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Speaker 1: From Mediators World News Headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This is

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Speaker 1: Cal's Weekend review, presented by Steele. Steel products are available

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Speaker 1: only at authorized dealers. For more, go to Steel Dealers

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Speaker 1: dot com. Now here's your host. Ryan cal Callahan, a

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Speaker 1: county prosecutor in Ohio, was forced to apologize last month

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Speaker 1: after suggesting that the county hold a feral cat hunting

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Speaker 1: season Licking County, that's correct. Licking County Prosecutor Bill Hayes

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Speaker 1: made the comments during a question and answer session as

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Speaker 1: part of his campaign for a seat on the county Commission.

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Speaker 1: While he admitted the proposal won't be very popular, he

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Speaker 1: pointed out that the county has a squirrel hunting season,

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Speaker 1: so why not cats. Here's a quote from Bill. It

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Speaker 1: would seem to me, if you've got an animal that's

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Speaker 1: not a pet for anybody, you've got to do what

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Speaker 1: you've got to do to make the situation better. A

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Speaker 1: feral cats season if need to, you know, you gotta

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Speaker 1: do what you gotta do. As in many places in

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Speaker 1: the US, the feral cat population is growing in Licking County, Ohio.

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Speaker 1: A local nonprofit called Licking County Trap Neuter Release. Aside

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Speaker 1: from being just one word away from a nasty Google

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Speaker 1: search says they neuter as many as seventy five cats

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Speaker 1: every week and one hundred and thirty cat colonies are

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Speaker 1: enrolled in their neutering program. The local Humane Society estimates

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Speaker 1: that they have spaded or neutered five thousand cats in

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Speaker 1: the last decade. According to the Newark Advocate, which you

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Speaker 1: know if you're doing the math, they've neutered or spade

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Speaker 1: five thousand cats in the last decade, and currently they

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Speaker 1: are neutering or spaying seventy five cats a week, and

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Speaker 1: there are one hundred and thirty cat colonies enrolled in

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Speaker 1: their program. We can go ahead and say definitively that

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Speaker 1: spay neuter release does not work. The director of that

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Speaker 1: humane society. So the community was stunned by Hayes's proposal.

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Speaker 1: The comments under the original article are mostly negative, and

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Speaker 1: Ohio law prohibits quote needlessly killing cats and dogs. While

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Speaker 1: I had questioned whether killing feral cats is quote needless,

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Speaker 1: Haz's comment obviously caused some hissing and spitting in Licking County.

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Speaker 1: Quick side note, Ohio won't be opening a feral cat

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Speaker 1: season anytime soon, but Australia's aboriginal communities have hunted feral

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Speaker 1: cats since at least the eighteen nineties. According to Smithsonian Magazine,

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Speaker 1: since being introduced to the continent about two d thirty

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Speaker 1: years ago, cats have wiped out more than a dozen

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Speaker 1: species in Australia. Today, the feral cat population has balloon

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Speaker 1: to over five million, and in sensitive ecosystems like Kangaroo Island,

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Speaker 1: some locals have taken it upon themselves to extra pay

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Speaker 1: the cats by hunting them. Back in Ohio, Hayes issued

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Speaker 1: an apology two days after making his comment. I know

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Speaker 1: we can't go around shooting cats, He said. My solution

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Speaker 1: was not a good one, not even feasible. Well, I

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Speaker 1: don't understand why it's not feasible. It's a great question.

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Speaker 1: Unfortunately for Hayes, his political career UH took a lick there.

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Speaker 1: In Licking County, the damage was already done. His opponent

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Speaker 1: took advantage of the blunder by posting on Facebook an

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Speaker 1: uncaptioned image of himself holding a cat. Just a few

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Speaker 1: weeks later, he has lost the election for County Commissioner

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Speaker 1: by less than one percentage point, or about two hundred

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Speaker 1: and seventy seven votes. I wonder what the numbers would

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Speaker 1: have been like if songbirds and small mammals could have voted.

