outdoorsmen (women too) should be supportive of one another. If they disagree with another sportsman's method of sport (bow vs gun, live bait vs artificial, meat hunting vs C&R) it should be voiced only within the sporting community, such as conservation clubs, etc. Not in open public where it can feed public non-sporting peoples fears which fuels groups like PETA, greenpeace etc.

If this isn't adhered to soon we will all be munching on Lettuce (non GMO of course) and getting all of our protein from organically grown non-GMO peanuts and soy beans. and we won't so much as be allowed to walk through a forest as it will disturb the natural cycle of some microbiological organism

Mr. Disney has done a ggod enough job of painting hunters with a dark brush. Bambi, The fox and the hound...and I'm sure there are others I just can't think of right now. Let alone the fact that all animals now have a cute face and voice and human characteristics.