Muskoka Outdoors

PETA made some headlines (and I guess this blog) recently when they released a press statement indicating their disgust of Sarah Palin’s caribou hunt on Sarah Palin’s Alaska TV Show.

The anti-hunting and fishing organization also said that they would help Kansas ease some budget stress by paying the State rent to put up a sign outside a popular fishing area. A sign that would say, “If you wouldn’t do this to a dog, why do it to a fish?”

For more details that came from the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance website – Read the entire article here.

The antics of PETA are much like mosquitoes in your tent at night. You can’t do much about the buzzing – you just have to try and ignore it.

PETA's Kid Friendly Comic

This is a group that would have the world ban turkey dinners at Christmas, and an early evening fishing adventure with your kid.

Have you ever seen this comic publication from them saying that fathers are killers if they fish?

A bit out of touch don’t you think? Much like the mosquitoes on the ceiling…

Stephen Harper’s Conservative’s came very close to changing who was in the sights of Canada’s long gun laws yesterday. In a close 153 to 151 vote, Parliament voted down Hoeppner’s private member bill to abolish the long-gun registry.

The narrow loss is unfortunate, but as I prepare my firearm for an upcoming grouse hunt, I realize life will still continue as usual.

Criminals will still acquire, and use, illegal long-guns un-touched or harassed by the expensive database.

Many Liberal and NDP MP’s will live under a facade that a registered firearm creates a magic shield around gun owners to protect them from harm.

The safety measures that pro-registry factions so proudly toted during the time period before the vote, existed well before the gun registry was implemented. The paperwork and reference checks have remained virtually unchanged – save the extra column for a registration number.

This meant that the RCMP could check and deny any application for a Canadian to own a long-gun under the old system. Safe firearm storage and long-gun transport requirements were already significant portions of the gun safety courses. Any mature gun owner would know this. To bad the ‘experts’ from the Liberal, NDP and various other activist groups neglected to understand or mention this.

After this vote, money will continue to be spent on securing, implementing and tracking the various aspects of our long-gun registry. Money that could be spent on new police officers, firearm detection methods (in public areas like our porous border), medical science, the deficit, poverty and education.

As Saturday approaches, I will find myself wandering south of Dad’s cabin in search of grouse. Life will have returned to as it should be.

However, I suspect this after-vote reprieve will be short lived.

I predict that many of the same people who want to usher in a ‘gun-free’ country will soon want to vote in a measure that dictates, to me, that I can not use the woods to make my own meal anymore.

Life after that – will be difficult to take.

The Globe and Mail and CBC news sites have reported that RCMP Chief Superintendent Marty Cheliak will leave his gun registry position for some french language training. Both articles suggest that this is a muzzling attempt by Harper’s Federal Government before a serious debate about scrapping the gun registry moves forward in debate.

Once you get past the fact that the CBC is against anything Harper does, and reports as such, this is a hype over matter issue.

Marty Cheliak will still get a sweet pay check at the end of each day. Some french language training might be seen as break from the the long-gun registry and dealing with the names on that list. I mean, I could name 10 Canadian citizens (plus myself) who are on that list and who work to contribute positively to Canadian society. It must be tough finding all of us who have registered their guns and have our addresses listed on this ‘crime-reducing’ registry.  At the click of his fingers, Marty Cheliak could send officers to ‘visit’ farmers, hunters and other law-abiding, rural citizens to ensure our guns are locked up and not being used in any crimes.

Meanwhile, back in the real world (strangely overlooked by urban Liberals, NDP and the CBC), the criminal element could care less if the long-gun registry gets scrapped or not.

Why? Because their names are not on the list.

Over halfway through 2010 and one could argue that bears are trying to destroy their teddy bear image through various bear attacks and snarling close encounters.

For or against, these occurrences have many people talking about the cancellation of Ontario’s spring bear hunt. A lost hunting opportunity that many hunters felt was politically motivated. It was a management tool that developed a healthy fear of man in bears and helped to minimize encounters like those shared in this post. It did NOT mean the end of Ontario’s bears. Nobody wanted that!

Black Bear Photo: HBarrison from Wikipedia

Those against a bear hunt are being ‘treated’ with more bear sightings, bear attacks, property damage  and other close encounters.

Anecdotally, through sources close to Muskoka Outdoors, some Huntsville residents have been having some close encounters.

One man was working outside his house when he came face to face with a bear. After repeated attempts to scare the  bear off, the man went back inside his house, with the bear following, to get his firearm. When the man exited his house with gun in hand – the bear bolted away.

In a second, different encounter, one woman returned back into her kitchen to find a bear in her kitchen. It had come in through a screen door.

Then, there was this past spring.  In less than one month, three separate aggressive bear encounters have been reported in the area of Orillia, ON. One of the attacks was nearly fatal, while the other two were ‘charges’ and acts of aggression.

