Has Our Government Declared War On Wildlife?
My rendition of the good old days may only be appreciated by those who have harvested wild game for over 50 years and noticed the ushering in of the new norm.
In 1979, hoof disease in elk started in Boistfort Valley, Washington, and has now spread into other states with no solution on the horizon.
The deer and elk population suffers from Blue Tongue and Chronic Wasting disease, which started in Colorado in 1981.
Hair loss syndrome of black-tailed deer caused by a heavy infestation of Eurasian lice was reported in Western Washington in 1995.
Since the early 1990s, heart-lung disease of herds in the Hells Canyon / Blue Mountains region of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho have been affected. In 2009, I drew a special hunt big-horn sheep tag in the Yakima Canyon unit of Washington state. During my six days of hunting, I saw over 200 sheep every day and successfully harvested a ram that scored #4 at that time. If you go to the same unit today, you will be hard-pressed to find more than 20 sheep.
Wild turkey numbers have recently fallen by over 30% in several states with no known cause.
Predators have also taken a toll on our wild game. Black bears, wolves, coyotes, mountain lions, and grizzly bears are known to attack the old and weak. They also consider newborn calves and fawns for the premier meal of their entree.
The federal government plans to establish a population of 25 grizzly bears in the north cascades of Washington state.
On December 5, 1996, Washington state banned the use of hounds to hunt bears, cougars, bobcats, or lynx.
The state of Oregon started killing barred owls in July of 2021. Not to be outdone, Washington state, under the guidelines of The US Fish and Wildlife Service, wants to enlist shooters to kill more than 500,000 barred owls for the preservation of spotted owls.
Is a political adjunct heavily weighted in favor of predators coming into play? Are the gun grabbers trying to stifle a long heritage of harvesting wild game for subsistence to remove more roadblocks against our Second Amendment rights? Is our government trying to ensure our only food source comes from the grocery store? Could pesticides contribute to the decline of our wildlife population? Eschatology also plays a role as a pre-tribulation sign of things to come.
It’s clear there are more questions than answers. Most of you will only give a pinch of salt about this as less than 3% of you hunt in Washington state. Some others won’t care because this has not affected you yet. In the meantime, perhaps Br’er Rabit is willing to represent his wildlife friends in a class action suit of discrimination. Maybe the barred owl community will declare war crimes against the government. Why isn’t People For Ethical Treatment Of Animals (PETA) all over this?
Merry Christmas and best wishes in 2024!
Bob Bozarth
Chehalis Washington.
