I don' t hunt moose or elk: I hunt goats and pigs here in Hawaii and both breed year round so you can always find mammas with babys. After a while you get to being able to tell if the babys are old enough to survive without the mom.

With feral goats, I do not shoot nannys with young babys. Only if it' s a big nanny with an older baby, around 20 pounds will I consider shooting a mamma. Any smaller than that and the bond between mamma and baby is still really strong. Still it' s not for everyone as it can be sad watching the baby looking for it' s mamma. I usually only take a mamma if im having a bad day and couldn' t get any other goat. I guess I should mention that the place I' m hunting has a huge overpopulation of goats so we have a very good chance of taking 2 goats in a day for meat.

Pig' s are somewhat different. It' s not very often that I get a pig with bow down here (maybe twice a year) and if I get a chance at a sow with piglets, I will take it so long as the piglets are at least ten pounds at which age, they should easily survive. Any smaller and I will let them go. But I will not hesitate to shoot any baby pig over 25 pounds. [>:]

I can' t answer this question since I' ve never had the chance to ever draw a cow moose tag up here![:@] But if I' m lucky enough to draw a cow tag for the areas that I applied for this year, then no, I wouldn' t shoot a cow that had a calf with her.

I believe if I had to hunt goats an' pigs, I' d hang my rifles up fer good. My condolences.

Well lets see the Ontario general moose lic. is for a calf only by default. You draw for bull or cow. Now if my camp had 1 cow tag and the rest of the members had all calf tags,, theyd both be harvested!

Nice way to refer to the ethical harvesting of game animals. Yer the kind thet PETA jus' loves to portray as the norm for hunters. No wonder we can' t count on hunting into the next generation.

BeaverJack what is your problem. The MNR in Ontario grant all hunters the opertunity for taking a calf when you buy a licience. They also go over all the data when they let hand out all the cow tags and bull tags. In Ontario you are not allowed to just shoot a cow, you have to have a coe tag which is alotted by the MNR.

About shooting a mama, I would with no problem. My reasoning is this. If the calf, fawn was still small enough to still need the MAMA, then the chances are that the BABY will not survive the winter here anyway. If it is a cow moose, the calf will be shot anyway if the hunter is in a hunting group (group hunting is premitted in Ontario, others in your group are able to fill anothers tag).

If you think my comment is sensitive to the hunting family (giving peta fuel for fights) then think of a small baby fighting the winters trying to survive. You know how nature is run, ONLY THE STRONGEST SURVIVE !!!!!!

You posed the question, I answerred it HONESTLY! If you were so worried about PETA why did you ask the question?? that was a possible answer! Ive read your posts for about a year now and im really starting to think you are PETA. you do nothing but criticize others morals and integrity or how they hunt. well guess what,,, I couldnt give a damn what you think!

If anyone in my group of 10 sights a cow and a calf together, and we have a cow tag in the group they both go. PERIOD.

SwampThing and GrumpyTom I think BeaverJack was referring to the term " butchered" in SwampThing' s post. I think he is eluding to the fact that you should use a different term for taking animals.

Yeppers to thet. I unnerstand some folks thinkin' thet a critter can survive even though his mama' s still wet. I ain' t sure I buy it, but I DO take offense at those hunters perpetuatin' the stereotype thet huntin' is unwholesome and somehow indicative of facination with violence. Butcherin' ain' t what you do in combat or while huntin' . If ethics don' t guide you in these realms, then you are everthin' the antis make us all out to be. I' ve seed the handiwork of the slaughterhouse mentality. Ever year people shoot up herds by indiscriminate shootin' , kill multiple bulls to cream the rack they want, an' wound animals by exceedin' the range of their skill level. I got no tolerance fer such disregard for MY and my chilrin' s right to hunt.

OK I should have used a different word,, but I was referring to the processing of meat,, not wholesale slaughter. And yes I still say both animals would be harvested.

I apologize if I ruffled some feathers and I know I have. But when other people start questioning my ethics well lets just say I do not put up with it. I have thrown guys out of my camp at 1:30am just for saying lets grab a gun and a spotlight. They didnt do it,, just suggested it!!