October 14, 2024 • 22 mins
This week, Cal talks about why whacking a cat with a shovel doesn't count as an attack, an epic double-cross by the state of Montana as it angles to develop and sell state-own lands, wildlife crime, and so much more.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Calai. Here's cal.
The Russian military is claiming to have sent two wolves
to the front lines of the war against Ukraine to
help troops identify suicide drones before they get too close.
The wolves were supposedly trained by a famous wolf tamer
(00:33):
named Alexander Konkakov, who says he got the wolves as
puppies from hunters who found them without a mother. He
trained them to be around people, and the troops who
have worked with the animals say they are sociable and smart,
and their sharp ears can hear drones coming well before
the soldiers camp. This story was first reported by a
Russian news agency, and it's since been picked up by
(00:53):
outlets like The Daily Mail and the US Sun. It
hasn't been independently verified, and I think you'd be right
to be more than a little skeptical that the Russians
are actually sending wolves into war zones. A zoologist writing
for the BBC reports that wolves can be domesticated if
trained from puppies, but it seems like it'd be a
heck of a lot easier to train a German shepherd
(01:13):
or Malinwoi or some breed that just kind of does
this stuff for militaries across the world. If you search
on the Google machine, you'll find some articles that say
wolves have better hearing than a domesticated dog, But I
wasn't able to find any scholarly sources that quantify the
hearing ability of dogs versus wolves. It's pretty well accepted
that dogs can detect quieter sounds more easily than humans,
(01:36):
and they can hear sounds at much higher frequencies. Dogs
can hear up to forty five thousand herts, while humans
can only hear up to about twenty three thousand herts.
This means that a dog will be able to hear
a higher pitch sound that no human could ever hear,
such as the high frequency sounds omitted by drones. If
electronic detection methods are unavailable, a dog might be a
(01:58):
pretty good early warning system. But I really doubt a
wolf is going to do that much better than the
breeds already being used by the Russian military. This week,
we've got lions, legislation, snort report, wildlife crime, and so
much more. But first I'm going to tell you about
my week and my week well, a lot's happening first
(02:19):
and top of my mind. My beloved home state of
Montana is not listening to the majority of Montana's instead
favoring the ideals of Utah representatives. Montana Department of Natural
Resources and Conservation just rolled out their analysis of state
LANs that could be developed and sold to the highest bidder. Currently,
(02:39):
Montana owns five point two million acres of state trust lands.
The DNRC analysis is currently limited to areas surrounding Billings, Kalispell, Whitefish, Missoula,
and the Gallatin Valley, which are our major population centers
in the state. The goal of this analysis is to
address the affordable housing scenario here in Montana, which, if
(03:00):
you pay attention to national housing trends, is not good.
In fact, Montana was recently named the least affordable state
to purchase a home by the National Board of Realtors.
This plan assumes that by leasing state lands to developers
and then selling the developed state acres, the state would
make a hell of a chunk of change, and bang,
all of these properties would provide affordable housing for those
(03:23):
who really need it. Oddly enough, this plan also includes
commercial building, so you know it's outside of the commercial
percentage of building that would be allowed on state lands.
Then that stuff would then go to people who need
affordable housing. Right for all you big government folks out there,
I'm sure you'd be willing to trust the state government
(03:46):
to determine who needs affordable housing, who gets affordable housing,
make sure those contractors are on the up and up
piece of cake. I'm sure you know my opinion on this.
Just another example of short term gains. The Montana line
and grab is on, which brings me to the Snort report.
We are way behind in our upland bird adventures this year.
(04:08):
Ol Snort has been basically a house dog, like a
high school graduate who hasn't gotten that full time job
or is waiting on higher education or something. She has activities,
a routine, but you wouldn't call her productive. But this
past weekend we finally got out and what did we do?
We hit state trust lands and block management areas for
(04:30):
our walks. It was still a little warm for the
yellow dog, but we covered ground and found several covees
a day. I really have zero complaints on the little
girl's end, but I will tell you my epic fail.
On the last hunt before turning for home. It was hot,
and much to my surprise, the spot I picked on
the map, which is all State trust land and far
(04:52):
from farms or roads, was full of pheasants. I love
nothing more than finding roosters in a spot that liked
won't get destroyed the first weekend of the season, so
this was an awesome discovery. But at the same time,
pheasants were not open, and with Snort's prey drive and
the heat, I had to call her back and we
(05:12):
walked with the wind to our back towards the truck.
I was a little bummed that the cocks were not huns.
