Hello all,
I don't get much on-site these days. I have some health problems and life is very much taken up with patience involved in our life of self-sufficiency and corresponding with a few friends - some in a worse situation than me.
So no complaints - just excuses.
I'm extremely concerned about the apathy being shown by a firearm-ownership public where only about a third has offered a simple bit of help in signing the petition - which will not be enough.
Honest investigation has demonstrated that lead is NOT a culprit or threat to wildlife, but if we do not all pull the digit out, we will be faced with much more expensive ammo and the strong possibility of problems because the whole situation of projectile to body-weight and toughness of body will have to be begun all over again - just when we have got the thing right with more traditional tupes of bullet. There's also a possibility that rifle barrels might not last as long.
My second concern is that there are HUGE problems with several bodies placing deer on the extermination list, and let us not fool around with kid gloves - the truth of the facts stands longest.
The first of these exterminators to be dealt-with are the John Muir Trust and there is already a petition in place. If you open the petitions site you will get the facts, but the JMT set about denuding the landscape - and the surrounding countryside of deer wherever they buy up land. Their strategy is basically that of the old poaching farmer's trick - sow a field adjacent to a hill with turnip and with a stock-height fence - then shoot all the wintering deer as marauders - including out-of-season stags.
Ladies and gentlemen - whatever your preferences within your stalking circles - PLEASE sign these two petitions and get your friends interested if you can. The hills are getting very lonely.
Ken.