All laws that permit the killing of game for the market, and the sale of it afterward, are class legislation of the worst sort. They permit a hundred men selfishly to slaughter for their own pockets the game that rightfully belongs to a hundred thousand men and boys who shoot for the legitimate recreation that such field sports afford. Will any of the sportsmen of America "stand for" this until the game is all gone?
The people who pay big prices for game in the hotels and restaurants of our big cities are not men who need that game as food. Far from it. They can obtain scores of fine meat dishes without destroying the wild flocks. In civilized countries wild game is no longer necessary as "food," to satisfy hunger, and ward off starvation. In the United States the day of the hungry Indian-fighting pioneer has gone by and there is an abundance of food everywhere.
The time to temporize and feel timid over the game situation has gone by. The situation is desperate; and nothing but strong and vigorous measures will avail anything worth while. The sale of all wild game should be stopped, everywhere and at all seasons, throughout all North America, and throughout the world. To-day this particular curse is being felt even in India.
It is the duty of every true sportsman, every farmer who owns a gun, and every lover of wild life, to enter into the campaign for the passage of bills absolutely prohibiting all traffic in wild game no matter what its origin. Of course the market hunters, the game-hogs and the game dealers will bitterly oppose them, and hire a lobby to attempt to defeat them. But the fight for no-sale-of-game is now on, and it must not stop short of complete victory.
Reasons Why The Sale Of Wild Game Should Cease Everywhere
- —Because fully 95 per cent of our legitimate stock of feathered game has already been destroyed.
- —Because if market-gunning and the sale of game continue ten years longer, all our feathered game will be swept away.
- —Because when the sale of game was permitted one dealer was able to sell 1,000,000 game birds per year in New York City, so he himself said.
- —Because it is a fixed fact that every wild species of mammal, bird or reptile that is pursued for money-making purposes eventually is wiped out of existence. Even the whales of the sea are no exception.
- —Because at least 50 per cent of the decrease in our feathered game is due to market-gunning, and the sale of game. Look at the prairie chicken of the Mississippi Valley, and the ruffed grouse of New England.
- —Because the laws that permit the commercial slaughter of wild birds for the benefit of less than five per cent of the inhabitants of any state are directly against the interest of the 95 per cent of other people, to whom that game partly belongs.
- —Because game killed "for sale" is not intended to satisfy "hunger." The people who eat game in large cities do not know what hunger is, save by hearsay. Purchased game is used chiefly in over-feeding; and as a rule it does far more harm than good.
- —Because the greatest value to be derived from any game bird is in seeing it, and photographing it, and enjoying its living company in its native haunts. Who will love the forests when they become destitute of wild life, and desolate?
- —Because stopping the sale of game will help bring back the game birds to us, in a few years.
- —Because the pace that New York and Massachusetts have set in this matter will render it easier to procure the passage of Bayne laws in other states.
- —Because those who legitimately desire game for their tables can be supplied from the game farms and preserves that now are coming into existence.
When New York's far-reaching Bayne bill became a law, the following dead birds lay in cold storage in New York City:
| Wild duck | 98,156 |
| Plover | 48,780 |
| Quail | 14,227 |
| Grouse | 21,202 |
| Snipe | 7,825 |
| Woodcock | 767 |
| Rail | 419 |
| --------- | |
| 191,376 |
They represented the last slaughterings of American game for New York. To-day the remaining plague-spots are Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Baltimore, Washington and New Orleans; but in New Orleans the brakes have at last (1912) been applied, and the market slaughter that formerly prevailed in that state has at least been checked.