Antis at it again. Lions and Bears.

[zackcarp]

I was surfing Social Media and saw a guy post about antis sending comments into AZGDF to end the legal take of Lions, Bobcats, and Bears. Apparently a game warden got up at the NWTF meeting made the comment, and that there has been 0 input to keep them. Obviously we don't ever think about submitting comments to keep something we already have but might be worth it to take some time to submit one.

[trphyhntr]

from the article I saw on FB

“At a recent National Turkey Foundation zoom meeting Amber Munig, Arizona Game and Fish Department Game Branch Chief said that the Department is getting a great deal of comments lately concerning taking away the legal hunting of lions, bobcat and bear.  On the other hand, she said there have been NO comments from the hunting/conservation community in favor of keeping it the way it is.”

 

Saw this and I’m gonna ask the same thing here. Why is azgfd saying that that lion hunters didn’t come out to say they like lion hunting. Am I supposed to be writing in every year, letting them know I want to keep deer hunting? 

[daryl_s]

How can they say we aren’t speaking up on supporting lion and bear hunting?!?! All they should need to do is pull up the number of tags sold. Don’t almost all deer and elk hunters buy a lion tag every year? I do, as well as everyone I know who hunts. 

[zackcarp]

Yeah, exactly. Not to include the science of not managing predators alone. It would still behoove us to make a comment and add that onto it.

[galiuro mountain man]

It has nothing to do with lions or bears.  It's all about stopping any hunting. 

[AZBIG10]

Seems like an obvious rebuttal as stated above to provide the amount of tags purchased that would correlate with hunter support.

interesting that amber didn’t utilize these figures when responding. I feel like hunters got thrown under the bus on this topic not intentionally but the fact that they got major dollars from all the bear and lion tags purchases how can they not acknowledge that fact. 
 

 

 

[AZBIG10]

1 hour ago, trphyhntr said:

from the article I saw on FB

“At a recent National Turkey Foundation zoom meeting Amber Munig, Arizona Game and Fish Department Game Branch Chief said that the Department is getting a great deal of comments lately concerning taking away the legal hunting of lions, bobcat and bear.  On the other hand, she said there have been NO comments from the hunting/conservation community in favor of keeping it the way it is.”

 

Saw this and I’m gonna ask the same thing here. Why is azgfd saying that that lion hunters didn’t come out to say they like lion hunting. Am I supposed to be writing in every year, letting them know I want to keep deer hunting? 

Maybe on the tags they should add with the “not valid until signed” line item they should put a little “upon purchasing this tag you agree to restore the heritage of hunting and continue to support the pursue of wild game of the species contained therein”

[AZBIG10]

So when this issue arises they have this attested statement from 22,000 applicants

[Newbie2012]

That’s a strange statement from Amber Munig. Are we suppose to comment every year on every species they manage? 

They keep terrible records, at least for easy public view. The most recent hunt survey report from 2018 shows lion tags have increased substantially. I think that pretty much shows continuing interest. 

[LifeFeedsOnLife]

This is because the comment period for hunting guidelines is right now. It happens every 5 years I believe. I watched a lot of the last commission meeting and there were tons of antis calling in and no hunters really.  Unfortunately this is becoming the norm and we may all have to step up. Everyone should definitely send an email in support. 

[Newbie2012]

2 minutes ago, LifeFeedsOnLife said:

This is because the comment period for hunting guidelines is right now. It happens every 5 years I believe. I watched a lot of the last commission meeting and there were tons of antis calling in and no hunters really.  Unfortunately this is becoming the norm and we may all have to step up. Everyone should definitely send an email in support. 

Ok, with context, that makes sense. 

[JSR]

So they admit they base wildlife management on the types and numbers of emails they get? 
 

 

[Flatlander]

Public agencies who manage public resources are required to have a formal process for public input. If the anti’s flood the public comment process with requests to end lion, bear and bobcat hunting then if the department doesn’t consider those comments, the anti’s can sue the department on some liberal court and object to the policies, taking wildlife management away from science and into politics.

Amber was likely doing hunters a favor by speaking up in a meeting with a well organized sportsmen group who could mount a response.

Email your pro hunting comments here:

AZHuntGuidelines@azgfd.gov

[runningbird]

sorry to say, but hunters and fisherman in general are lazy when it comes to the political part of our sport.  We would rather spend our precious free time outdoors.  On the other hand the anti's love and spend their time fighting for what they want or believe in.  

 

[AZAV8ER]

10 hours ago, Flatlander said:

Public agencies who manage public resources are required to have a formal process for public input. If the anti’s flood the public comment process with requests to end lion, bear and bobcat hunting then if the department doesn’t consider those comments, the anti’s can sue the department on some liberal court and object to the policies, taking wildlife management away from science and into politics.

Amber was likely doing hunters a favor by speaking up in a meeting with a well organized sportsmen group who could mount a response.

Email your pro hunting comments here:

AZHuntGuidelines@azgfd.gov

Thank you FlatLander, I just emailed in my support for hunting. Hope other do the same. Get involved or get railroaded by anti's.