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Speaker 1: From Meat Eaters World News headquarters in Bozeman, Montana. This

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Speaker 1: is Cow's Week in Review with Ryan cow Calaian. Here's cap.

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Speaker 1: A bald eagle in North Carolina dropped a cat through

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Speaker 1: someone's car windshield last week and what can only be

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Speaker 1: described as a catastrophic commute. The incident occurred on US

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Speaker 1: Route seventy four in Swain County, about sixty five miles

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Speaker 1: southwest of Asheville. The driver was in a four door

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Speaker 1: sedan making their way along the road when all of

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Speaker 1: a sudden whim, the feline was catapulted into the passenger

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Speaker 1: side windshield and left a sizeable, roughly cat shaped hole

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Speaker 1: in the glass. You may not believe me, but I

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Speaker 1: just had a bald eagle drop a cat through my windshield,

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Speaker 1: the driver said on a nine to one to one call.

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Speaker 1: The dispatcher calmly explained that he did believe the caller,

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Speaker 1: but then laughed. According to Fox News, the cat, as

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Speaker 1: you might imagine, was dead. In fact, according to a

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Speaker 1: listener named Alan, it had been dead for quite a while.

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Speaker 1: Alan lives in the area, and he says the feeline

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Speaker 1: had been dead on the side of the road for

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Speaker 1: a few days. Bald eagles usually don't mess with live cats,

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Speaker 1: but they're happy to scavenge one if the opportunity presents itself.

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Speaker 1: Alan said he watched the eagle pick up the cat

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Speaker 1: and fly off with it, but it must have been

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Speaker 1: too heavy a prize. I did not train this eagle,

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Speaker 1: as one of you asked, but as you'll hear later

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Speaker 1: in this episode, I'm not the only one who's concerned

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Speaker 1: about invasive predators on the landscape. I can't say I'll

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Speaker 1: be shedding many tears about this perjectile. This week we've

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Speaker 1: got animal attacks, legislation, and feral cats. But first I'm

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Speaker 1: going to tell you about my week. And my week

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Speaker 1: was great. Absolutely put the screws down in big steep country,

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Speaker 1: far from any public private boundaries on our big, beautiful

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Speaker 1: public lands last week. The weather was terrible for both

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Speaker 1: stalking and traditional muzzleoders and seeing, but god, it was

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Speaker 1: a fantastic kel hunt. First, we hauled a can am

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Speaker 1: down with us on this one. There are very few

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Speaker 1: areas in this zone where you can take these exclusively,

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Speaker 1: but it was just extremely nice to run this machine

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Speaker 1: on the wet, sloppy forest Service roads rides way better

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Speaker 1: than three quarter ton turns around faster and easier, and

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Speaker 1: where we stayed we didn't even have to turn the

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Speaker 1: truck on for the full week, which was great because

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Speaker 1: it turns out I had a catastrophic coolant leak, which

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Speaker 1: was a real problem. It was luxury living on the

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Speaker 1: commute point. Only deep wet snow came in every day

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Speaker 1: and night, severely limited visibility. But like I told you

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Speaker 1: last week, we found them. Actually finding elk was not

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Speaker 1: hard at all. Finding mature bowls seemed to be a challenge,

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Speaker 1: which is completely incongruent with my knowledge of this same

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Speaker 1: area only seven years ago. As per always, there is

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Speaker 1: never one reason in the conservation game for anything. But

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Speaker 1: here is my theory on the decline of big bulls,

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Speaker 1: and there's anecdotal theories that this herd is just in

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Speaker 1: decline anyway. Nutrition has changed somewhat, big burns have matured

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Speaker 1: in this area. The feed is changed, likely some increase

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Speaker 1: in invasive plant grass weed communities. Wolves have been a

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Speaker 1: presence in roughly the same numbers during this whole time,

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Speaker 1: but what has increased is trail building and human presence.

