My thoughts on fox hunting, trapping

It was good news to read about the reopening of fox hunting and trapping in Lenoir County. The closing of the season on fox 20-plus years ago was a farce.

The no hunting or trapping of fox came about as a result of fox hunters, who hunt fox with dogs, changing the fox to a game animal from a predator and fur bearer.

In North Carolina, it is unlawful to buy or sell any part of a game animal. An example would be the selling of a deer tail or a deer hide. Suppose fresh deer hides were worth $25 and the tails were worth $5. You can see that this would influence an unethical hunter to kill more than his legal limit of six deer per season.

The same thing happens to fox pelts. At one time, they were bringing from $40 to $50 each. A good trapper could easily catch two to three a night. The fur price is so low that it’s not really feasible to trap or hunt them for money.

On the other hand, the explosion in the fox population wreaks havoc on all small game such as quail and rabbits.

Fox are not the only thing that has hurt our small game population. Aerial predators such as hawks and owls and the increase in the coyote population have also played a role in the demise of our small game.

One interesting thing about coyotes is they do not cohabitate with grey fox. In fact, coyotes will prey on grey fox, particularly their young. I guess that’s just another way of how nature controls it’s own.

Hopefully, in a few years we can look back and see an improvement in our small game hunting. But if that doesn’t happen, at least a larger percent of the hunters and trappers can now share in the use of this resource.

On another subject, I was watching the tube the other night and a special program came on about People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. As Bill O’Reilly would say, these people are to the far left. In fact, they may be completely around the corner.

Watching the show, I couldn’t make up my mind whether it was pro or con but when they did a little piece on banning milk, I quickly came to my senses. They protested the sale or use of milk in anyway.

All I can say is if someone is going to ban ice cream, they are quickly going to move to the top my list! Can you imagine a life without ice cream or cereal with water?

The funny thing is the idea that people are taking advantage of a cow when they milk it shows how foolish they are. I personally have never worked on a dairy farm but I do know that if you don’t milk a cow when it needs to be milked you are going to have cow riot. I really don’t know what a cow riot is but I’m pretty sure it would be bad.

Dairy farmers don’t have to go out and round up the cows twice a day to milk them. They come on their own and if someone is not there to milk them they will start bellowing like a bull.

Milking a cow does not hurt them. In fact, I would think it would be like relieving ourselves when we had too much to drink. Groups like this annoy me because in most cases they are totally ignorant of the facts. They are not interested in the facts, just the publicity they can create for themselves.

Don’t be duped by these organizations.

During the program, it said it had 300 employees with a $25 million a year budget. The final straw with me was when the co-founder informed everyone that she was an atheist. If you ever remember only one thing that I have written about, remember this: There are no atheists in hell.