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On Thursday, March 5, my close friend and former president of the Texas Deer Association, Jimmy Hasslocher, and I parted his house in San Antonio at 5 a.m. for Dallas, Texas to attend the 23rd annual NADEFA (North American Deer Farmers Association) conference. As a biologist. I simply wanted to learn more about the association, its members, and more importantly get a look at some of those huge racks I hear so much about developing in breeding facilities across the northern U. S.
While walking around looking at hundreds of shoulder and full body whitetail mounts demonstrating some exceptional taxidermy work, I failed to see what most of us would refer to as a normal-sized rack. The booths were decorated with whitetails exhibiting racks of unreal proportions.
One of the Amish individuals I visited from Ohio had a buck he nicknamed Lil Bear, on display with a rack of surreal proportions; he thought it would score around 450 inches, and I couldn’t question his estimate because it was the largest set of antlers I have ever seen on a whitetail deer. It’s hard to believe a whitetail can develop a rack of such proportions when one considers the fact that a free- ranging bull elk with 360 inches of antler qualifies for the Boone and Crockett Record Book.
Virtually all participants were licensed deer breeders from across the U.S.; Texas actually has the largest number of licensed breeders with Pennsylvania second. As I walked around filming those incredibly large, aberrant-sized racks, I couldn’t help but wonder just how big those racks can get in the future.
While at the convention, I attended a meeting in which I was privileged to meet Charly Seale, Texas rancher and executive director of the Texas Exotic Association. Charley was actually the principal speaker at the particular meeting. The intent of his presentation was to unite the hunting community to combat the various anti-hunting groups such as the Humane Society, which have an insatiable desire to stop hunting of particular African ungulates now residing in Texas.
Their most recent attack focused on the hunting of three African species that are hunted on Texas ranches--the addax, dama gazelle, and the scimitar-horned Oryx--all three of which are endangered in Africa, but all are thriving in Texas. Not only are these animals doing well, their populations in Texas exceed what exists of these animals in Africa.
On Sunday, January 29, 2012, CBS’s number one news show, ’60 Minutes’, interviewed Priscilla Feral, president of Friends of Animals, on her association’s concern for these species. Feral, who declared a victory winning the case to defend the three-hoofed ungulates under the Endangered Species Act, is adamantly opposed to hunting these animals in Texas where exotics are classified as livestock and considered private property.
One of the other participants in this interview was Charly Seale, whom emphatically and correctly stated that the animals of concern are doing well in Texas. He also correctly stated that the continued proliferation of these animals on Texas ranches relies on the fact that they are commercially sport hunted, representing a significant monetary value to landowners. And like all species of wildlife, as long as they are valued by sportsmen enjoying their pursuit, they will be managed and sustained.
In other words, the complete protection of these animals as an endangered species will result in a reduction in their numbers as Texas ranchers managing hunting operations can only afford to provide food, cover, and water to those species that can help them to financially insure their way of life.
Feral’s unyielding desire to have these animals protected could actually prove to be their decimation in Texas.
Feral almost religiously defends her stance on protecting these three animals, but there appears to be no real altruistic intent for the animals in her statement that she would rather have the animals go extinct before they are allowed to be hunted on Texas ranches.
It’s obvious that anti-hunters will not be satisfied until all hunting is stopped. But the fact is, North American game has flourished to the envy of the world because of sportsmen and the substantial funds generated by their activities, which are dedicated to research and management of all wildlife. |