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Speaker 1: The amount of recreational trails, primarily for mountain biking and

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Speaker 1: primarily illegally built have increased human presence throughout the years

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Speaker 1: in areas which were previously somewhat isolated until hunting season

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Speaker 1: and off trail hikers show up. Wolves love using trails

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Speaker 1: and roads to move fast and efficiently in the pursuit

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Speaker 1: of game. A trail on which you can haul ass

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Speaker 1: on your mountain bike allows that relatively short legged wolf

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Speaker 1: to do the same. An elk, which uses its relatively

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Speaker 1: long legs to blow across ground cover at a fast pace,

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Speaker 1: can be cut off by predators who are using a

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Speaker 1: trail system. Change in weather patterns are also a factor.

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Speaker 1: I believe it stays nice longer, so more people are

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Speaker 1: out in the woods and animals don't get to relax.

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Speaker 1: We have year round patterns of shed hunting, mushroom hunting,

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Speaker 1: spring bear hiking, mountain biking, archery, rifle muzzleot or, snowmobiling,

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Speaker 1: backcountry skiing, helicopter skiing, and then you throw in the

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Speaker 1: predators like wolves, who do not take any of these

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Speaker 1: seasons off. So when do the ungulates get a break?

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Speaker 1: What's the stress level and what are the results? Could

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Speaker 1: it be a decline in what used to be like

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Speaker 1: a pretty high prevalence of just big old bull elk

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Speaker 1: or there could be nothing wrong and these are changes

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Speaker 1: on the landscape with no impact. In any case, it

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Speaker 1: was a phenomenal adventure on our public lands. We ended

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Speaker 1: the trip with a pre dawn hike, starting at five

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Speaker 1: thirty am up a wickedly steep slope. Bowls going to

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Speaker 1: bed on a nearby ridge were spotted at about seven

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Speaker 1: forty five am, and only miles and sun crusted hip

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Speaker 1: deep snow lay between us. We came down that same

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Speaker 1: steep hill in a misty rain at eight pm, thoroughly spent.

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Speaker 1: It was a wonderful trip. Can't wait to do it again.

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Speaker 1: Want to ask for you, and this is a literal ask,

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Speaker 1: no joke. What is the best way to keep your

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Speaker 1: powder dry and one hundred percent humidity? Specifically, how do

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Speaker 1: you keep moisture out of the pan and fire hole

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Speaker 1: in a stock and shooting situation with a flint lock.

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Speaker 1: I'll take all the help I can get an expert.

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Speaker 1: I am not and Thanksgiving Turkey Day as some call it,

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Speaker 1: coming up here and by the time you hear this

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Speaker 1: here podcast, so happy Thanksgiving everybody. Hopefully you and the

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Speaker 1: fam treated each other well. Moving on to the attack desk,

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Speaker 1: a seventy year old North Carolina woman was attacked earlier

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Speaker 1: this month by a whitetail buck. The Charlotte Observer reports

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Speaker 1: that the woman was trying to walk her dog around

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Speaker 1: six thirty am when she saw the deer near her mailbox.

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Speaker 1: She attempted to shoot it away, but it didn't take

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Speaker 1: kindly to the gesture. It charged her and knocked her over,

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Speaker 1: pinned her to the ground with its antlers, leaving puncture

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Speaker 1: wounds on her chest and legs. She was eventually able

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Speaker 1: to get to her feet as she tried to defend

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Speaker 1: herself by grabbing its antlers and moving back towards her house.

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Speaker 1: It's unclear how she managed to extricate herself from the situation,

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Speaker 1: but she eventually made it to the hospital, where she

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Speaker 1: was treated for non life threatening injuries. We hear at

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Speaker 1: least one of these stories almost every November. Some poor

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Speaker 1: individual gets too close to a running buck and that

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Speaker 1: testosterone fueled animal decides to add humans to its daily

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Speaker 1: list of adversaries. It's also more likely than not that

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Speaker 1: this particular deer had been fed. That's what the neighborhood

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Speaker 1: deer feeders usually forget your favorite buck might be docile

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Speaker 1: as a lamb. In June one those hormones kick in

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Speaker 1: watch out. A lack of fear around humans combined with

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Speaker 1: rut brain is a bad combination for the elderly, as

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Speaker 1: we saw in this story. A grizzly bear in British

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Speaker 1: Columbia attacked a group of school children last week, injuring

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Speaker 1: eleven and sending one adult and three kids to the hospital.

