Officers with the New Mexico Division of Sport and Fish needed to scrap their plans for an R3 occasion earlier this week that was meant to advertise small-game looking and wildlife images. After saying the 2024 Squirrel Problem on Monday, the state company acquired various complaints from environmentalist teams and anti-hunters, in accordance with the Santa Fe New Mexican. On Tuesday, the NMDGF canceled the problem.
“This choice was made due to public misperception concerning the chance’s intent,” NMDGF spokesperson Darren Vaughan tells Outside Life in an emailed assertion. “In addition to a ignorance surrounding rules set by company biologists to preserve squirrel populations.”
The concept many anti-hunters in New Mexico won’t have a full understanding of science-based looking rules is comprehensible. However the truth that a few of these identical individuals had been in a position to quash a comparatively benign occasion simply because it aimed to advertise authorized looking is regarding. It additionally speaks to a bigger motion we’re seeing in a number of states — one that seeks to realign the priorities of state fish-and-game agencies by deemphasizing the position of regulated looking and fishing in wildlife administration and devoting extra assets to non-game species.
Vaughan mentioned the occasion was created to encourage households and youth to get out within the woods and take part in a conventional hunt. He pointed to a wealthy historical past of looking squirrels for meals within the Land of Enchantment, and he mentioned it was vital to boost consciousness about alternatives that some residents won’t be aware of.
Elevating this consciousness has worth as a result of NMDGF, like most different state wildlife companies, is working to recruit extra hunters. And the company views small-game looking, which isn’t practically as well-liked as big-game looking in New Mexico, as one accessible avenue into the game. Squirrels are additionally one of many least harvested small-game species within the state, in accordance with harvest reports maintained by NMDGF. A report from the 2020-21 hunting season reveals simply over 1,500 squirrels being harvested statewide. That’s in comparison with greater than 21,000 quail and practically 6,000 doves over the identical timespan.
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Vaughan added that the Squirrel Problem had a non-consumptive part as effectively. Along with selling an everyman’s hunt and getting extra kids within the sport, NMDGF inspired non-hunters to take part by taking pictures pictures of squirrels.
It’s unclear what the precise guidelines behind the problem had been, since NMDGF took down webpages and social media posts related to the Squirrel Problem after canceling the occasion. However Vaughan mentioned the fundamental concept was for individuals to reap or {photograph} every of New Mexico’s 4 squirrel species inside the state. He mentioned profitable individuals “would have acquired a problem coin commemorating their achievement.” A Google abstract for the now-deleted Squirrel Problem web page additionally consists of ideas and recommendation for how one can clear and put together squirrels.
What’s abundantly clear is that the Squirrel Problem was not a “wildlife killing contest” as some protestors may need believed. These contests contain individuals attempting to kill as many critters (or the most important critters) as doable inside a specified timeframe for money, prizes, or different incentives. They usually goal varmints and predators like coyotes, bobcats, foxes, and prairie canines. They’re additionally illegal in New Mexico, and have been since 2019.
This key distinction was not sufficient to allay the considerations of some squirrel-sensitive New Mexicans, nonetheless. Denise Fort, who serves on the board for Wildlife for All, advised the New Mexican that though she helps attempting to find meals, she didn’t assume the Squirrel Problem incentivized consuming the harvested squirrels. Wildlife for All is a New Mexico-based group pushing for state wildlife reform, with roots in animal-rights, rewilding, and deep ecology campaigns. One other opponent of the Squirrel Problem, Sierra Membership board member Mary Katherine Ray, referred to as the occasion “outrageous.”
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It’s laborious to say what a correct incentive would have been in Fort’s eyes, and it could appear she’s unfamiliar with the wanton waste legal guidelines that apply to hunters throughout the nation. It is illegal in New Mexico to “fail to move the edible components of a sport animal … to your private home for human consumption.”
No matter what Fort’s emotions are concerning lawful attempting to find meals, she appears to have a historical past of treating squirrels as pets slightly than the wild critters they’re. In her interview with the Santa Fe newspaper, Fort spoke of fond childhood reminiscences of feeding squirrels in city Chicago, the place it’s illegal to feed deer but legal to feed squirrels — even by hand. Santa Fe is a great distance from Chicago, nonetheless, and similar to with wanton waste, the state of New Mexico has some fairly sturdy emotions about feeding squirrels and different wildlife.
“What many don’t understand is that feeding wildlife is unhealthy for the animals and harmful for individuals,” NMDGF writes on its website. “It’s additionally in opposition to the legislation in New Mexico if it creates a nuisance for you or another person. There are lots of causes feeding wildlife is a foul concept and making a nuisance is only one.”
This text was up to date on Oct. 10, 2024 to incorporate feedback from the New Mexico Division of Sport and Fish.
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