It would have been great to reward some really good
dog work with the Retriever two. But it was a
great morning. Nonetheless, about three hundred yards between the truck
and us was a thick brushy hole, a spot that
just screamed pheasants, and sure enough Snort did her tailtale,
(05:36):
Holy cow, get ready, there's birds right here. Move, which
is forgetting her front feet. She literally forgets that she's
got her front feet. The smell of birds so close
to this dog actually lifts Snort into the air. I
think unknowing to her, she walks on her hind legs,
her front half, literally being carried by the strength of
(05:58):
the scent. That's how you know for certain there's birds
right there. I stood and watched this site, a site
which I have come to love, honestly, not only love,
but be jealous of. Are any of us gun tote
and humans capable of being carried that way so charged
by a passion that it carries us or half of us? Anyway? Then,
(06:24):
to my horror, a flock of Hungarian partridge between like
twelve and fifteen birds a big covey erupted from what
should have been a pheasant hole, some within range even
but my shotgun was at my side instead of on
my shoulder. Good girl, bad hunting partner. Moving on to
the lion desk, a Colorado man killed a mountain lion
(06:48):
with a shovel last week in what officials say was
self defense. Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in the press
release that the man was sitting outside his jeep at
a campground west of Canyon City when a mountain lion
approached him and his dog. The dog started to bark
and growl at the cat, which turned out to be
a female cougar weighing about ninety five pounds. When the
lion got within about ten feet of the dog, the
(07:10):
husky ran out and the pair started fighting. Not wanting
to risk his dog getting injured or killed, the man
grabbed a shovel and whacked the cat on the head.
That was enough to kill it, and investigators who arrived
on the scene confirmed that the man acted in self defense.
They say the cat was being unusual and extremely aggressive,
possibly due to injuries discovered during the nekruptcy. The lion
(07:33):
had sustained an injury on its front right paw and
scratches on its back. It's possible these injuries had made
it difficult to hunt and it became desperate, though that
hasn't been confirmed. Interestingly, Colorado Parks and Wildlife says this
instant does not count as a mountain lion attack because
the human involved was never touched and did not sustain
any injuries. Boy, that's a huge ego shot to this dude.
(07:57):
That decision might make some Colorado and scratch their heads.
CPW assures residents that they have only recorded twenty five
lion attacks since nineteen ninety. But you gotta wonder about
those numbers. If this is how they define an attack,
it seems like if the man acted in self defense,
he was by definition being attacked anyway. This incident, which
(08:18):
has been widely covered in the media as well as
over at the meat eater dot Com, comes just a
month before color Adams will decide whether to ban lion
hunting in the state. Opponents of the ban say that
hunting reduces the prevalence of these kinds of attacks since
it makes cats more afraid of humans. If this cat
had been previously chased and tried by a pack of hounds,
you can bet it wouldn't approach a barking dog at
(08:40):
a campground. That being said, I don't think that's the
best reason to oppose the ban. It's hard to judge
whether hunting has a large scale influence on lion attacks
since those attacks are extremely rare. To begin with, A
more convincing argument for you color Adams hoping to convince
your family and neighbors to vote against Prop One two
seven is that lions are already doing just fine in
(09:02):
the centennial state. The population has grown from almost nothing
in the sixties to almost four thousand cats and managed
hunting isn't a threat to that population. Trophy hunting is
already illegal since hunters are required to harvest the meat,
and hunting with hounds allows hunters to target older males
rather than breeding age females. Lion attacks make the headlines,
(09:24):
but the real focus should be on the amazing work biologists, hunters,
and conservationists have done to save mountain lions in Colorado.
Moving on to the crime desk, three South Carolina men
died last week and another was shot in what the
media at first claimed was a dispute over hunting land,
(09:44):
but we reached out to one of the men who
was there who says that's not true at all. The
Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that
they received a call on September twenty seventh that multiple
people had been shot in some kind of confrontation that
occurred in a wooded area near the town of Woodruff.
When they arrived, they found three dead bodies and learned
(10:05):
that a fourth victim had already been transported to the hospital.
They said that once witnesses were separated and interviewed, it
appears this incident stemmed from quote a dispute overhoe had
permission to be on this particular piece of hunting land,
But one of the men who was there, a fellow
named Kyle Rains, describes a slightly different set of events
when we contacted him through the GoFundMe he had set up.
(10:27):
He says a group that included himself, his two best friends,
and their wives and kids had gone out on four
wheelers to survey the damage done by the recent hurricane.
None of them owned the property, but Kyle says they
had permission to be there. When they got there, they
found two suburbans parked at the top of the hill
and five people who claimed they were camping. They said
they had permission to camp on the land, but one
(10:49):
of them was carrying an ar style rifle. One of
Kyle's friends asked the man to put the rifle away
since there were kids present, but he didn't take kindly
to being told what to do, and they started struggling
over the gun. Another fella who was there pulled out
a handgun and shot one of Kyle's friends, and a
gunfight erupted. For those of you wondering, this is not
(11:10):
the way to get things done. This is a mediation fail.
