[BCNnet] DNR pheasant hunts

[Anderson, Jill]

Editorial in today's 11/3/04 Chicago Tribune (below)::
Jill Anderson, River Forest, IL
ja at psych dot uic dot edu
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Illinois' pheasant hunt a cruel, expensive waste 
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By Wayne Pacelle
November 3, 2004
For some, the crisp air of autumn is a harbinger of apples and pumpkins, of
Halloween and Thanksgiving. But in the 16-gauge, double-barreled world of
upland bird hunting, as choreographed by the Illinois Department of Natural
Resources, the change of seasons is just a signal that it's time once again
to truck boxes of pen-raised pheasants out to public lands to serve as
animated targets. The factorylike production of birds passes for "resource
management," and the easy shots they provide pass for "sportsmanship."
Pheasant hunting hasn't always been this way. Where appropriate habitat
exists, these exotic birds have a chance to forage, breed and evade
predators and shotguns alike. Illinois' put-and-take hunt, however, is a
pathetic blend of factory farming and canned hunting. There's no sport
involved. In fact, the whole venture serves no legitimate public purpose at
all. It's just a boondoggle for the state's limited number of pheasant
hunters.
Illinois is one of 13 states that plant public lands with pheasants produced
in large flocks like broiler chickens. Annually, these states breed or
purchase three-quarters of a million pen-raised birds for this form of
put-and-take hunting. Thousands more are bred for use as live targets at
private shooting preserves, where they are sometimes tossed from high towers
toward shotgunners arrayed below.
Far from providing a challenging hunt, pen-raised pheasants provide little
more than live target practice. And stocking them is an expensive,
money-losing endeavor. Illinois spends more than $500,000 on its state
pheasant farm each year. If we take pheasant hunters' success rates from
elsewhere and figure in the number of birds killed versus those that succumb
to starvation or predators, the cost of pheasant meat provided by the state
of Illinois exceeds $10 per pound, versus a retail cost of $2 to $4 per
pound at a butcher.
As matters stand, Illinois' pheasant stocking program is a huge waste of
life, even before the shooting starts. A week after release, according to
Bird Dog & Retriever News, some 40 percent of the birds will have starved to
death or been killed by predators. After a month, this mortality will reach
75 percent. By the end of hunting season, only a small percentage will have
fallen to a well-aimed wad of shot. A scant 5 percent will make it through
the winter.
In places like North Dakota, where suitable habitat sustains generations of
pheasants, a single male will defend a handful of females and a territory of
several acres. But intense confinement facilities, like Illinois' state game
farm, cram as many as 66,000 birds into just a dozen acres of pens. To
prevent them from injuring each other, managers fit birds with "pick guards"
clipped to their mandibles--usually blue for cocks and pink for hens--which
act like horse blinders. Or, they remove the tips of their beaks with a hot
knife--the same cruel practice of "debeaking" suffered by millions of
factory-farmed chickens.
Wild birds learn predator-avoidance behavior from mother hens, but these
farmed pheasants possess few survival skills. They are products of the pen,
not natural selection. The birds become habituated to humans who have fed
them since hatching, and they can take up to three weeks to learn to forage
effectively--during which time they may starve or become food for coyotes,
foxes and birds of prey.
In defense of Illinois' controlled pheasant hunt, the director of the DNR
wrote, "It is imperative in these times of resource decline and budget
constraints that conservationists of all types find areas of commonality." I
couldn't agree more. From a taxpayer's perspective, the resources squandered
by the state in running its own pheasant farm represent money down the
drain. Moreover, it's appalling to watch an agency entrusted with protecting
wild animals actually finance a factory farm-style facility. The funds would
be far better spent restoring habitat and native species. Pheasant stocking
is a complete waste of tax dollars and a sorry excuse for sportsmanship.
This year's ritual of stocking and killing should be Illinois' last.
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Wayne Pacelle is the chief executive officer of the Humane Society of the
United States, the nation's largest animal protection organization.
Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune