{"id":124918,"date":"2009-12-31T15:34:37","date_gmt":"2009-12-31T20:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2010653124_skagitcountyelkslaughterenragesreaders.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2009-12-31T15:34:37","modified_gmt":"2009-12-31T20:34:37","slug":"skagit-county-elk-slaughter-enrages-readers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/124918","title":{"rendered":"Skagit County elk slaughter enrages readers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fish and Wildlife need to step it up, do their job<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article on the elk slaughter near Concrete [\u201cTrapping, killing of elk closes hunting,\u201d NWWednesday, Dec. 29] highlights the mismanagement of our wildlife by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. This type of thing probably happens all too often, but this time it was captured on camera and in full view of the public.<\/p>\n

The department said the bow-and-arrow wounding and slaughtering of the trapped elk was legal. If true, then we need new laws to prevent it.<\/p>\n

Fish and Wildlife is responsible for the slaughter. In their never-ending quest to expand hunting opportunities, they relocated elk to the Skagit Valley. They then authorized this year\u2019s hunt, after last year\u2019s fiasco with muzzle-loader hunters.<\/p>\n

According to the department\u2019s own numbers, hunting mortality, including wounding loss and poaching, is by far the greatest source of elk mortality \u2014 64 to 82 percent \u2014of which poaching makes up 15 percent. This clearly defies the state mandate in RCW 77.04.012 to preserve, protect and perpetuate our state\u2019s wildlife.<\/p>\n

The hunters were unethical, but Fish and Wildlife should have never allowed the hunt in the first place. Then when it got really ugly, the agent should have stopped it.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Diane Weinstein, Issaquah<\/em><\/p>\n

State not as enlightened as I had thought<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wow. I moved up here from Texas and I keep thinking Washington in general \u2014 and the Seattle area in particular \u2014 is enlightened. I feel as if someone punched me in the stomach after reading this article.<\/p>\n

What a disgusting spectacle of wanton cruelty that had nothing \u2014 nothing \u2014to do with so-called sportsmanship. Seven animals were killed in circumstances resembling an appalling canned hunt, but what of those who were injured but managed to flee?<\/p>\n

How long will it take them to die of blood loss and infection and exposure in the middle of winter? What of the female who was trailing loops of entrails? <\/span><\/p>\n

How can this seem like an OK recreational activity to anyone? I am utterly sickened.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Franziska M. Edwards, Seattle<\/em><\/p>\n

Rethinking how we treat wild animals<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article \u201cBow hunters shoot elk in Wash. pasture\u201d [Seattletimes.com, Local News, Dec. 29] mentioned that a few of the animals had arrows embedded in their hides and were bleeding, but were still upright and running.<\/p>\n

Sadly, this is an example of how these animals really die. It\u2019s never as clean-cut as hunters would have you believe. In some cases, it can take days.<\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t a case of necessity, it never is.<\/p>\n

Bill Johnson said he didn\u2019t necessarily regret the kills, however, some were messy and caused undue pain to the animals. This doesn\u2019t sound like fun.<\/p>\n

Maybe we need to rethink how wild animals are treated, and consider that we have to place some of the blame on ourselves for creating these situations in the first place.<\/p>\n

We simply cannot push these animals in the corner in order to satisfy our own population growth.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Anai Rhoads, Alexandria, Va.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fish and Wildlife need to step it up, do their job The article on the elk slaughter near Concrete [\u201cTrapping, killing of elk closes hunting,\u201d NWWednesday, Dec. 29] highlights the mismanagement of our wildlife by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. This type of thing probably happens all too often, but this time it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}