In the end, three people lay dying on the ground
while Kyle and others tried to get help, but they
weren't able to get back in time, and all three died.
There's obviously way more to this story. I've only been
able to speak to one side of this altercation. We
could very well discover that Kyle and his friends were
(11:31):
in the wrong, and if drugs and alcohol weren't involved,
I'll eat my shirt. But whatever the fight was actually about,
it's a good reminder for those of us who frequently
run into strangers in the woods. You never know who
you're dealing with. Don't get into a fight, even if
you know you're right, Just walk away. There aren't many
things worth dying over, and as with this incident, things
(11:52):
can turn south in a hurry. Three Idaho hunting guides
have been hit with felony conspiracy charges and dozens of
Lacy Act violations for illegally guiding Mounta lion hunts and
then transporting those animals across state lines. Forty four year
old Chad Kuloh, forty four year old Andrea Major, and
(12:12):
forty seven year old Lavoy Linton are being accused of
guiding hunts independently of the licensed outfitting company they worked for.
They booked clients, accepted payment, and guided hunts in southeast
Idaho and Wyoming, which was illegal to do on their own.
Those hunts resulted in the kills of at least eleven
mount lions in Idaho and a Boone and Crockett record
mount lion in western Wyoming. To hide their crimes, they
(12:35):
also allegedly submitted false big game mortality reports with inaccurate
outfitter business information. Guiding independently of a licensed outfitter isn't great,
but their real troubles began when they started shipping the
lines across state lines. The Lacy Act was originally written
to stop the interstate trade of wildlife. It says that
if an animal has taken in violation of a state law,
(12:56):
it becomes a federal crime once that animal has moved
to a different state. In this case, lions killed during
the hunts were transported from National forest Land to or
from Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, Texas, and North Carolina.
If convicted, these three musketeers are facing a maximum of
five years in federal prison. A two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars fine and up to three years of supervised release.
(13:21):
Last one for you and thanks to everyone who sent
this in. You may remember back in episode two sixty,
we covered a story about a Montana man who'd been
charged with trying to create Frankensheet. This fella, an eighty
one year old named Jack Shubarth, had illegally imported the
testicles of a Marco Polo Urgali sheep from Kyrgyzstan. He
used that genetic material to create a Marco Polo clone,
(13:43):
which he dubbed Montana Mountain King. He then bred that
mail sheep with us and sold their offspring to hunting ranches.
Shoe Barth violated a variety of state and federal laws
during the course of this operation, and the Justice Department
announced last week that the man had been sentenced to
six months in prison. He's also being forced to pay
a twenty thousand dollars fine to the Lacy Act Reward Fund,
(14:05):
a four thousand dollars payment to the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation in a two hundred dollars special assessment. That's
what you get for being bad kids. What do you
think of that one? That's why they say if you
mess with the ram, you get the horns. That's hard
to be in the butt of a joke anyway. Moving
(14:26):
on to the constitutional amendment desk, Colorado isn't the only
state with a controversial hunting initiative on the ballot. In Florida,
residents will be asked to vote on Amendment two, which
would change the state constitution to include a right to
hunt and fish. Here is what the amendment would say
in full, quote, Fishing, hunting, and the taking of fish
(14:48):
and wildlife, including by the use of traditional methods, shall
be preserved forever as a public right and preferred means
of responsibly managing and controlling fish and wildlife. This section
does not limit the authority granted to the Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission under Section nine of Article four. Sounds
(15:09):
pretty simple, right, Not exactly. A coalition is formed to
encourage Floridians to vote down the amendment. These groups, which
include the Humane Society, Sierra Club, and Center for Biological Diversity,
take issue with the protection of traditional methods. This, they
say will open the door to cruel and inhumane hunting
tactics like steel jawed leg hold traps, baiting, hound hunting,
(15:31):
and even hunting with spears. They call these tactics outdated
and archaic, and they say contradict our quote evolved moral
compass and expanded sense of compassion. Problem is, even if
you agree that some of these methods are cruel and inhumane,
this amendment wouldn't legalize them. According to the groups behind
the amendment, which include Ducks Unlimited and the TRCP, traditional
(15:55):
methods means quote that which is legal at the time
of passage, so it would protect the status quo, but
it wouldn't legalize anything currently illegal in the Sunshine State.
Opposition groups make a few other arguments. They say this
amendment would allow hunters to trespass on private property to
hunt and fish. This might sound plausible, given that this
(16:17):
amendment would put hunting and fishing alongside things like free
speech in the state's constitution, but that's also a bad argument.
Constitutional rights are not unlimited. You can't break into someone's
house with the protest sign and claim to be exercising
your freedom of speech. In the same way, you can't
trespass on private property and then claim to be exercising
(16:37):
your right to hunt and fish. State laws that prohibit
trespass will still apply. After this amendment passes. Obviously, another argument,
which I think is more legitimate, is that this amendment
might undermine the authority of the state's Wildlife Commission. If
we oppose ballot box biology when it limits hunting rights,
we should also oppose it when it goes the other way.
(17:00):
But the authors of this amendment address that concern in
the final line that explicitly says the amendment does not
limit the authority granted to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Anyone who tries to use the right to hunt and
fish to disregard the Wildlife Commission will have a tough
time getting around this language. The good news for proponents
(17:22):
is that opposition doesn't seem to be getting much traction
with Florida voters. A poll taken in early September found
that eighty percent of Floridians support it, including eighty nine
percent of Republicans and seventy percent of Democrats. Considering the
fact that very small percentages of residents hunt or fish,
that's pretty darn good. It's also a testament to what
(17:42):
can happen when the outdoor community invests cold, hard cash
into one of these campaigns. According to Ballatipedia, Supporters of
Amendment Too have dropped over one million dollars, while opponents
have only spent about sixty grand. Those numbers don't take
into account the reach of groups like the Humane Society.
It still shows how important it is to throw a
(18:02):
couple bucks in the hat when an issue comes up
that you really care about. Moving on to the small
time conservation desk. Big conservation stories that involve millions of
acres get all the headlines, but it's the small decisions
made in towns and counties across the country that impact
the most people and wildlife. I know this because most
(18:23):
of the stories I received from you involved these small
time conservation victories and defeats. For example, listener Jerry Parkinson
sent me an article about a twenty three acre parcel
east of Vail, Colorado that has been the center of
a year's long controversy. A company called Veil Resorts owned
the property and they had planned to build workforce housing
on it, but the town's government condemned the property in
(18:46):
an effort to stop the project. They said they wanted
to protect a big horn sheep herd from being disturbed
by the ski company's housing. A legal battle ensued that
just recently came to an end in favor of the
town and those residents who opposed the building. Place Veil
Resorts agreed to abandon their development project in exchange for
the town's commitment to help the company build housing somewhere else.
(19:09):
Another public land controversy is playing out in Wyoming. This
one is far from over. In Albany County, the Forest
Service has approved a land swap agreement that would trade
one two hundred and ninety seven acres of public land
in the Green Mountain Area for eight hundred and four
acres in two parcels owned by the Bro Group, a
private investment company based in Denver. The Forest Service says
(19:31):
that swap would increase public access, but hunters and public
land advocates who spoke with the Cowboy State Daily argue
it's not a fair trade. They say those thirteen hundred
acres hold far more wildlife and habitat than the two
other parcels the Forest Service would receive. This area is
prime elk and bighorn cheap habitat, and losing it would
also restrict access to adjoining pieces of federal land. Critics
(19:55):
also say the Forest Service hasn't provided enough notice. The
public comment period took place April eighth to May eighth
of last year, and it sounds like not too many
people weighed in. The Forest Service is set to issue
a final decision over the next few months, which would
more or less seal the deal. But it's not over
till it's over. So if you live in Albany County,
(20:15):
Wyoming and enjoy hunting in this area, get in touch
with the Forest Service. This has become known as the
Britannia Land Exchange, so that's what you'll want a reference
in your comments. Big thanks to listener Jim Lane for
sending us this story. On the other end of the spectrum,
here's a positive story for you. I know you're thinking,
(20:36):
thank God about time something positive. This one sent in
by Tommy Lesher Thank camp. The Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission announced last month that it had added twelve thousand
acres of protected wetlands thanks to a private land incentive program.
The initiative, known as the AGFC Conservation Incentive Program, has
doled out over three point five million dollars to landowners
(20:59):
who have comitted to wetland improvements. According to Assistant Chief
of the AGFC, private Lands Habitat Division Randy Brents. The
agency is contracted with farmers to flood ten nine hundred
and sixty one acres of rice fields during a ninety
day portion of the waterfowl wintering period. None of those
acres will be tilled, which will leave as much waste
(21:20):
grain as possible for ducks and geese. In addition, another
nine hundred and ten acres of native wetland plants will
be flooded that can offer more benefit to waterfowl and
other migratory species. These funds were set aside by the
state General Assembly, and landowners also have the opportunity to
take advantage of federal dollars set aside for similar programs.
(21:40):
Lots of states have incentive programs like this, and many
require landowners to offer public access to be eligible for
the funds. If you're a hunter, be sure to familiarize
yourself with these opportunities, and the same goes for landowners.
If you've purchased some acreage and are concerned about property taxes,
look into these conservation programs. Many offer tax savings and
(22:01):
you'll be stewarding the land for future generations in the process.
That's all I got for you this week. Thank you
so much for listening, and remember to write in to
a s k c a L that's asked cal at
themeeater dot com. Thanks again and we'll talk to you
next week.
From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This
is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Calai. Here's cal.
The Russian military is claiming to have sent two wolves
to the front lines of the war against Ukraine to
help troops identify suicide drones before they get too close.
The wolves were supposedly trained by a famous wolf tamer
(00:33):
named Alexander Konkakov, who says he got the wolves as
puppies from hunters who found them without a mother. He
trained them to be around people, and the troops who
have worked with the animals say they are sociable and smart,
and their sharp ears can hear drones coming well before
the soldiers camp. This story was first reported by a
Russian news agency, and it's since been picked up by
(00:53):
outlets like The Daily Mail and the US Sun. It
hasn't been independently verified, and I think you'd be right
to be more than a little skeptical that the Russians
are actually sending wolves into war zones. A zoologist writing
for the BBC reports that wolves can be domesticated if
trained from puppies, but it seems like it'd be a
heck of a lot easier to train a German shepherd
(01:13):
or Malinwoi or some breed that just kind of does
this stuff for militaries across the world. If you search
on the Google machine, you'll find some articles that say
wolves have better hearing than a domesticated dog, But I
wasn't able to find any scholarly sources that quantify the
hearing ability of dogs versus wolves. It's pretty well accepted
that dogs can detect quieter sounds more easily than humans,
(01:36):
and they can hear sounds at much higher frequencies. Dogs
can hear up to forty five thousand herts, while humans
can only hear up to about twenty three thousand herts.
This means that a dog will be able to hear
a higher pitch sound that no human could ever hear,
such as the high frequency sounds omitted by drones. If
electronic detection methods are unavailable, a dog might be a
(01:58):
pretty good early warning system. But I really doubt a
wolf is going to do that much better than the
breeds already being used by the Russian military. This week,
we've got lions, legislation, snort report, wildlife crime, and so
much more. But first I'm going to tell you about
my week and my week well, a lot's happening first
(02:19):
and top of my mind. My beloved home state of
Montana is not listening to the majority of Montana's instead
favoring the ideals of Utah representatives. Montana Department of Natural
Resources and Conservation just rolled out their analysis of state
LANs that could be developed and sold to the highest bidder. Currently,
(02:39):
Montana owns five point two million acres of state trust lands.
The DNRC analysis is currently limited to areas surrounding Billings, Kalispell, Whitefish, Missoula,
and the Gallatin Valley, which are our major population centers
in the state. The goal of this analysis is to
address the affordable housing scenario here in Montana, which, if
(03:00):
you pay attention to national housing trends, is not good.
In fact, Montana was recently named the least affordable state
to purchase a home by the National Board of Realtors.
This plan assumes that by leasing state lands to developers
and then selling the developed state acres, the state would
make a hell of a chunk of change, and bang,
all of these properties would provide affordable housing for those
(03:23):
who really need it. Oddly enough, this plan also includes
commercial building, so you know it's outside of the commercial
percentage of building that would be allowed on state lands.
Then that stuff would then go to people who need
affordable housing. Right for all you big government folks out there,
I'm sure you'd be willing to trust the state government
(03:46):
to determine who needs affordable housing, who gets affordable housing,
make sure those contractors are on the up and up
piece of cake. I'm sure you know my opinion on this.
Just another example of short term gains. The Montana line
and grab is on, which brings me to the Snort report.
We are way behind in our upland bird adventures this year.
(04:08):
Ol Snort has been basically a house dog, like a
high school graduate who hasn't gotten that full time job
or is waiting on higher education or something. She has activities,
a routine, but you wouldn't call her productive. But this
past weekend we finally got out and what did we do?
We hit state trust lands and block management areas for
(04:30):
our walks. It was still a little warm for the
yellow dog, but we covered ground and found several covees
a day. I really have zero complaints on the little
girl's end, but I will tell you my epic fail.
On the last hunt before turning for home. It was hot,
and much to my surprise, the spot I picked on
the map, which is all State trust land and far
(04:52):
from farms or roads, was full of pheasants. I love
nothing more than finding roosters in a spot that liked
won't get destroyed the first weekend of the season, so
this was an awesome discovery. But at the same time,
pheasants were not open, and with Snort's prey drive and
the heat, I had to call her back and we
(05:12):
walked with the wind to our back towards the truck.
I was a little bummed that the cocks were not huns.
It would have been great to reward some really good
dog work with the Retriever two. But it was a
great morning. Nonetheless, about three hundred yards between the truck
and us was a thick brushy hole, a spot that
just screamed pheasants, and sure enough Snort did her tailtale,
(05:36):
Holy cow, get ready, there's birds right here. Move, which
is forgetting her front feet. She literally forgets that she's
got her front feet. The smell of birds so close
to this dog actually lifts Snort into the air. I
think unknowing to her, she walks on her hind legs,
her front half, literally being carried by the strength of
(05:58):
the scent. That's how you know for certain there's birds
right there. I stood and watched this site, a site
which I have come to love, honestly, not only love,
but be jealous of. Are any of us gun tote
and humans capable of being carried that way so charged
by a passion that it carries us or half of us? Anyway? Then,
(06:24):
to my horror, a flock of Hungarian partridge between like
twelve and fifteen birds a big covey erupted from what
should have been a pheasant hole, some within range even
but my shotgun was at my side instead of on
my shoulder. Good girl, bad hunting partner. Moving on to
the lion desk, a Colorado man killed a mountain lion
(06:48):
with a shovel last week in what officials say was
self defense. Colorado Parks and Wildlife said in the press
release that the man was sitting outside his jeep at
a campground west of Canyon City when a mountain lion
approached him and his dog. The dog started to bark
and growl at the cat, which turned out to be
a female cougar weighing about ninety five pounds. When the
lion got within about ten feet of the dog, the
(07:10):
husky ran out and the pair started fighting. Not wanting
to risk his dog getting injured or killed, the man
grabbed a shovel and whacked the cat on the head.
That was enough to kill it, and investigators who arrived
on the scene confirmed that the man acted in self defense.
They say the cat was being unusual and extremely aggressive,
possibly due to injuries discovered during the nekruptcy. The lion
(07:33):
had sustained an injury on its front right paw and
scratches on its back. It's possible these injuries had made
it difficult to hunt and it became desperate, though that
hasn't been confirmed. Interestingly, Colorado Parks and Wildlife says this
instant does not count as a mountain lion attack because
the human involved was never touched and did not sustain
any injuries. Boy, that's a huge ego shot to this dude.
(07:57):
That decision might make some Colorado and scratch their heads.
CPW assures residents that they have only recorded twenty five
lion attacks since nineteen ninety. But you gotta wonder about
those numbers. If this is how they define an attack,
it seems like if the man acted in self defense,
he was by definition being attacked anyway. This incident, which
(08:18):
has been widely covered in the media as well as
over at the meat eater dot Com, comes just a
month before color Adams will decide whether to ban lion
hunting in the state. Opponents of the ban say that
hunting reduces the prevalence of these kinds of attacks since
it makes cats more afraid of humans. If this cat
had been previously chased and tried by a pack of hounds,
you can bet it wouldn't approach a barking dog at
(08:40):
a campground. That being said, I don't think that's the
best reason to oppose the ban. It's hard to judge
whether hunting has a large scale influence on lion attacks
since those attacks are extremely rare. To begin with, A
more convincing argument for you color Adams hoping to convince
your family and neighbors to vote against Prop One two
seven is that lions are already doing just fine in
(09:02):
the centennial state. The population has grown from almost nothing
in the sixties to almost four thousand cats and managed
hunting isn't a threat to that population. Trophy hunting is
already illegal since hunters are required to harvest the meat,
and hunting with hounds allows hunters to target older males
rather than breeding age females. Lion attacks make the headlines,
(09:24):
but the real focus should be on the amazing work biologists, hunters,
and conservationists have done to save mountain lions in Colorado.
Moving on to the crime desk, three South Carolina men
died last week and another was shot in what the
media at first claimed was a dispute over hunting land,
(09:44):
but we reached out to one of the men who
was there who says that's not true at all. The
Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that
they received a call on September twenty seventh that multiple
people had been shot in some kind of confrontation that
occurred in a wooded area near the town of Woodruff.
When they arrived, they found three dead bodies and learned
(10:05):
that a fourth victim had already been transported to the hospital.
They said that once witnesses were separated and interviewed, it
appears this incident stemmed from quote a dispute overhoe had
permission to be on this particular piece of hunting land,
But one of the men who was there, a fellow
named Kyle Rains, describes a slightly different set of events
when we contacted him through the GoFundMe he had set up.
(10:27):
He says a group that included himself, his two best friends,
and their wives and kids had gone out on four
wheelers to survey the damage done by the recent hurricane.
None of them owned the property, but Kyle says they
had permission to be there. When they got there, they
found two suburbans parked at the top of the hill
and five people who claimed they were camping. They said
they had permission to camp on the land, but one
(10:49):
of them was carrying an ar style rifle. One of
Kyle's friends asked the man to put the rifle away
since there were kids present, but he didn't take kindly
to being told what to do, and they started struggling
over the gun. Another fella who was there pulled out
a handgun and shot one of Kyle's friends, and a
gunfight erupted. For those of you wondering, this is not
(11:10):
the way to get things done. This is a mediation fail.
In the end, three people lay dying on the ground
while Kyle and others tried to get help, but they
weren't able to get back in time, and all three died.
