Post by Woody Williams on Apr 3, 2006 16:20:48 GMT -5
Letter to the editor of the Chatanoogan (Tennessee)
Don't Kill The Majestic Wild Turkey
Tennessee’s turkey hunting season is upon us and sadly these majestic birds will once again be killed by those who enjoy making harmless animals suffer and die.
Before the Bald Eagle became known as the symbol of America, the great statesman and revolutionary Benjamin Franklin put his support behind honoring the turkey as the young country’s national bird. Franklin's choice would have been a good one, as the North American wild turkey was here to greet the Pilgrims as they landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620.
But the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) has declared war on these birds. Turkeys are not overpopulated in Tennessee; in fact, the TWRA has stocked them in certain counties for no other purpose than to provide hunters with living targets to kill. The birds cause no damage and are not implicated in significant amounts of car accidents. Hunting stocked birds serves absolutely no conservation purpose.
The TWRA is in the business to sell hunting permits, and they will manipulate hunted animal populations by breeding them, tweaking season lengths and bag limits, and killing off their natural predators. The TWRA collects the fees generated by the sale of hunting permits, as well as excise taxes on firearms and ammunition, because the agency needs to raise millions of dollars in revenue just to cover the salaries of its employees. The firearms industry also benefits by the spread of violence against wildlife and the duo of the firearms industry and the TWRA is a foe that the state’s wildlife cannot live with.
The Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting proposes wildlife watching programs to draw the public closer to wildlife and provide an economy that can far outpace the one which is currently based on firearms and violence. For information on how you can protect wildlife, please see our website at www.all-creatures.org/cash.
Joe Miele, Vice President
The Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting
Box 562
New Paltz, NY 12561
jmmiele@optonline.net
www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_83041.asp
Don't Kill The Majestic Wild Turkey
Tennessee’s turkey hunting season is upon us and sadly these majestic birds will once again be killed by those who enjoy making harmless animals suffer and die.
Before the Bald Eagle became known as the symbol of America, the great statesman and revolutionary Benjamin Franklin put his support behind honoring the turkey as the young country’s national bird. Franklin's choice would have been a good one, as the North American wild turkey was here to greet the Pilgrims as they landed on Plymouth Rock in 1620.
But the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) has declared war on these birds. Turkeys are not overpopulated in Tennessee; in fact, the TWRA has stocked them in certain counties for no other purpose than to provide hunters with living targets to kill. The birds cause no damage and are not implicated in significant amounts of car accidents. Hunting stocked birds serves absolutely no conservation purpose.
The TWRA is in the business to sell hunting permits, and they will manipulate hunted animal populations by breeding them, tweaking season lengths and bag limits, and killing off their natural predators. The TWRA collects the fees generated by the sale of hunting permits, as well as excise taxes on firearms and ammunition, because the agency needs to raise millions of dollars in revenue just to cover the salaries of its employees. The firearms industry also benefits by the spread of violence against wildlife and the duo of the firearms industry and the TWRA is a foe that the state’s wildlife cannot live with.
The Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting proposes wildlife watching programs to draw the public closer to wildlife and provide an economy that can far outpace the one which is currently based on firearms and violence. For information on how you can protect wildlife, please see our website at www.all-creatures.org/cash.
Joe Miele, Vice President
The Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting
Box 562
New Paltz, NY 12561
jmmiele@optonline.net
www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_83041.asp
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