The Truth About Guns, Safety, And Government Collusion To Keep The $ Rolling In

It has been said that absolute power corrupts absolutely. The litmus test for this caliber of sleaze can be found in the half-lies regularly spun by the Ohio Division of Wildlife (ODOW). Always one step ahead of its critics, while conning the public at large, our state wildlife agency’s officials take whole truths and twists them to suit their murder for profit agenda. 

Perfect example: The Public Trust Doctrine clearly states “wildlife belongs to everyone.” But ODOW’s darling director, Zehringer, who recently rebutted North Royalton Mayor Stefanik’s claim that the state is responsible for deer management because ODOW de facto owns deer, now routinely bastardizes the spirit and essence of the Doctrine. Zehringer says that the Public Trust means individuals can do whatever they want with animals on their land. Yet, in reality, private hunters, who comprise only six percent of the population, cannot be considered a Public Trust majority. And it is funds in the form of hunting licenses that keep the ODOW in operation. This, in combination with national and metro parks slaughters pressuring herds to seek refuge in suburban areas and the deliberate maintenance of large herds profit since 1950, has created a monster the ODOW cannot contain. And the old model of "hunting as conservation/hunting as control" is not working, but actually backfiring on the majority and Ohio's deer. 

Follow the money.

Look no further than the Division’s own publication, Wild Ohio Magazine, in which the following appears: “The Ohio Division of Wildlife is still funded by annual hunting, trapping, and fishing license sales . . .  Additional funding for conservation also comes into Ohio in the form of federal aid reimbursement from an excise tax on hunting . . . This excise tax [Pittman-Robertson Act] has been in place for 75 years, and is based on a user pay, public benefit concept.” Really? When 94% of the population doesn't hunt, or doesn't like it, how does that benefit the public? 

If THE PUBLIC were to truly benefit, the state would: educate THE PUBLIC to encourage large-scale browsing and natural landscaping that international biologists now recognize as beneficial for ecosystems, rather than pretending to “manage” large herds for profit in suburban and PUBLIC settings; promote PUBLIC wildlife viewing and photography/art rather than killing; incorporate systematic birth control where viable in PUBLIC and park areas; reduce vehicle-deer collisions (DVCs) by eliminating hunting near PUBLIC roads since the largest insurance carriers’ data still show the highest number of DVCs occur on the first day of hunting because frightened deer run into PUBLIC roadways; work with individuals and PUBLIC-INTEREST groups and diverse stakeholders to explore biological (not cultural or subjective/perceived) carrying capacity instead of the outdated, self-serving “hunting as conservation” model in urban AND PUBLIC areas; an ODOW board of directors representing majority PUBLIC stakeholders, and diverse funding sources instead of hunter-funding; and total PUBLIC transparency and oversight. 

Regarding this penultimate point, the ODOW board of directors currently consists of hunters, so members should be replaced with PUBLIC-MINDED, accountable officials who seek non-lethal deer and other wildlife management best practices. 

If reform doesn’t happen, then, as the Ohio Wild Magazine states, “Federal funding for Ohio’s fish and wildlife [will continue to be] apportioned, in part, based on how many fishing and hunting licenses are purchased. The more licenses that are purchased, the more money comes back to Ohio.” 

According to Peter Mueller’s article “Time for a New Look at the Distribution of the Excise Tax on Guns and Ammunition,” published in C.A.S.H. (Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting) Courier, Mueller writes, “We should realize that over time an activity can change from meriting encouragement from our society-at-large to needing discouragement . . . Let us instead consider the diversion of these funds away from compensating the victims for injuries sustained [resulting from the purchase of weapons] from the use of firearms and ammunition.” 

Mueller goes on to cite the number of homicides, accidents, and suicides resulting from firearms, adding, “The monies derived from firearms and ammunition that went into the dedicated Pittman-Robertson fund amounted to about $400,000,000 in 2010 . . . Had that money been used to compensate the victims of the use of firearms[,] each victim would have received $4,695 . . . That amount will barely pay for the funeral expense . . . It seems only fair . . . that the federal excise collected be used to partially compensate the victims of firearms use instead of promoting the expansion.” 

We see it every night on the evening news. Someone, somewhere, is shot and killed. But why should it be any other way, when people kill millions of wild beings every year for “sport?” 

Lucy McKernan

Animals first.

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Volume 7, Issue 5, Posted 8:28 AM, 05.01.2015