Kentucky set to allow hunting of sandhill cranes

[n2doc]

Last Gasp for Sandhill Cranes—Act Now!
By Julie • July 17, 2011 • 9 comments



As you’ll remember, Kentucky’s Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources unanimously passed its sandhill crane hunting proposal. All eight hunters on the commission think it’s a good idea to shoot cranes in Kentucky. The proposal now goes to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for final approval or denial. The public comment period on the Kentucky sandhill crane hunting proposal ends AUGUST 1 2011. Here are six top reasons to protest this hunt. You’ll find snail and email addresses at the bottom, where you can send your comments. Please act now. If you love the rolling purr of sandhill cranes, let the Feds hear your squawk NOW!


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[lib2DaBone]

1. Why would anyone want to shoot a Sandhill Crane?

You can't eat them, can you? They are beautiful to watch and they bother no one....

I must be missing something that Kentucky sees.

[kristopher]

2. "flying rib eye of the sky"???

SHOULD SANDHILL CRANES BE HUNTED?

by Whit Gibbons

January 9, 2011



"The state of Kentucky is considering a change in its game regulations that will allow hunting of sandhill cranes." My first reaction upon reading that statement was "It's a game bird? Can you even eat a sandhill crane?" The answer to that second question is "of course." At various times in various places, people have probably eaten every kind of animal they have been able to kill. Sandhill cranes certainly would not be the exception to the rule.

Indeed, the state wildlife agency in Kansas, one of the states where sandhill cranes are already hunted as a game species, says that "crane meat is considered excellent table fare, probably the best of all migratory game birds." A friend even gave me a recipe for the big birds--a concoction of soy sauce, brown sugar, minced garlic and cayenne pepper. The only edible part of the sandhill crane is the breast, but the recipe calls it the "flying rib eye of the sky." OK, so one part of this magnificent migratory bird that is larger than a great blue heron is edible.
But does being good to eat in itself qualify a species for legal hunting? I imagine there were many fine recipes for the now-extinct passenger pigeon.

Like many other North American birds, sandhill crane populations dipped drastically when European settlers came to the New World. The climb back since the mid-1900s has been steady, and current estimates set the number of birds at more than a half million. The U.S. Geological Survey states that sandhill cranes are now "the most abundant of the world's cranes." To learn what a sandhill crane looks and sounds like, go to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sandhill_Crane/id.

Some land managers maintain that keeping the number of cranes trimmed down is important because "if concentrations become too high the risk of disease increases." This paradigm may be reasonable for some game species in some situations, but these migratory species did quite well in enormous numbers before people arrived on the scene to "take care of them." The International Crane Foundation states that "limited data . . . suggest that crane populations do stop growing without the need for hunting. . . . ICF data show that the eastern population of sandhill cranes is large enough for a sustainable harvest to occur."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service...

http://www.uga.edu/srel/ecoviews/ecoview110109.htm




It isn't just Kentucky.

[newfie11]

3. Stupid!!

"Some land managers maintain that keeping the number of cranes trimmed down is important because "if concentrations become too high the risk of disease increases"

I am thinking maybe we should trim down some land managers before their disease increases!!

[Esse Quam Videri]

4. WTF????!!!!!

This is beyond believable.

[Botany]

5. Too stupid for words

The sandhill crane is more than likely a migratory species in Kentucky so it's population does not need to managed by hunting there.

They mate for life so if you kill one the other will be heartbroken and might not ever breed again.

They have plenty of game that people can already hunt and harvest in Kentucky ..... the non migratory Canada goose and the wild turkey
both which have large populations and can stand the hunting pressure not to mention White Tailed Deer too.

WTF are you going to do with a large dead crane? Eat it?

[ladjf]

6. Among other things, the extremely rare Whooping Cranes often

travel with Sandhills and are about the same size. Why in the hell would anyone want to shoot a large crane anyway?

We are retrogressing back to cave man values.

[Nihil]

13. Worse than that ...

> We are retrogressing back to cave man values.

It's now "cavemen with thunder-sticks" ... all of the bad and none of the good ...
nothing but "make my dick hard by killing something" 'values' ...

:grr:

[ladjf]

14. Yes, and that's a pretty silly reason to go out and kill something.

Maybe they should try some sort of animal killing porn.

[OnlinePoker]

17. One of my main charities is Operation Migration

An organization training Whoopers to fly an eastern migratory route from Wisconsin to Florida. 93 miles of the journey is over Kentucky. This is a one way trip for the flight crew...the cranes figure out how to get back to Wisconsin on their own. This has been a slow (and expensive) process, and after 10 years, only 103 cranes exist in the eastern migratory population. How do courts deal with people who kill these extremely rare species? In April, an adult an a youth who shot a crane were sentenced to a year probation, $550 in court costs, and a $1 fine. Absolutely repulsive.

http://cs.birdwatchingdaily.com/BRDCS/blogs/field_of_view/archive/2011/04/19/killers-of-whooping-crane-in-indiana-receive-probation-1-fine.aspx

http://www.operationmigration.org/

[ladjf]

18. I've been following Operation Migration from the start. They do

good work.

