Free Republic

If you’ve turned on the TV, radio, looked at a newspaper, or used the internet in these past few weeks, you have heard of Kendall Jones. Kendall Jones is a 19 year old cheerleader studying at Texas Tech who has stirred up some recent controversy. She is a seasoned hunter that has been lucky enough to travel to Africa to hunt the big five; work alongside organizations to provide meat to local communities and help treat wounded animals. Recently, she has been targeted on social media sites and attacked by news agencies for having pictures of her hunts published on...

David W. Snook, 57, of Bridgewater, New Jersey, died on Wednesday, January 15, when two deer leaped into the path of his Dodge Ram on Route 206. One of them was airborne when it smashed through the front windshield, striking him before exiting out the rear window. This caused the truck to veer into the guard rail and come to rest in a ravine.

A law in Russia banning "homosexual propaganda" has been condemned by critics, who say it incites hatred. But a day hunting and relaxing in the forest - and hearing some extreme views - suggests it has plenty of support. Saunas are supposed to be relaxing but the prospect of this one filled me with dread. I was to share it with two heavily armed Russian hunters - Yuri, a steely-eyed veteran of Russia's bloody war in Afghanistan, and Georgy, a burly businessmen who cut his teeth during the violent chaos that consumed Russia after the fall of communism. That afternoon,...

It’s January. If you resolved to lose weight, forget the cotton ball diet. To become a lean, mean muscle machine: eat venison. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo feign to keep us healthy and safe by restricting our dietary choices and attacking our constitutional right to use guns for hunting and self-defense. Both men are dead wrong about health, hunting and guns. Bloomberg chastises folks who slurp sugary soda pop while lambasting hunters who eat organic, lean, high-protein venison. Meanwhile, Cuomo has been known to holler at the top of his lungs: “No one needs...

U.S. law enforcement agencies are conducting thousands of investigations using a law that makes violating state wildlife statutes a federal crime, often ensnaring hunters and fishermen for seemingly minor infractions. Some even suffer stiff federal prison sentences. Special agents and wildlife inspectors for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conduct about 2,500 investigative cases a year of violations of the Lacey Act, a 1900 law meant to combat illegal trafficking of wildlife. ... Rock star Ted Nugent, an avid hunter and fisherman .. "Good, decent families' lives are being turned upside down and ruined by out-of-control jackboot game agencies, particularly...

Hunting show hostess Melissa Bachman recently shot a lion in Africa, posted the triumphant picture on Facebook and now ABC (among many other enlightened parties) are all over her. An ABC World News segment shows New York-based Lana Zak petting a tame and cuddly cub on location in a South African zoo, while purring that: “lions like these are beloved in Africa.” Maybe by some of Zak’s yuppie counterparts in places like Capetown and Nairobi. But not by Africans who live among wild ones. Lions are certainly beloved in Hollywood, the Upper East Side, Georgetown, etc. It’s a different story...

MADISON — Here’s some good advice my daddy once told me: Try not to tick off a bear hunter. Words to live by. In Wisconsin, hunters of all stripes — bear hunters included — are applauding the state Department of Natural Resources’ decision to keep state properties open to hunting during the federal government’s partial shutdown. Last week, the National Park Service issued a directive demanding that the DNR close several state-owned properties, jointly run by federal and state agencies. The DNR effectively told the Park Service to go hunt itself, for a couple of important reasons: a) because a...

Alaska lawmakers accused the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service of violating federal law by shutting down hunting on its lands during the government shutdown, saying a 1980 law guarantees state residents must have access to the land.

PETA plans to acquire one or more drones to be used to harass deer and dove hunters. They are looking at the CineStar Octocopter, which can carry a camera for up to five minutes. This likely will be a one-shot operation because the first group of hunters they try to use it on will blow it out of the air!

The invasive porkers have made themselves at home across more than three quarters of the U.S. and are responsible for an estimated $1.5 billion in damages each year. Most worrisome is their ability to learn from each encounter with a frustrated human. ... The wild pig population in the U.S. has ballooned to more than 5 million. In one year alone, federal managers trapped and killed more than 32,000 pigs from 28 states and collected thousands of samples to check for the nearly three dozen diseases feral pigs are capable of carrying and passing on to humans, livestock and other...

