Here is what my reply was, and I stand by it(Sorry, its a little long):
First off: Hunting should test a humans ability to read the landscape, match the animal's NATURAL instincts and habits, and PURSUE game stealthily and skillfully. (That definiition came from a Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine---Eastern right??) Food plots and feeders change the animals natural instincts and habits. They train the animal to respond to the feeding area at a time convenient for the killer to shoot and kill them. Noteice I said killer, because without a hunt, all you are doing is killing.
"By definition, hunting is the pursuit of a wild animal with the intent to capture or kill. Pursuit, the actual chase, precedes the kill; without it, hunting is merely killing. The chase, then, authenticates the hunt and, in turn, the kill puts an end to the chase.
Understood this way, hunting, particularly sport hunting, is about how we, as hunters, engage in the activity?the chase?leading up to the kill. Without restrictions on how we pursue game, the ?hunt? loses meaning, ceases to exist. So the question remains, what is a fair chase? " (exerpt from Outdoor Central)
As for FAIR CHASE: Jim Posewitz, a leading authority on hunting ethics and author of the book Beyond Fair Chase, describes fair chase as ?a balance that allows hunters to occasionally succeed while animals generally avoid being taken.?
In this view, the kill is the exception and escape is the rule. Simply put, a chase is fair if the animal has a reasonable chance of escaping the pursuit unharmed. If the animal has little or no chance, the chase is not fair. Fair chase demands a balance of power between hunter and hunted: the hunter?s ability to track, pursue, and acquire an animal must not be greater than the animal?s abilities to elude capture or death.
Fair chase is, ultimately, an expression of the desire to limit the discretionary power of the hunter so that sport hunting will remain enjoyable, challenging, and true to its original character.
For the modern sport hunter with all the advantages of modern technology at his or her disposal, a fair chase ethic imposes a voluntary limitation on the means the hunter may employ to achieve an end. Fair chase is not about the fairness of the kill (the end) but about the fairness of the chase (the means). In fair chase hunting, not only do the means justify the end, but the means are the end: the chase is the hunt. And a fair chase hunter earns the privilege to take an animal?s life by mastering the skills of the hunt.
"A fair chase hunter EARNS the privelage to take an animals life by mastering the skills of th hunt"--Its not a right given to you by spending your time and money planting a plot of land to bait game onto your land.
Another problem with food plots and feeders is that they concentrate deer into a certain area: Since the 1930s wildlife biologists have been concerned that artificial feeding and baiting can change the normal feeding patterns, behavior and migrations of wild animals, particularly in winter when natural food supplies dwindle or are buried under ice and snow. As deer concentrate around a bait pile or feeding station, the animals could spread disease through nose-to-nose contact, sneezing, breathing, salivating, urinating and defecating on feed that may be eaten or inhaled by other animals.
Growing food plots does the same thing creating a potential for disease spread. If you grow 15 acres of corn and let it stand for the winter, that's just supplemental feeding on a stalk. Disease spread might not be as rapid as in a winter deer yard, but the deer are licking each other constantly, and have nose-to-nose contact. They would likely transmit the disease if it were there. (Again, from the Wisconsin DNR)
Where is the conservation in that???? Food plots also take away from Mother Natures ability to thin the herds. Naturally, deer in a natural setting, without food plots, might not find enough food to make it through the winter. These sick, weak, deer would take the natural route and die, therefore allowing the deer herds to be naturally culled. Food plots and feeders actually add to the "population problems" and allows these "sick and weak" deer to make it yet another year....in many cases allowing them to pass on their diseaes to other members of the herd, also visiting the food plot or feeder....
Buckee: You wrote the following:
"Fair chase allows the hunter to pursue game, using hunting skills, knowledge of wildlife and outdoor savvy, without putting game at an unfair disadvantage. Following the rules of fair chase makes you more than a hunter, it makes you a "sportsman."
Where is the pursuit with a food plot, where is the skill, where is the outdoor saavy......food plots and feeders do put deer at an unfair advantage......I agree, those who take the time to learn the skills to PUSUE deer in their natural environment--skillfully and steathily, match their NATURAL habits and instincts.....are following the ethics of fair chase....and you are right, that makes them more than hunters, that makes them SPORTSMAN.
Some actions may be legal and still be unfair, based on your abilities, your equipment and the animals' abilities to get away. EXACTLY---Foodplots and feeders may be legal, but they are unfair to the animal. YOu have all of the advantage. You are in a warm box or blind, waiting for the animal to come to a plot of land it has been "basically trained" to come to (what deer wouldnt prefer the easy route to finding food....rather than actually having to forage).....where is that animals advantage.....he walks into a death trap with little to no chance of escaping with his life.
Now, I know that I will probably not change all of your minds, but hopefully I will have made a few of you think and reevalute what you conisder HUNTING and FAIR CHASE to be. Remember, just because its LEGAL, doesn't always mean its ETHICAL or RIGHT.
TUFF
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Remember who you are and what you stand for!!