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Speaker 1: There might be more than one way to skin a cat,

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Speaker 1: but in Licking County, at least for now, there's only

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Speaker 1: one way to get rid of them, which is uh

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Speaker 1: let them die of old age. As a reminder, outdoor

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Speaker 1: cats kill about two point four billion birds per year

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Speaker 1: in the United States. A two thousand thirteen study published

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Speaker 1: in the journal Nature titled the Impact of free Ranging

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Speaker 1: Domestic Cats on Wildlife in the United States estimates that

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Speaker 1: free ranging domestic cats kill one point three to four

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Speaker 1: billion birds and six point three to twenty two point

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Speaker 1: three billion mammals annually. Unowned cats, as opposed to owned pets,

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Speaker 1: caused the majority of this mortality. Our findings suggest that

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Speaker 1: free ranging cats cause substantially greater wildlife mortality than previously thought,

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Speaker 1: and are likely the single greatest source of anthropogenic mortality

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Speaker 1: for US birds and mammals. Scientifically sound conservation and policy

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Speaker 1: intervention is needed to reduce this impact. That was written

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Speaker 1: again in two thousand thirteen. It is now two thousand

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Speaker 1: twenty two and we're still spaying, neutering and releasing animals

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Speaker 1: that continue to eat just because it's fun. I'll bring

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Speaker 1: up the old joke of the farmers sand sir. The

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Speaker 1: issue is the cats are eating the birds. They're not

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Speaker 1: having sex with them to death. It's just science. Folks

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Speaker 1: don't let that affect free ranging cats. Seriously, Why why

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Speaker 1: is it a bad thing to suggest the killing of

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Speaker 1: feral cats? I do not understand. Anyway. This week we've

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Speaker 1: got hunter safety legislation and so much more. But first

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna tell you about my week. And my week

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Speaker 1: was spent at the annual Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Rendezvous.

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Speaker 1: Rendezvous is first of all, a great time, I'll say

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Speaker 1: for the outdoors. It's also a really diverse crowd. B

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Speaker 1: h A membership seems to skew largely independent, so every

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Speaker 1: circle you bump into is kind of hard to pin

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Speaker 1: down which I love. You have libertarian to liberal to conservative,

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Speaker 1: all having a beer together and sharing perspectives on what

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Speaker 1: matters public land, public wildlife, food. We talked about wins

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Speaker 1: and losses. We talked a lot about corner crossing. You

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Speaker 1: can listen to that big discussion on the b h

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Speaker 1: A podcast and Blast hosted by Hal Herring. This episode

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Speaker 1: features Liz Lynch and Jared Oakleff of Wyoming b h A.

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Speaker 1: We talked about bruised air space, private property and what's

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Speaker 1: not the US Constitution, Unlawful Enclosures Act, and the fact

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Speaker 1: that very few landowners actually restrict access on corners, and

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Speaker 1: we can't let people think that every person with a

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Speaker 1: private property sign is unlawfully in closing the public trust.

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Speaker 1: We talked about a lawsuit filed here in the state

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Speaker 1: of Montana by the United Property Owners of Montana against

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Speaker 1: Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. They're demanding the culling of

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Speaker 1: Montana's Elk herd and removal of wildlife management from the

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Speaker 1: hands of professionals to be placed in the hands of

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Speaker 1: the state legislature. That's not made up. That's a real

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Speaker 1: lawsuit happening right now. However, the fight to take wildlife

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Speaker 1: management away from the public trust is unfortunately a nationwide thing,

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Speaker 1: much of which we've covered here on the Weekend Review.

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Speaker 1: We also talked, of course, about the Houses Act, the

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Speaker 1: most recent and blatant attempt to convert public lands to

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Speaker 1: uninterrupted stretches of Utah Strip Mall. So, yeah, some serious talk,

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Speaker 1: but I'll still tell you that leaving b h A

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Speaker 1: Rendezvous is oddly invigorating. Don't let my cold fool you.

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Speaker 1: We can all get wrapped up in the periodicals, the

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Speaker 1: news cycles, and conservation can be lonely and sometimes even

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Speaker 1: a depressing place. But when you spend three to four

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Speaker 1: days amongst the crowd that is largely younger than you

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Speaker 1: are and super passionate about amplifying the benefits of the

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Speaker 1: outdoors to the masses, while at the same time wholly

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Speaker 1: concerned with the proper conservation of our wild spaces and

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Speaker 1: a willingness to teach the ethical stewardship that goes along

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Speaker 1: with the land of many uses some periodically crowded trailheads

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Speaker 1: your sensitive high alpine terrain. You leave feeling like there

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Speaker 1: isn't just blind hope in the future, but an actual

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Speaker 1: path forward. I'll see y'all next year, and big thank

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Speaker 1: you to all the b h A volunteers and staff

