NYS Pheasant farm

[concerned]

I never knew that New York State owns a pheasant farm that is used by hunters who like to hunt birds that are enclosed in fensing so they gaurantee a catch. It costs $700,000/yr and is still included in this years budget. Apparently if the State closed the place all the birds would have to be slaughtered! I don't understand that because the intent of the farm is to kill the birds anyway.

[rrogers40]

I think that they cant realese them into the wild because then they would mess up the ecosystem- mostly because they wouldn't know how to find food for them selves. (Or they would be easy food for something else)

The hunting is probably more about keeping the levels of the animals down to a manageable size and is most likely strictly regulated.

[dgriffin]

The state has a breeding facility ... not a hunting facility ... that rears and sells pheasants to individuals and hunters who release them into the wild. The club I used to belong to bought a hundred or so each year and released them on club property. They don't go very far, so for a few weeks afterward, pheasant hunting was good in the general area. (Some clubs release a few per hunt, giving the birds a "sporting" half hour head start.) The general effect is that the pheasant population of NY State is maintained by the birds that get away. However, without the breeding facility and cooperating individuals and hunting clubs, the bird would probably die out. It is not native to the northeast and the climate and predators would no doubt kill it off completely.

Here's an article with some background that discusses the stocking program as a budget item and the complaint of the Humane Society ... an outfit with very little credibility around these parts.
www.stargazette.com/article/20081211/UPDATE/312110003

[countrygal]

The thing that ticks me off about this is that the state is cutting funding to education but is willing to keep around a pheasant farm? Even my husband, who is a big time hunter and fisherman, says there is a lot of money to be saved by the state if they cut some DEC funding. That might not be popular, but it's a better option than cutting education!!! And not as important that's for sure!

My husband came upon a released pheasant from one of these farms. Ya know what it did? Came right up to him looking to be fed. Yup....real sporting.

[bobbbiez]

Countrygal, have to say I'm 100% behind you on this one.

Makes no sense to me when they're trying to make sense out of it. ;D

[dgriffin]

CG, as I have seen it practiced, pheasant hunting in New York State is not sporting. To raise a bird only to release it and shoot it, to get it up off the ground so that the shot doesn't blow it apart and ruin it as a trophy or a meal, is certainly not humane. I consider much of the hunting I've witnessed inhumane, actually, and haven't participated in years. I would kill a deer if I liked venison. I'm satisfied they are wild and in need of management. (That's an interesting term; I wonder if Himmler used it.) I love my guns, but am content these days to point them at paper targets.

[frankcor]

Right you are, Dave. Target shooting is great fun. After hunting stuff that shot back at us, there isn't much attraction in shooting at birds and animals for me anymore.

[Clipper]

In my younger days I hunted anything edible, and that left very little safe from my firearms, haha. I hunted racoons,rabbits, squirrels, woodchucks, turkeys, all sorts of gamebirds, bear and deer. In later years, I confined my hunting to just deer. I love venison but found that I could buy all the poultry I could eat, really cheap, and disease and other issues made the other game not quite so attractive as food for the table.

When I was quite young, I killed a chipmunk with my bb gun. My dad actually skinned it, cooked it, and made me eat it. It was a lesson that had a lifelong impact on me. I never again killed any of God's little field critters unless I intended to eat them. I also have the same respect for nature in my fishing. I take home enough fish for a meal, and catch and release the major portion of what I catch. Trout and walleye are my favorite, but Bass and other species that I am not fond of eating are always released unharmed when possible.

I don't like these "game farm" settings, where for a price you can shoot a trophy buck that has been cornfed, and is corralled in a fenced in area by a "for profit" game rancher. I suppose it is not different than raising a cow for slaughter, but it sure as hell isn't "hunting" in my estimation.

In the last few years since moving here, my guns have been taken out of the cabinet only a couple of times a year, fired at a range, cleaned, oiled and returned to the cabinet.