There's obviously way more to this story. I've only been
able to speak to one side of this altercation. We
could very well discover that Kyle and his friends were
(11:31):
in the wrong, and if drugs and alcohol weren't involved,
I'll eat my shirt. But whatever the fight was actually about,
it's a good reminder for those of us who frequently
run into strangers in the woods. You never know who
you're dealing with. Don't get into a fight, even if
you know you're right, Just walk away. There aren't many
things worth dying over, and as with this incident, things
(11:52):
can turn south in a hurry. Three Idaho hunting guides
have been hit with felony conspiracy charges and dozens of
Lacy Act violations for illegally guiding Mounta lion hunts and
then transporting those animals across state lines. Forty four year
old Chad Kuloh, forty four year old Andrea Major, and
(12:12):
forty seven year old Lavoy Linton are being accused of
guiding hunts independently of the licensed outfitting company they worked for.
They booked clients, accepted payment, and guided hunts in southeast
Idaho and Wyoming, which was illegal to do on their own.
Those hunts resulted in the kills of at least eleven
mount lions in Idaho and a Boone and Crockett record
mount lion in western Wyoming. To hide their crimes, they
(12:35):
also allegedly submitted false big game mortality reports with inaccurate
outfitter business information. Guiding independently of a licensed outfitter isn't great,
but their real troubles began when they started shipping the
lines across state lines. The Lacy Act was originally written
to stop the interstate trade of wildlife. It says that
if an animal has taken in violation of a state law,
(12:56):
it becomes a federal crime once that animal has moved
to a different state. In this case, lions killed during
the hunts were transported from National forest Land to or
from Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, Texas, and North Carolina.
If convicted, these three musketeers are facing a maximum of
five years in federal prison. A two hundred and fifty
thousand dollars fine and up to three years of supervised release.
(13:21):
Last one for you and thanks to everyone who sent
this in. You may remember back in episode two sixty,
we covered a story about a Montana man who'd been
charged with trying to create Frankensheet. This fella, an eighty
one year old named Jack Shubarth, had illegally imported the
testicles of a Marco Polo Urgali sheep from Kyrgyzstan. He
used that genetic material to create a Marco Polo clone,
(13:43):
which he dubbed Montana Mountain King. He then bred that
mail sheep with us and sold their offspring to hunting ranches.
Shoe Barth violated a variety of state and federal laws
during the course of this operation, and the Justice Department
announced last week that the man had been sentenced to
six months in prison. He's also being forced to pay
a twenty thousand dollars fine to the Lacy Act Reward Fund,
(14:05):
a four thousand dollars payment to the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation in a two hundred dollars special assessment. That's
what you get for being bad kids. What do you
think of that one? That's why they say if you
mess with the ram, you get the horns. That's hard
to be in the butt of a joke anyway. Moving
(14:26):
on to the constitutional amendment desk, Colorado isn't the only
state with a controversial hunting initiative on the ballot. In Florida,
residents will be asked to vote on Amendment two, which
would change the state constitution to include a right to
hunt and fish. Here is what the amendment would say
in full, quote, Fishing, hunting, and the taking of fish
(14:48):
and wildlife, including by the use of traditional methods, shall
be preserved forever as a public right and preferred means
of responsibly managing and controlling fish and wildlife. This section
does not limit the authority granted to the Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission under Section nine of Article four. Sounds
(15:09):
pretty simple, right, Not exactly. A coalition is formed to
encourage Floridians to vote down the amendment. These groups, which
include the Humane Society, Sierra Club, and Center for Biological Diversity,
take issue with the protection of traditional methods. This, they
say will open the door to cruel and inhumane hunting
tactics like steel jawed leg hold traps, baiting, hound hunting,
(15:31):
and even hunting with spears. They call these tactics outdated
and archaic, and they say contradict our quote evolved moral
compass and expanded sense of compassion. Problem is, even if
you agree that some of these methods are cruel and inhumane,
this amendment wouldn't legalize them. According to the groups behind
the amendment, which include Ducks Unlimited and the TRCP, traditional
(15:55):
methods means quote that which is legal at the time
of passage, so it would protect the status quo, but
it wouldn't legalize anything currently illegal in the Sunshine State.
Opposition groups make a few other arguments. They say this
amendment would allow hunters to trespass on private property to
hunt and fish. This might sound plausible, given that this
(16:17):
amendment would put hunting and fishing alongside things like free
speech in the state's constitution, but that's also a bad argument.
Constitutional rights are not unlimited. You can't break into someone's
house with the protest sign and claim to be exercising
your freedom of speech. In the same way, you can't
trespass on private property and then claim to be exercising
(16:37):
your right to hunt and fish. State laws that prohibit
trespass will still apply. After this amendment passes. Obviously, another argument,
which I think is more legitimate, is that this amendment
might undermine the authority of the state's Wildlife Commission. If
we oppose ballot box biology when it limits hunting rights,
we should also oppose it when it goes the other way.