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Speaker 1: that made such a great event possible. I'm fired up

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Speaker 1: moving on. It's been a while since last Hunter Safety

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Speaker 1: round up, and that's a good thing. Hunting is safer

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Speaker 1: than it's ever been, but that doesn't mean we should

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Speaker 1: get complacent here's a few reasons why. On Saturday, May seven,

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Speaker 1: a grandfather took his nine year old grandson turkey hunting

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Speaker 1: and Randolph County, North Carolina. The day was uneventful till

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Speaker 1: they returned to the car. As the grandfather was loading

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Speaker 1: their gear into the back of the vehicle, here had

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Speaker 1: a gunshot from the front seat. The child had entered

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Speaker 1: the front passenger area of the car and somehow a

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Speaker 1: nine millimeter handgun was quote tossed into the back seat.

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Speaker 1: The gun went off and struck the child in the head.

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Speaker 1: The sheriff's office hasn't said exactly who got to hold

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Speaker 1: the gun. So far, they've maintained that the shooting was accidental,

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Speaker 1: and they haven't mentioned a third party who was present

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Speaker 1: during the incident. The grandfather rested the child to a

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Speaker 1: location where he had cell reception and met an ambulance

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Speaker 1: on his way to the hospital. As of May nine,

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Speaker 1: the child had survived his wounds and was recovering. You

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Speaker 1: might not call that incident strictly hunting related, but here's

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Speaker 1: one he might call at accident. On Saturday, April thirty,

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Speaker 1: a twenty eight year old turkey hunter named Colton Shoemaker

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Speaker 1: was setting up decoys with his girlfriend on some private

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Speaker 1: land in West Virginia. While they were doing this, they

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Speaker 1: saw sixty eight year old David Haggarty sit down near

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Speaker 1: tree not far away, according to court documents obtained by

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Speaker 1: Metro News. A short time later, they heard turkeys in

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Speaker 1: the area, but they didn't have a chance to go

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Speaker 1: after them. Haggardy shot Shoemaker with a two forty three

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Speaker 1: Winchester rifle. Shoemaker died of his wounds later that day,

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Speaker 1: and Haggard he told investigators he thought the twenty eight

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Speaker 1: year old was a turkey. So far, Haggard he has

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Speaker 1: only been charged with two counts of wanton endangerment with

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Speaker 1: a firearm. Both are felony charges, and the West Virginia

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Speaker 1: Natural Resources Police say additional charges are likely. In case

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Speaker 1: you're wondering, it is legal in West Virginia to hunt

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Speaker 1: turkeys with a rifle. In another tragic story, a seventeen

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Speaker 1: year old named Caleb laid Holf was shot and killed

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Speaker 1: while hunting with friends in Nebraska on Sunday, May one.

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Speaker 1: The Hamilton County Sheriff's office has not at least any

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Speaker 1: additional details, but Sheriff Jeremy McCoy told the Lincoln Star

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Speaker 1: Journal that his office is investigating the incident along with

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Speaker 1: the Nebraska State Police. So far, no charges have been filed.

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Speaker 1: I'll say it untill I'm blue in the face, a

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Speaker 1: right stop reading these stories. If you're gonna bring a

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Speaker 1: loaded gun into the woods, it's your responsibility to do

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Speaker 1: so safely. That means keeping your finger off the trigger

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Speaker 1: until you're ready to fire. It means knowing with one

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Speaker 1: certainty what your target is. It means keeping your safety

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Speaker 1: on or better yet, not walking around with around in

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Speaker 1: the chamber, which is not exactly the easiest thing to

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Speaker 1: do in the Turkey Woods. I understand that there's never

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Speaker 1: been a safer time and to be a hunter. Don't

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Speaker 1: let anyone tell you otherwise, But let stories like these

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Speaker 1: motivate you to never let your guard down and always

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Speaker 1: always practice safe gun handling in the woods, no matter

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Speaker 1: who you're with. Moving on to the turkey desk. On Tuesday,

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Speaker 1: April seventeen, a Mississippi man became only the fiftehunter in

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Speaker 1: history to earn a US Super Slam by killing a

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Speaker 1: turkey and forty nine different states. Chip Davis killed his

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Speaker 1: first turkey in Mississippi in the late nineteen eighties and

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Speaker 1: he begged his first out of state bird in Missouri.

