Well, now if the Treehuggers are managing your wildlife instead of the biologists then that is a problem.
If the biologists felt like too many bears were getting killed and changed the hunt I could live with that. But if they are just caving into public pressure from the Anti hunters, then that is a different story.
I really know very little about the New Mexico bear populations but that article made it sound like tons of bears were getting slaughtered and the Game and Fish decided to do something about it. I applaud that. However, maybe that article isn't really painting the correct picture.
I'll admit that I'm a bit defensive these days about killing everything because I come from a state that would love nothing more than to systematically eliminate every lion, every bear and every hound guy from the face of the earth.
But I'll never be in favor of letting anti hunting groups manage our hunts or our wildlife. This is probably the kind of thing were having a group like the SFW in Utah can step in and help out.
While I disagree with them strongly on their predator management theory, they sure do help keep the tree huggers at bay.
If that article is BS and what you are saying is true, then I think I'd have to change my position. I don't want to stand with the Tree huggers on this one.
But I will say this much. Over the counter bear tags in New Mex and if I understand correctly, an unlimited amount of over the counter bear tags... ?? Not a good thing in my opinion.
It's pretty much inviting the full time outfitters to come in and totally massacre the bear or lion population. And no offense to outfitters but I've never met one yet that gave a rats ass about bear or lion populations until they were all killed out and they couldn't find one.
But if this decision was based purely on pressure from tree huggers and didn't have the backing of biologists, I'd say that is not a good sign!!
Maybe we are all just "kicking against the pricks"... I don't intend to give up or just throw in the towel but I still firmly believe in my lifetime I'll see the end of legal hound dogging.
The key word there being legal. ;-)
Good luck with your fight down there. I'm sure come next fall when I want to go down there chasing and can't get a tag, then I'll realize what a bad thing it is.
-Dawg