I think someone needs to start a poll asking if it is “fair chase” to use cell cams for deer hunting during the season. I bet (hope) I know how it will turn out…..
It would be good to have a separate thread about “fair chase” and trail cameras. A poll would make a lot of sense.
Of course, that requires addressing “what does fair chase mean?” I went looking for a common definition and haven’t found one I like as written. To be blunt, I think the Boone & Crockett definition is a vague pile of horseshit. I’d expect a national organization to do better.
FAIR CHASE, as defined by the Boone and Crockett Club, is the ethical, sportsmanlike, and lawful pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild game animal in a manner that does not give the hunter an improper or unfair advantage over the game animals.
FAIR CHASE, as defined by the Boone and Crockett Club, is the ethical, sportsmanlike, and lawful pur
www.boone-crockett.org
You can define any means or method as proper or fair or proper or improper under that standard. And that doesn’t even get into the fact that there can be the customary differences in different locations. For example, it’s unlawful to hunt over bait in Virginia, but it is lawful in numerous other states. How can it be unethical to use bait in one state, but ethical in another? This definition is useless. But at least it is an attempt.
A good start for me would be to distill down a nationally or universally accepted set of “fair chase” rules. And don’t try to base that off “improper or unfair advantage” of humans versus animals, since we are the deadliest predator to ever walk this earth. Instead, focus on principles that tend towards conservation and preservation of the common resource. Or rules that follow the spirit of B&C Hunter Ethics 5 and 6. They are still a big vague, but the spirit is sound.
5. Behave in a way that will bring no dishonor to either the hunter, the hunted, or the environment.
6. Recognize that these tenets are intended to enhance the hunter's experience of the relationship between predator and prey, which is one of the most fundamental relationships of humans and their environment.
For example, in Virginia, it is unlawful to, “Destroy or harass the nest, eggs, den, or young of any wild bird or animal, except nuisance species, at any time without a permit as required by law.” That would seem to me to be a reasonable ethical rule which should be the law in every jurisdiction.
Fair chase should really be a set of rules that hunters agree to follow to preserve hunting. I won’t try to explain it further here.
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