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Speaker 1: Over the next thirty years, he killed the turkey in

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Speaker 1: every other state. Some years he only traveled to one state.

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Speaker 1: Other years he hits several different states, including this year

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Speaker 1: when he killed birds in Hawaii, Arizona, Virginia, and West Virginia.

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Speaker 1: As you can imagine, Davis had some serious turkey hunting

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Speaker 1: wisdom to dispense, and I'll get to that in a minute,

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Speaker 1: But what came through most clearly in his interview with

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Speaker 1: Meat Eater is his deep appreciation for turkeys. Turkeys were

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Speaker 1: my mentors, he said. What taught me the little bit

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Speaker 1: I know about turkeys his turkeys. For example, Davis has

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Speaker 1: worked out seventeen distinct segments of the turkey breeding season.

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Speaker 1: When he lands in an area, his first order of

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Speaker 1: business is to make sure there are turkeys on the property.

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Speaker 1: Then he starts trying to pinpoint the breeding season timeline.

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Speaker 1: If it's still early, he uses an aggressive calling strategy

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Speaker 1: to make gobblers think he's a rival. If the mails

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Speaker 1: are already hand up, he uses soft hand calls and

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Speaker 1: focuses on getting into a good shooting position. If it's

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Speaker 1: late in the season, he ramps up his hand, calling

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Speaker 1: to lure in a gobbler who maybe hasn't seen a

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Speaker 1: hand in a few days. The road hasn't been easy.

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Speaker 1: I don't have access to Davis's bank account, but the

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Speaker 1: farm equipment auctioneer doesn't appear to be a millionaire. He

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Speaker 1: described the incredible pressure he was under tow bag of

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Speaker 1: turkey on each trip, especially when the plane tickets were

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Speaker 1: expensive and he only had a few days to hunt.

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Speaker 1: He wasn't always successful. He had to visit five states

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Speaker 1: twice to bag of turkey, including last year when he

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Speaker 1: whipped in both Virginia and West Virginia. But this year

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Speaker 1: everything came together. He celebrated his twenty fifth anniversary with

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Speaker 1: his wife by taking a trip to Hawaii, where he

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Speaker 1: checked that state off the list. Then he flew back

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Speaker 1: to Arizona, where he got a turkey on a Native

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Speaker 1: American reservation. A few days later, he flew out to

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Speaker 1: East Coast, where he ended his journey with a great

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Speaker 1: looking gobbler on some private land in West Virginia. You

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Speaker 1: can't tell this story without talking about how turkeys and

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Speaker 1: turkey hunters and the National Wild Turkey Federation resurrected the

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Speaker 1: turkey population in the United States. When the NWTF got

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Speaker 1: started in nineteen seventy three, there were only one point

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Speaker 1: three million wild turkeys in North America. Today there are

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Speaker 1: almost seven million turkeys, and as Davis proved, every state

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Speaker 1: except Alaska has a huntable population of birds. The U

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Speaker 1: s Super Slam is a relatively new award because only

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Speaker 1: in the last twenty years has the turkey population been

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Speaker 1: healthy enough to support a hunt from coast to coast.

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Speaker 1: So congrats, Chip. There won't be many Super Slam winners,

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Speaker 1: but I'm hopeful that you won't be the last. Moving

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Speaker 1: on to the legislation desk. First up, the Atlantic States

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Speaker 1: Marine Fisheries Commission has issued the final provisions of Amendment

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Speaker 1: seven to their stripe Bass Management Plan. Big thanks to

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Speaker 1: all of you who call, the emailed, and testified at

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Speaker 1: their spring meeting where they voted on these provisions. More

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Speaker 1: than four thousand people weighed in and that effort paid off.

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Speaker 1: Although we didn't get every last thing we wanted, Amendment

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Speaker 1: seven is now solidly behind recovered stripe bass populations. Even better,

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Speaker 1: none of the worst case scenario provisions made it into

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Speaker 1: the final plan. As you'll recall from episode one two,

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Speaker 1: there are a lot of ins and outs on this issue,

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Speaker 1: so we're just going to cover the headlines here. Head

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Speaker 1: over to the news section of the back Country Hunters

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Speaker 1: and Anglers website for a great deep dive by New

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Speaker 1: York and New England chapter coordinator Chris Borgatti. The first

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Speaker 1: big headline, Amendment seven now assumes that recruitment will be

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Speaker 1: low over the next several years, which means that harvest

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Speaker 1: and mortality restrictions will be set at conservative levels. Although

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Speaker 1: that will limit take in the short term, it will

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Speaker 1: also rebuild the stock more quickly. Amendment seven now also

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Speaker 1: requires the board to take aggressive action right a way

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Speaker 1: if the upcoming stock assessment in October chose depleted populations.

