IS RAISING PHEASANTS TO BE SHOT CONSERVATION?
Described in https://www.morningagclips.com/day-old-pheasant-chick-program/ as: The Day-Old Pheasant Chick Program is a conservation program aimed at increasing pheasant populations for the benefit of hunting, birdwatching, and youth development. (Courtesy Photo)
In a press release sent by the NYS DEC at the end of January, the first two paragraphs read, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos today announced that applications are now available for DEC’s cooperative Day-Old Pheasant Chick Program, which allows people to participate in raising and releasing pheasants to enhance the State’s fall hunting opportunities. The program is provided through DEC’s partnership with hunters, 4-H youth, and interested landowners.
“Pheasant hunting has a long history in New York and remains popular among hunters,” Commissioner Seggos said.
“The Day-Old Pheasant Chick Program is a great way to experience the outdoors and raise pheasants while providing hunters with the opportunity to learn about animal husbandry.”
For their full press release, view: https://www.dec.ny.gov/press/124653.html
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The League of Humane Voters®/NY sent the following letter to key legislators:
While the background below may seem like a digression, it’s vital to understanding the entity behind the program that encourages families to raise pheasants for hunting. We trust it will provide insight into the diabolical program that is now being encouraged by the Bureau of Wildlife via the DEC.
If one were to look at an organizational chart of the DEC, it would take a while to find the Bureau of Wildlife (BOW). At some point it would be seen under the Division of Wildlife and not given much thought. Yet, it is the bureau that encourages the raising of pheasant chicks to be shot by those who have a hunting permit.
BOW needs to be identified as it remains largely out of sight and protected from scrutiny.
BOW’s primary purpose is to manage wild animals for hunting. Killing animals for “sport” is not only fun and games for less than 3% of New York’s population; it’s serious business that works hand-in-glove with the firearms industry. BOW is the government entity that the firearms industry funds to increase wildlife populations and provide hunting opportunity. At the same time, hunters, through their purchase of firearms and ammunition, bows and arrows, and crossbows and bolts, increase the revenue of the weapons industry. Yet, BOW remains in the shadows as the DEC serves to shine a positive light on their activity without ever mentioning the bureau. BOW who?
The inextricable relationship between BOW and the firearms industry came about after the Pittman-Robertson Act of 1937 was approved by Congress. The P-R Act placed a dedicated excise tax on “sporting” firearms and ammunition; The Act was later amended to include bows and arrows, and crossbows and bolts. Game divisions in all states receive an apportionment of the weapons excise tax based on the number of hunting permits they sell and their physical size. In case it was missed, legal “sporting” weapons in New York include semi-automatic handguns and rifles, such as AR-15s. In NY, semiautomatic rifles were considered to be “safer” allowing a mere seven bullets to be shot in quick succession rather than thirty.
We are unaware of any other division of government that is in a self-serving relationship with a private industry, whose purpose is to benefit less than 3% of the NY public that in turn benefits the industry.
In 2020, BOW’s P-R apportionment was close to 16 million dollars – not one penny of which benefits the general public. The P-R Act requires that the apportionment be used solely to manage wildlife for hunting. Hunting in turn requires the purchase of firearms and ammo, bows and arrows, and crossbows and bolts, thus increasing the profits of the firearms industry.
Firearms excise taxes function differently from other excise taxes. In contrast, the excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco contribute to the General Fund. A humorous analogy to the BOW model would be a Bureau of Smoking that receives funding from cigarette manufacturers in order to encourage more smoking so that this circular economy can continue its self-serving partnership. How long would the public tolerate it?
LOHV/NY is asking for transparency of this government entity that remains hidden within the DEC. In addition to exposing BOW’s activities, the public should know if the General Fund contributes to BOW’s self-serving goals.
Using children and families to raise pheasants to be shot, while shocking to most New Yorkers, is “nothing new,” according to Reynold’s Game Farm, owned by BOW. They say that pheasant rearing by families has been going on for about 100 years. It’s “tradition”! But what’s new is that it’s just getting noticed!
BOW’s diabolical program at Reynold’s Game Farm (owned by BOW) may be shut down thanks to a bill introduced by Assembly member Linda Rosenthal who sponsored A01388. This bill “prohibits the state’s participation in artificial pheasant propagation activities; closes any state-owned or operated pheasant production facility.”
Thinking ahead, BOW has decided to emulate and promote the 4-H model of having children raise animals and then turn them over for eventual slaughter.
… And how does this affect children? An excellent article can be found here: https://sentientmedia.org/ when-4-h-kids-choose-sanctuary-over-slaughter/
LOHV®/NY believes that while the New York public will accept raising animals for food, it’s unlikely that the public would view raising pheasant chicks for the pleasure of killing them in the same light. Add to that the realization that it enhances the profits of the firearms industry, and the program becomes totally repugnant. Nor would most New Yorkers agree that putting firearms into the hands of 12-year-olds is a normal “sport.” And for what purpose? To teach children that killing is fun? That they are serving the noble purpose of “restoring” wildlife? Using such terms as “conservation” in this context brings disgrace to the term itself, and I daresay to the DEC.
… And what about the birds themselves? Imagine the suffering of wounded birds who may not have been hit with shot in a vital organ and will continue to survive into the winter months when finally, and pain- fully, they succumb to the elements. And that is not even the end of the nightmare, those birds in the process of dying are predated upon by birds of prey, and the pheasants who have died become carrion for vultures or other wildlife, then predators of those animals become lead-poisoned. Ask wildlife rehabilitators how heartbreaking it is to watch raptors die from lead poisoning. And what does all of the lead shot that is scattered onto the land year after year do to ground wa ter and food for both wildlife and humans?
“Restoration” in wildlife management lingo does not mean bringing back endangered species, rather it means annually restoring the decimated populations caused by hunting in order to have sufficient victims for the following hunting season! Hunting of any species cannot be sustained without creating new victims.
The irony is that the DEC’s mission statement and goal are:
To conserve, improve and protect New York’s natural resources and environment and to prevent, abate and control water, land and air pollution, in order to enhance the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state and their overall economic and social well-being.
DEC’s goal is to achieve this mission through the simultaneous pursuit of environmental quality, public health, economic prosperity and social well-being, including environmental justice and the empowerment of individuals to participate in environmental decisions that affect their lives.
While noble in theory, we ask how the DEC’s advocacy of producing pheasants, non-native birds, for hunters, as well as the unloading of lead shot into the environment for hunters’ enjoyment and recreation can be reconciled with their mission.
Ensconced within the DEC, BOW remains largely under cover and protected from scrutiny. It’s difficult to get detailed reports of funding, but we have to assume that BOW is provided with taxpayer funding, if only for their costly overhead, advertising, promotion, legal costs, etc.
LOHV/NY urges full transparency of all funding that BOW receives and how it is used. We also urge transparency of other DEC divisions that serve the purpose of BOW while serving their own.
We ask the DEC to discontinue BOW’s program of using children and families to raise pheasants for the killing as it is incompatible with their mission and the sensibilities and ethics of most New Yorkers.
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To see more about pheasant hunting:
If you have the stomach for it, here is a video of how it’s done:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNpRAaTyhrc&list=RDCMUCm3af9XtbGdk_TiQy1mYvbw