FARM SCENE: Game Farm Owners Sue Over Initiative Banning Shooting of Capti

[Judi Lynn]

FARM SCENE: Game Farm Owners Sue Over Initiative Banning Shooting of Captive Animals
The Associated Press
Published: Nov 11, 2003




HELENA, Mont. (AP) - The owners of a game farm are suing the state over a voter-approved initiative that bans the shooting of captive game animals.

Ken and Becky Mesaros are the seventh Montana game farm operators to sue over Initiative 143, which voters approved in 2000. They contend in their lawsuit filed last month that the initiative amounts to an illegal "taking" of property by the state, and that they should be compensated.

"My position is, give us our business back or get out your checkbook," Ken Mesaros told the Great Falls Tribune. "I'd hate to see the state get its checkbook out, because I know how scarce those dollars are. But you can't have it both ways." (snip)

(snip) Mesaros is a former Republican state senator. He and his wife have raised elk since early 2000 at their Cascade-area cattle ranch.
(snip/...)

[izzie]

1. I love sportmen!

My sister used to have a stand off with the man next door. He said he would put out food for the deer and she would say good. I call the state. She won as he never did do it and never got his deer.

[dusty64]

2. A perfect example of evil

donors trying to buy their way no matter how immoral. People who murder animals like this are NOT sportsmen and are sick. I hope the will of the citizenry is upheld here, a similar ban was passed overwhelmingly by the legislature in New York only to be vetoed by pataki. We'll keep working on it however, hopefully the state Senate and Assembly will override his veto when they return to session.

[MaineDem]

3. Still legal in Maine

...despite many attempts to ban this. Sadly, it can't seem to pass.

[Lorien]

4. Many of these "Game farms"

purchase pet tigers, panthers, etc. and charge macho cowards huge fees to come in and "hunt" the terrified captive beasts. I saw one film of two rednecks shooting at a black panther that was cowering under a pickup truck and surrounded by a pack of about 20 dogs-it was absolutely disgusting!

[SoCalDem]

5. Yessiree.. in Texas & Oklahoma, they hand raise them like pets

and then take money so some rich guy can shoot them from the comfort of the vehicle.. The ani,mals are tame, so they walk right up to the fence.. I saw a special on PBS one night.. Made me SICK.. This asshole leaned out the window and shot a lion..

Of course when he had it stuffed/mounted and sent to his McMansion, he probably told all his pals about the way he had to defend the little woman while on safari, as the beast tried to attack her ..

These are the lowest of the low..

[MaineDem]

6. This really makes me ill

So sad and so unnecessary!

[RebelOne]

7. These are called canned hunts

and no ethical hunter would even consider participating in them.

[BuelahWitch]

8. How bout a turn around?

Their fat, naked asses being chased by a pack of wild, hungry wolves? Well, maybe not the naked part, yuck...

[radwriter0555]

9. Good. Let them sue. Let them spend the fortunes they made off of the dead

animals on defending their insane trade in flesh.

[TheBlob]

10. Got a link?

Can't find it through Google.
I'd like to save this one.

[Judi Lynn]

11. I'm back with that link, so sorry I forgot it

I found the same story at CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Central/11/11/farm.lawsuit.ap/

:dunce: :spank:

On edit:

I wanted to call attention to the fact he was a former REPUBLICAN State Senator, too.

[shrike]

12. My husband's a hunter

The thought of hunting in a game farm doesn't appeal to him because it's not a "real" hunt. He has gone on a few organized hunts -- for example, Canada allows caribou hunts in the fall -- but was discouraged and somewhat frightened by the people they attract. When they caught site of a herd, one of the men with them jumped up on a rock and began firing a semi-automatic (I think) willy-nilly. Didn't hit a single animal, either. Hubby hunted alone for the rest of the trip.

[glitch]

13. canned hunting of lions and GHWB

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,479311,00.html

Lions face new threat: they're rich, American and they've got guns
Schwarzkopf and Bush Snr mobilise opposition as Botswana moves to save its big cats

Special report: George Bush's America

You might call the lions of southern Africa potential Bush meat. The former American president, George Bush senior, and his old Gulf War ally, General "Stormin' Norman" Schwarzkopf, are pleading with the government of Botswana to be allowed to revive their old alliance, this time in pursuit of Africa's endangered big cats.
Mr Bush is among prominent members of Safari Club International (SCI) who have written to the Botswanan authorities asking them to lift a ban slapped on trophy hunting of lions in February.

Arizona-based SCI describes itself as the largest hunting organisation in the world and people who do not like what it does as "animal protection extremists".

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,901171,00.html
White lions: born free then shot for a fortune

Liz McGregor, Cape Town
Sunday February 23, 2003
The Observer

The last time a white lion roamed free and wild on South Africa's plains, Nelson Mandela was still a prisoner and the apartheid regime was at the height of its power.
Now the rare white lions are back. But this time they face the guns of wealthy American and German hunters ready to pay big money to shoot them. Captive-bred white lions are being sold for 10 times as much as their tawny brethren - and a lot more than that for the unfortunate beasts that find their way into the booming hunting industry.

The last pride of white lions in the wild was discovered near the Kruger Park in the mid-Seventies. Fears that they would be stolen or hunted to extinction led to their being given to the Pretoria Zoo in the hope that they would be able to reproduce in peace. But since 1994, zoos and wildlife parks can no longer rely on state subsidies and must generate much of their own income. This led to Johannesburg Zoo, which had acquired some white lion cubs from its sister zoo, loaning out to a breeder those males with the recessive gene required to father white cubs, on the understanding that it would receive half the profits from the sale of the cubs.

Suddenly, white lions began to be advertised on internet hunting sites for around £100,000. There are now 52 white lions in the country at four breeding sites.

[Judi Lynn]

14. Read your story about Bush I when it came out. It's so vile

How could ANYONE be this slimey? Totally protected by guards, using massive weapons, destroying completely innocent creatures, and rare ones, at that. Would make you lose your religion.

Thank you so much for posting these articles.

[glitch]

15. it's so ugly, I almost didn't post it - but then I got mad again

thanks for the thanks.

[havocmom]

16. One reason Montana voters passed the game farm shooting ban

was to discourage the proliferation of game farms. There is sometimes a problem with game farm populations being more likely to become sick, as with any critters kept in an unnaturally limited area with too dense a population. A good many folks here are rather protective of their wildlife populations. Some game farm populations have had to be destroyed due to contagious disease which could spread to the wild populations. True sportsmen do not want to take those kinds of risks.

There is a growing division in Montana between the regular locals and sportsmen and the big money outfitters catering to big money clients who do not always meet the standard for 'outdoorsmen'. The outfitters want laws enabling them to cross private lands to easily reach hunting, fishing areas. Their big money clients want wild adventure experience with none of the inconvience. That also amounts to a form of 'taking' when they start imposing their will on private landowners. They insist on the right to take corridors thru private property so they can easily make $$ on public lands. They seem to think it is OK so long as the 'takings' benifit them. When the 'takings' benifit the general population of people and wildlife, like the ban on hunting farmed animals does, they scream bloody murder.

I hear Chuckie Schwabb has bought some land out here close to where I live... There goes the neighborhood!

[leesa]

17. Sick Bastards! There must be a special place in hell for people

like this. They should re-read Genesis. Aren't we supposed to be stewards of the animals and eat of the fruit and other plants?