Interesting slant on things AMERICA'S HUNTERS --- Pretty Amazing! The world's largest army... America 's hunters! I had never thought about this... A blogger added up the deer license sales in just a handful of states and arrived at a striking conclusion: There were over 600,000 hunters this season in the state of Wisconsin . Allow me to restate that number: 600,000 Over the last several months, Wisconsin's hunters became the eighth largest army in the world. More men under arms than in Iran . More than France and Germany combined. These men deployed to the woods of a single...

EARLIER this month, Mitt Romney delivered a speech at the annual National Rifle Association convention, calling for a president “who will stand up for the rights of hunters, sportsmen and those seeking to protect their homes and their families,” presumably with guns. I’d like to remind Mr. Romney that those are distinct groups. Too often — especially during an election year — hunters and N.R.A. members are lumped together as one and the same. I’m a hunter and a sportswoman. I own guns, but not for self-defense. I support gun control laws. I would happily vote to repeal the Stand...

Howie thread for the week starting with his Sunday Boston Herald column

Zanesville, Ohio, sheriff's deputies armed with assault rifles opened fire on dozens of "mature, very big, aggressive" lions, tigers, cheetahs, wolves, and bears who had escaped from a private menagerie in Ohio after the farm's owner, Terry Thompson, was found dead and the animals' cage doors were left open and fences unsecured. Chimpanzees and orangutans were found locked in cages inside the house. At least 30 animals have been killed, and several more remain at large.Thompson had a long history of brushes with the law and had just completed a one-year sentence on two federal counts of possessing illegal firearms....

In the long term, the Pagami Creek fire still burning east of Ely, Minn., should improve moose habitat, clearing the bramble to make way for saplings and berries that the animals love to munch on. But for now, the forest fire is proving problematic for moose hunters, many of whom have been unable to access the territory they are permitted to hunt starting Saturday. The situation has led the state Department of Natural Resources to offer refunds for the cost of permits. Those permits, for what is often known as "the hunt of a lifetime," are a coveted commodity that...

Evergreen State hunting activists are sounding the alarm in the wake of Saturday’s Fish & Wildlife Commission discussion in Olympia on the revised wolf management plan. There are now at least five active discussions on wolves in Washington, and their potential impact on hunting, on three different local internet hunting forums. With but one exception, sentiments are all negative. One forum has a whole sub-topic on wolves. Wolf advocates are determined to bring up the population of predatory canines in this state, regardless of the impact on big game herds. Hunters see them as something close to snake oil peddlers,...

Jessica Olmstead has no problem staring down wild animals. The 17-year-old Harper Creek High School senior has taken up one of nature's oldest, and possibly most dangerous sports, hunting. In the middle of August, Olmstead and her father, Tim, took a hunting trip up to Oba, Ontario, Canada, where the high school senior shot down a bear more than twice her size. "When I go out hunting, it's really exciting," Olmstead said. "Whenever I see a bear I just want to go at it. When you're hunting, your heart is racing, your blood is pumping, and you feel that adrenaline...

WICHITA, Kan. (AP)—The Justice Department is targeting more than 60 hunters across the nation for allegedly poaching deer during guided hunts at Camp Lone Star in Kansas, a court document shows. The scope of the grand jury investigation, believed to be one of the largest criminal prosecutions involving the illegal taking of deer, was made public in a court filing Monday in the federal government’s case against the camp’s owner and his brother, both of Martinsville, Texas. James Bobby Butler Jr., 41, the owner and operator of the hunting club in Coldwater, Kan., and his brother Marlin Jackson Butler, 36,...

Regulation: The U.S. Supreme Court says Americans have an individual right to keep and bear arms. The EPA says the bullets for those guns may be banned as an environmental hazard. The endless power grabs by the federal leviathan know no boundaries of law, science or even common sense. The Environmental Protection Agency of Lisa Jackson is seriously considering a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity, a leading anti-hunting group, to ban all traditional lead ammunition under the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA) of 1976. If the EPA approves the petition, the result will be a ban on all...

This is a portion of an actual complaint received by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality:4/13/10 Incident #13926 Limestone CountyINITIAL PROBLEM: On 03/09/2010 a complaint was received at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Waco Regional Office. The complaint alleges that David Cousins had been leasing out a hunting cabin and allowing the hunters to defecate in the woods. It also alleged that there is no restroom and Mr. Cousins is planning to extend plumbing into a creek next to the cabin. The cabin is located at 2785 FM 1246 E., Thornton (Limestone County), Texas 76687-2536. (fb/ks)---------------------------------------ACTION TAKEN: This incident...