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Speaker 1: Rather than going through a year long addendum process, A

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Speaker 1: tenure recovery plan will also go into effect within the

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Speaker 1: two years if that assessment brings bad news. Efforts to

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Speaker 1: reduce mortality from recreational catch and release will be implemented

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Speaker 1: as education and outreach programs rather than hard to enforce regulation,

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Speaker 1: which conservation organizations were pulling. For one element we didn't

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Speaker 1: cover an Episode one fifty two was the concept of

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Speaker 1: conservation equivalency or CE. The cliffs Notes version of CEE

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Speaker 1: is that it's a way for individual states to come

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Speaker 1: up with their own ways to meet harvest thresholds and

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Speaker 1: other restrictions separate from the methods that the Board hands down.

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Speaker 1: That's fine when it's working well, but over the past

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Speaker 1: several years it's become a loophole, and Amendment seven will

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Speaker 1: tighten up how conservation equivalency where CE is administered to

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Speaker 1: rain in abuse. But the biggest takeaway here, the biggest headline,

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Speaker 1: is that getting off your u and making noise for

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Speaker 1: what you want makes an enormous difference. The Commission Board

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Speaker 1: voted against public opinion on a couple of issues, but

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Speaker 1: by and large, when the public lined up for a

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Speaker 1: certain option, the board followed that guidance, and therefore we're

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Speaker 1: much more likely to have a thriving fishery and kick

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Speaker 1: ass days on the water ten years from now. If

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Speaker 1: you were one of the people who got involved, all

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Speaker 1: I can say is thank you. Don't forget to thank

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Speaker 1: your commissioners as well. Next up, the Florida Fish and

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Speaker 1: Wildlife Commission has changed it's hunting REGs so that you

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Speaker 1: may now go after alligators twenty four hours a day,

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Speaker 1: up from seventeen hours. Florida alligator season runs from August

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Speaker 1: fifteen through November one, So you Sunshine State insomniacs out

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Speaker 1: there now have another way to keep yourself busy and

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Speaker 1: fill the freezer. The state plans to issue seventy three

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Speaker 1: hundred alligator permits this year. So after the bars close,

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Speaker 1: head on out to the drainage ditches and coy ponds

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Speaker 1: and see what you find. Responsibly, of course, across the country,

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Speaker 1: in Wyoming, severe droughts have been very hard on the

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Speaker 1: growth of shrubs like sage brush and rabbit brush, and

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Speaker 1: the pronghorn and mule deer that feed on those shrubs

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Speaker 1: are also headed for a tough time. In response, the

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Speaker 1: state has reduced the number of antelope tags it will

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Speaker 1: issue by eight thousand and mule deer by thirty three hundred.

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Speaker 1: Pronghorn are especially vulnerable to this particular effect of droughts

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Speaker 1: because they very seldom drink water from streams and pools

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Speaker 1: like other ungulates do. Antelope rather absorb almost all of

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Speaker 1: their water from the plants they eat. Will continue to

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Speaker 1: track the effects of drought on species across the country.

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Speaker 1: In Colorado, the state Senate has passed SB to two

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Speaker 1: Dash one six nine, which authorizes state agencies to limit

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Speaker 1: access to state records that would give away the location

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Speaker 1: of animals and they're breeding or nesting habitat. In recent years,

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Speaker 1: more and more hunters have started to use the GPS

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Speaker 1: location data of state wildlife agencies to scout game, which

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Speaker 1: is honestly no one's idea of fair chase. Color Addams,

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Speaker 1: call up Governor Polas and ask him to sign this one,

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Speaker 1: And if you live anywhere in the West, call your

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Speaker 1: reps and ask them to consider drafting similar legislation. In Delaware,

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Speaker 1: HB three seven eight has been introduced in the Health

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Speaker 1: and Human Development Committee to implement a fine for anyone

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Speaker 1: who's dog or dogs bark for more than fifteen minutes,

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Speaker 1: and would oblige all law enforcement, not just animal welfare officers,

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Speaker 1: to enforce the law. Although this seems to be targeted

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Speaker 1: at city dwellers with noisy neighbors, hound hunters are worried

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Speaker 1: that anti hunting groups would use this statute to harass them.