On their first migration to Florida behind the ultralights, the flew about ten miles to the West of Atlanta, where I live. On the return run the next Spring, the headed North straight for downtown Atlanta, but, just before crossing Atlanta-Hartsfield Airport, they deviated East. After passing Atlanta, the moved back to their original course which took them almost directly toward Chicago.

Just when it looked as though they didn't know where there home was in Wisconsin, they made a 90 degree turn to the West and flew straight home. They had deviated around bad weather. (Those guys had some major navigation skills.)

[ladjf]

7. The human race is too dumb to survive. nt

[xchrom]

8. & the reaction that we see on ths thread is 50% of the reason that conservatives craft

their ass backwards legislations.

it pisses people like us off -- it's their 'in your face' moment & with no other thought than that.

[ladjf]

15. As illogical as that reasoning seems to be, your theory about their

behavior might be correct. nt

[RC]

9. It's alive! I gotta kill it to feel like a man.

:sarcasm:

[CoffeeCat]

12. OMG...I laughed at that...

...but it's really so, so very sad. The psychopaths in our
species seem to rule the day sometimes.

And seriously...how big of a "man accomplishment" is it to kill
a defenseless animal. There's no glory in arming yourself with
weapons and thinking that you're "all that" for killing something
that clearly has no way of protecting itself.

I would feel terrible.

[sinkingfeeling]

10. I posted my comments last week.

[Kolesar]

11. Sick ... eom

[happyslug]

16. Here is the Fish and Wildlife PDF page on hunting Cranes,

http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/newsletter0411.pdf
April 2011. The Cranes are hunted in 13 other states, three provinces of Canada and in Mexico

February 2011 edition, with the proposal was made:
http://fw.ky.gov/pdf/newsletter0211.pdf

From the paper:

The biology is indisputable. The Eastern Population of sandhill cranes can sustain limited hunting. Cranes have been hunted in the United States for 50 years, and flock numbers in all of the hunted populations are at all-time highs. The interest in the species generated by the hunters pursuing these birds has been instrumental in the successful management of this species.

Here is the Actual Regulations as issued by the Kentucky Department of fish and Wildlife Resources:
http://kyc4sandhillcranes.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/kdfwr-proposed-admin-regulation.pdf

Notice that the next Public Meeting on this subject will be held on July 21st, 2011:
http://kyc4sandhillcranes.wordpress.com/

The actual Notice of Hearing set for July 21st, 2011
http://kyc4sandhillcranes.wordpress.com/fact-sheets/

Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission meeting
Thursday, July 21, 2011 – beginning at 9:00 a.m. EDT*
Commission Room – Mitchell Administrative Building
KDFWR – US 60 – Frankfort, KY 40601

List of Objections by Kentucky Resource Council:
http://www.kyrc.org/webnewspro/130875691114740.shtml
http://kyc4sandhillcranes.wordpress.com/kyfws-and-usfws-documents/

International Crane Foundation comments on this proposed Hunt:
http://kyc4sandhillcranes.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/icf-kentucky-assessment-kcsc-final.pdf

Please note their Preface to their actual Comment:
The International Crane Foundation does not endorse or oppose Sandhill Crane hunting in North America.  We recognize the role of regulated hunting in current wildlife population management practices, and the importance of hunting traditions to communities, not just on this continent, but globally.  We maintain three strong positions relative to crane hunting.  First, the cranes need help from everyone – including hunters, wildlife enthusiasts, farmers, and other landowners – to conserve wetlands that cranes and other waterbirds depend upon for survival.  Second, any decisions about hunting should be based on the best scientific information available.  Third, it is crucial for individuals to participate in public discussions on the subject.  As experts in crane biology and as managers of a long term database on an eastern U.S. Sandhill Crane population, our role is to provide biological information and assessment relevant to issues considered by states as they make management decisions, such as hunting or crop damage, on Sandhill Cranes.

This reflects the general policy of the Sierra Club, who as a rule do NOT oppose hunting UNLESS it hurts wildlife populations. Thus the fact that even the Sierra Club joined with the rest of the Kentucky Resource Council in opposing the hunt this year is significant.

After the preface the actual comments reflect the objections of the Kentucky Resource Council in that more data is needed to decide this issue. The big dispute appears to be the number of Cranes to be taken. 400 appears to be to high a number to be replaced by breeding pairs given the number of Cranes that exist at the present time.