Listed below are accounts of the encounters from various sources:

1. Mauling victim gives chilling account of bear attack

2. ATV rider charged by black bear

3. Woman on bike chased by black bear near Orillia, ON

Recently, there have been other bear attacks in Canada and internationally:

1. Canadian woman recounts bear attack (Montana)

2. Bear killed after biting man’s arm (Colorado)

3. Port Alberni bear attack sends two to hospital (BC)

4. Yellowstone Bear Attack KILLS Camper, Injures Two

It’s getting more difficult to buy into the ‘rarity’ of hostile bear encounters and attacks. Clean BBQ grills, bear ‘proof’ garbage containers and call lines might fool humans into a sense of safety, but ‘Smokey’ the bear’s identity is lost in the reality of the Canadian rural setting.

Live trapping bears might make sense – until they end up in your back yard or mine. If we are going continue with this tool – I hope those involved are getting DNA samples of the bears that are re-released to make sure they are not repeat offenders. It will also give human victims a means to trace who released a potential risk to back to the wild.

At some point, increasing hunting opportunities, in conjunction with a science-based management plan, will need to be considered to start minimizing risks to humans. It could be a tough pill to swallow for anti-hunting groups.

It is more heart breaking for me to see a human become a causality of the ‘business-end’ of a bear.

In a strange case that smacks of a legal fee windfall with a dangerous precedent setting outcome, skeptical hunters from Minnesota have won their ‘case’ against the makers of Scent-Lok, ALS Enterprises Inc.

The Chattanoogan reports this about the the lawsuit,

“Last week, in the United States District Court in Minnesota, Judge Richard Kyle ruled that ALS had falsely claimed that its products were based on ‘odor-eliminating technology’ or were ‘odor-eliminating clothing’.” Entire Article Here

I don’t use the clothing. I can’t afford it. Besides, my hunter orange clothing tends to take on the smell and savor of the most recent meal in our hunt camp. Sometimes, it is fresh ‘bacon and eggs‘ scent or ‘mom’s NEW hot and spicy chili‘ scent. I doubt the carbon clothing could hide those realities of a hunt camp.

I am NOT saying carbon clothing does not work. I don’t know either way.

What troubles me is how could your prove, either way, that the clothing worked or it didn’t work in actual hunting conditions. The experiment would have so many variables like wind direction, wind speed, were any body parts uncovered (ie. neck, wrists, ankles), hunter noise, what the deer saw, deer nose sensitivity, the weather, exterior odors on the clothing, the height of the the treestand, timing of the hunt, the smells on other pieces of equipment, and many more.

A lab won’t take these factors into consideration.

In entering the scent-lok lawsuit into a popular search engine, it was easy to find more details about this case. It seems that the plaintiff’s major ‘issue’ was was not so much that ‘carbon scent filtering systems’ did not work. Test cases found that the odour removing function of the systems DID ACTUALLY work. It was just that, Scent-Lok’s advertising use of the words ‘human scent eliminating…’ and ‘gets hunters close to big game undetected…’ were misleading.

Saying scent removing is ‘good’ but saying ‘scent-eliminating’ is taboo.

It was also claimed that rulings on some of Scent-Lok’s patents were such that Scent-Lok could not claim ‘odour-elimination’ on their ads. Put your ‘brainiac-cap’ on and follow this link to an individual’s site that may have started the advertising fury for Scent-Lok. If credible, it appears to spotlight the issues surrounding the patents.

So now what?

I think most hunters can still sleep well tonight. Lab tests DID show that Scent-Lok’s clothing did remove human odour. Scent-Lok still has my vote as being potentially effective hunting clothing.

Some hunting equipment companies may want to take another look at the wording in their slogans. For those hunters who aren’t sleeping well because you actually believed that because you wear Scent-Lok clothing, when you hunt, you should be able to walk up to wild game undetected. I have some advice:

• If the label says, Realtree, you won’t actually look like a tree, grow roots and develop a thick skin known as bark.
• Despite their website blurb, Winchester ammunition will not actually help you ‘win the west’ or any part of a country
• When Browning clothing says they will protect you from the elements and keep you comfortable, your leg may still fall asleep on a treestand and your are not immune to fire
• When Gorilla Treestands label their safety harness as ‘shock absorbing’ your fall is still going to be uncomfortable and you might be shocked that you actually fell

Just F.Y.I. and common sense of course…

For Scent-Lok’s response to the lawsuit, follow this link to their blog.

For another Canadian’s view of this topic, visit Othmar Vohringer’s blog.

The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) has reported that PETA is petitioning Merriam-Webster (a familiar dictionary publisher) to add the term ‘Sea Kitten’ as a synonym for fish new dictionary editions. In a brief online release the USSA reports that,

“PETA has petitioned Merriam-Webster, one of the largest producers of dictionaries in the nation to include “sea kitten” as a synonym for “fish” in upcoming editions.  PETA claims that the term is becoming increasingly popular since it started a marketing campaign in 2008 using the phrase.  It further claims that “sea kittens” are just as intelligent as dogs and cats.” Entire Article Here

PETA’s is responsible for the ”kid-friendly’ comic series, Your Daddy Kills Animals. I have included the cover (photo right) of one their comic series to demonstrate how ‘intense’ this group is.

I suggest we start a second petition for the Merriam-Webster to make room for a new synonym for “useless”. It starts with “P” and ends with “A”.

Any seconders?