Our Vanishing Wild Life - Its Extermination and Preservation by William Temple Hornaday
page 166 of 733 (22%)
page 166 of 733 (22%)
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slaughter. Today, in the eastern states, the general feeling is quite
different. The appearance of a deer in the Hudson River itself, or a moose in a Maine village is a signal, not for a wild chase and cruel slaughter, but for a general effort to save the animal from being hurt, or killed. I know this through ocular proof, at least half a dozen lost and bewildered deer having been carefully driven into yards, or barns, and humanely kept and cared for until they could be shipped to us. Several have been caught while swimming in the Hudson, bewildered and panic-stricken. The latest capture occurred in New York City itself. A puma that escaped (about 1902) from the Zoological Park, instead of being shot was captured by sensible people in the hamlet of Bronxdale, alive and unhurt, and safely returned to us. In some portions of the east, though not all, the day of the hue and cry over "a wild animal in town" seems to be about over. On Long Island some humane persons found an injured turkey vulture, and took it in and cared for it,--only to be persecuted by ill-advised game wardens, because they had a forbidden wild bird "in their possession!" There are times when it is the highest (moral) duty of a game warden to follow the advice of Private Mulvaney to the "orficer boy," and "Shut yer oye to the rigulations, sorr!" Such occurrences as these are becoming more and more common. _The desire of "the great silent majority" is to SAVE the wild creatures_; and it is in response to that sentiment that thousands of people are today in the field against the Army of Destruction. It is the duty of every sportsman to assist in promoting the passage of a law like our New York law which empowers the State Game Commission to |
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