(17:00):
But the authors of this amendment address that concern in
the final line that explicitly says the amendment does not
limit the authority granted to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Anyone who tries to use the right to hunt and
fish to disregard the Wildlife Commission will have a tough
time getting around this language. The good news for proponents
(17:22):
is that opposition doesn't seem to be getting much traction
with Florida voters. A poll taken in early September found
that eighty percent of Floridians support it, including eighty nine
percent of Republicans and seventy percent of Democrats. Considering the
fact that very small percentages of residents hunt or fish,
that's pretty darn good. It's also a testament to what
(17:42):
can happen when the outdoor community invests cold, hard cash
into one of these campaigns. According to Ballatipedia, Supporters of
Amendment Too have dropped over one million dollars, while opponents
have only spent about sixty grand. Those numbers don't take
into account the reach of groups like the Humane Society.
It still shows how important it is to throw a
(18:02):
couple bucks in the hat when an issue comes up
that you really care about. Moving on to the small
time conservation desk. Big conservation stories that involve millions of
acres get all the headlines, but it's the small decisions
made in towns and counties across the country that impact
the most people and wildlife. I know this because most
(18:23):
of the stories I received from you involved these small
time conservation victories and defeats. For example, listener Jerry Parkinson
sent me an article about a twenty three acre parcel
east of Vail, Colorado that has been the center of
a year's long controversy. A company called Veil Resorts owned
the property and they had planned to build workforce housing
on it, but the town's government condemned the property in
(18:46):
an effort to stop the project. They said they wanted
to protect a big horn sheep herd from being disturbed
by the ski company's housing. A legal battle ensued that
just recently came to an end in favor of the
town and those residents who opposed the building. Place Veil
Resorts agreed to abandon their development project in exchange for
the town's commitment to help the company build housing somewhere else.
(19:09):
Another public land controversy is playing out in Wyoming. This
one is far from over. In Albany County, the Forest
Service has approved a land swap agreement that would trade
one two hundred and ninety seven acres of public land
in the Green Mountain Area for eight hundred and four
acres in two parcels owned by the Bro Group, a
private investment company based in Denver. The Forest Service says
(19:31):
that swap would increase public access, but hunters and public
land advocates who spoke with the Cowboy State Daily argue
it's not a fair trade. They say those thirteen hundred
acres hold far more wildlife and habitat than the two
other parcels the Forest Service would receive. This area is
prime elk and bighorn cheap habitat, and losing it would
also restrict access to adjoining pieces of federal land. Critics
(19:55):
also say the Forest Service hasn't provided enough notice. The
public comment period took place April eighth to May eighth
of last year, and it sounds like not too many
people weighed in. The Forest Service is set to issue
a final decision over the next few months, which would
more or less seal the deal. But it's not over
till it's over. So if you live in Albany County,
(20:15):
Wyoming and enjoy hunting in this area, get in touch
with the Forest Service. This has become known as the
Britannia Land Exchange, so that's what you'll want a reference
in your comments. Big thanks to listener Jim Lane for
sending us this story. On the other end of the spectrum,
here's a positive story for you. I know you're thinking,
(20:36):
thank God about time something positive. This one sent in
by Tommy Lesher Thank camp. The Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission announced last month that it had added twelve thousand
acres of protected wetlands thanks to a private land incentive program.
The initiative, known as the AGFC Conservation Incentive Program, has
doled out over three point five million dollars to landowners
(20:59):
who have comitted to wetland improvements. According to Assistant Chief
of the AGFC, private Lands Habitat Division Randy Brents. The
agency is contracted with farmers to flood ten nine hundred
and sixty one acres of rice fields during a ninety
day portion of the waterfowl wintering period. None of those
acres will be tilled, which will leave as much waste
(21:20):
grain as possible for ducks and geese. In addition, another
nine hundred and ten acres of native wetland plants will
be flooded that can offer more benefit to waterfowl and
other migratory species. These funds were set aside by the
state General Assembly, and landowners also have the opportunity to
take advantage of federal dollars set aside for similar programs.
(21:40):
Lots of states have incentive programs like this, and many
require landowners to offer public access to be eligible for
the funds. If you're a hunter, be sure to familiarize
yourself with these opportunities, and the same goes for landowners.
If you've purchased some acreage and are concerned about property taxes,
look into these conservation programs. Many offer tax savings and
(22:01):
you'll be stewarding the land for future generations in the process.
That's all I got for you this week. Thank you
so much for listening, and remember to write in to
a s k c a L that's asked cal at
themeeater dot com. Thanks again and we'll talk to you
next week.
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