Saw an article on Eastern Outdoors Media, apparently a KY. based website, that was promoting the killing of Fur bearing animals like coons, possums, fox ,etc. for bounty.
According to the story, South Dakota has had a bounty program that pays $10.00 per tail for these animals because they are labeled as “nest predators”.
Anyone who wants to cash in on this can sell up to 59 animal tails per person for bounty, up to a $590.00 dollar limit. I believe the Game Department there in South Dakota had a 50,000 animal quota they wanted to attain, and evidently, they did. It seemed like the guys that responded were mostly from Ky. and highly in favor of it! Do we need to go on record , with a written , Formal response, opposing this sort of thing to the KDFWR before it gains any more traction? Seems like we talked about it before, but I have forgotten if we ever followed through on it. I understand the line of thought from turkey hunters, and a bounty that pays 5 times the current price of a finished pelt is looked upon as a good thing, but I guess I am old school, and the thought just cutting the tails off, and turning them in for bounty just doesn’t set well with me ! What’s your opinion? No right or wrong answers at this point; just discussing what your thoughts on the subject are.
Might be hard to find anyone to pay the bounty here in Kentucky. Who’s paying on it out there? I’m totally against the nest predator mentality personally. But,I can see future fights on the subject if we choose to do so. I think it’s not the best but why can’t the bounty be paid during fur season and many thousand tail less pelts could be utilized, if they would. I think SD does it in the spring or something. Probably most would still take the ten dollars for a possum and Chuck the rest but I think it sets a bad precedent for the future of fur trapping. I’m agin’ it myself.
First off ain’t no way the state of ky is gonna pay that out second of all. Maybe if that’s what they want to do they need to start a price support system for licensed fur trappers with an emphasis on nest predators.
I mean if you guaranteed to make up the difference and made my coon average 5 to 10 bucks that would cut out the crap of weather or not I trap coon each season.
If they did that and made me prove I sold that many into the fur trade it would be a win win.
Alaska does it so it’s not that far outta the realm of possiblity, make fur trapping great again and they would see a big harvest of “nest” predators.
Weather it would effect the change they want to see is another story.
Colt
I’m against it myself
I’m seeing a trend nationally where furbearers are being declared varmints and trappers are being defined as non fur takers. I don’t like it for our sport.
Most bounties are rife with fraud. Beaver tails are being bought, sold and hauled everywhere to collect bounty I know for a fact. If you can pay one or two bucks for a beaver tail and sell it for ten there will be fraud. Roadkills that are dead already would be cashed in. Dogs would tree coons year round and they’d freeze the tails to cash in in the spring. It just doesn’t work very well.