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Speaker 1: You first Staters, contact your duly elected to vote against

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Speaker 1: HB three seven eight. In New Jersey, Assembly Bill three

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Speaker 1: seven three two will increase the minimum legal distance from

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Speaker 1: occupied buildings for bow hunters from one fifty feet to

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Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty feet. If you think about the

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Speaker 1: hunting that our friend Taylor Chamberlain does from swing sets

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Speaker 1: and the d C suburbs, a lot like this would

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Speaker 1: end that altogether. That would mean no more of the

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Speaker 1: food that suburban hunters provide for themselves and local food pantries,

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Speaker 1: and one less check on out of control dear populations.

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Speaker 1: A B three three two would also require those hunting

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Speaker 1: on private property to notify the landowners of all adjacent

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Speaker 1: properties and received back written confirmation, which would also effectively

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Speaker 1: and hunting in these areas. Basically everyone lives next to

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Speaker 1: at least one cat. Lady garden staters, definitely call your

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Speaker 1: reps to vote against a B three seven three two.

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Speaker 1: Thank you to Glenn Beckmeyer for writing in on that one.

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Speaker 1: In Hawaii, a bill that bans the use of drones

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Speaker 1: for fishing is awaiting the signature of Governor David I.

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Speaker 1: Gay anglers have been using drones in the low host

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Speaker 1: state to carry their bait hundreds of yards out into

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Speaker 1: the ocean and drop it exactly where they want it.

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Speaker 1: Supporters of the bill, which include the State Department of

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Speaker 1: Natural Resources, say the practice harms fish populations and aliters

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Speaker 1: the ocean with fishing line. The measure past the House

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Speaker 1: and the Senate by large majorities, but has been criticized

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Speaker 1: by the fishing community. The Governor has not indicated whether

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Speaker 1: he plans to sign it. As of this recording, it

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Speaker 1: is still on the Governor's desk. And finally, we're going

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Speaker 1: a little farther afield to Rome, Italy. In the four

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Speaker 1: millionth example of don't feed the wildlife, picnicking has been

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Speaker 1: banned north of Rome to control the spread of African

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Speaker 1: swine fever and feral pigs. There. You know how this

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Speaker 1: story goes. People offer their bannini crust to the cute pigs.

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Speaker 1: They balance their monzarella rappers on top of an overflowing

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Speaker 1: garbage can, and the pigs packed together to get that

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Speaker 1: food and spread illness in the process. African swine fever

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Speaker 1: is a particularly nasty one, as it infects feral swine

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Speaker 1: harmlessly but kills almost all domesticated pigs, meaning that its

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Speaker 1: hosts can spread it for years at a catastrophic cost

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Speaker 1: to agriculture. The Italian government has announced an upcoming culing effort,

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Speaker 1: which is likely to run into local opposition, but that's

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Speaker 1: the only way to control the spread, and earlier European

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Speaker 1: outbreak in the ninety nineties was only stopped when several

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Speaker 1: countries adopted very strict eradication programs. Now, I don't think

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Speaker 1: this idea will get a lot of traction, but knowing

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Speaker 1: how much Italians love their soprasada and pursudo and cured

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Speaker 1: meats in general, maybe we can get all those picnickers

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Speaker 1: in Rome to make a picnic out of these ferrel picks.

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Speaker 1: Then we'd have the problem under control. Pronto, pronto. That's

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Speaker 1: all I've got for you this week. Thank you so

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Speaker 1: much for listening. Remember, as you're battling from spring thaw

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Speaker 1: into summer snowing here currently, you may need a little

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Speaker 1: reinforcement courtesy is some clean, quiet, battery operated steel chainsaws,

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Speaker 1: leaf blowers, weed whackers, mowers, maybe even a shop back.

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Speaker 1: Go to www dot steel dealers dot com and find

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Speaker 1: a local, knowledgeable steel dealier near you. They'll get you

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Speaker 1: set up with what you need, and they won't say

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Speaker 1: in your home with what you don't and most importantly,

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Speaker 1: right in to a s K C a L. That's

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Speaker 1: ask Cal at the meat eater dot com and let

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Speaker 1: me know what's going on in your neck of the woods.

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Speaker 1: Thanks again and I'll talk to you next week. H