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Speaker 1: The attack took place in a remote First Nations community

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Speaker 1: called four Mile. The kids were out on a field

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Speaker 1: trip when the attack occurred. The Globe and Mail reports

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Speaker 1: that about twenty kids and teachers were eating lunch when

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Speaker 1: a sow and two cubs emerged from the woods and attacked.

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Speaker 1: It's unclear whether something sparked the attack or it was unprovoked,

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Speaker 1: but teachers had to deploy two cans of bear spray

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Speaker 1: as well as bear bangers before the bruin finally decided

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Speaker 1: to leave the area. Bear bangers like a firecracker. Wildlife

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Speaker 1: officials have set camera traps and live traps, and they

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Speaker 1: say they'll continue looking into the capture or kill of

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Speaker 1: the bears. Saliva was collected from the victim's clothes, so

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Speaker 1: they'll know if they get the right animals. Meanwhile, officials

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Speaker 1: in the area are encouraging people to stay indoors and

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Speaker 1: not try to find the bears themselves. One of the

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Speaker 1: schools hosted a basketball game, but officers with the Royal

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Speaker 1: Canadian Mounted Police were there to make sure everyone got

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Speaker 1: home safely. That might sound a little overcautious, but the

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Speaker 1: Globe and Mail reports that more bears are showing up

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Speaker 1: in residential areas this year, and it's not clear why.

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Speaker 1: These aren't your teddy bears. They're wild animals. When resident

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Speaker 1: told the Outlet, residents here, we have a lot of

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Speaker 1: respect for them, but these bears have no fear. Now,

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Speaker 1: BC hunters are probably shaking their heads at the behest

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Speaker 1: of First Nations communities, including the one where this attack occurred.

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Speaker 1: The province banned bear hunting in twenty seventeen. There's nothing

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Speaker 1: to say that hunting grizzlies would have prevented this attack.

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Speaker 1: But if we're talking about bears losing their fear of humans,

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Speaker 1: we have to look at all the ways that bears

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Speaker 1: are taught to avoid the strange hairless creatures living, working,

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Speaker 1: and going to school. Down in the valleys. Hunting is

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Speaker 1: one of them, and we'll see if this incident prompts

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Speaker 1: serious calls to once again actively manage the bear population.

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Speaker 1: Moving on to the accident desk. The body of a

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Speaker 1: missing hunter was found earlier this month after his friends

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Speaker 1: and family refused to give up the search. Fifty one

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Speaker 1: year old Devon Dobeck went deer hunting in Oregon's Mount

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Speaker 1: Hood National Forest on October thirty one. He texted a

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Speaker 1: friend to say he'd bagged a buck and was heading

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Speaker 1: back to his car a day early, but when he

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Speaker 1: didn't check back in, his family became concerned and a

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Speaker 1: search and rescue operation was launched. The Klackamous County Sheriff's

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Speaker 1: Office and at search and rescue team found Devon's car,

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Speaker 1: but there wasn't any sign of the hunter or his deer.

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Speaker 1: They continued their search throughout the night, and rescuers reported

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Speaker 1: hearing gunshots. They assumed this was Devon trying to signal

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Speaker 1: for help, but they weren't able to pinpoint where the

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Speaker 1: shots were coming from. The search efforts continued through the week,

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Speaker 1: but they still weren't able to find the missing hunter.

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Speaker 1: The Sheriff's office suspended the search, but Devon's family and

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Speaker 1: friends didn't give up. They launched to go fund me

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Speaker 1: campaign and use the money to hire a helicopter and

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Speaker 1: horse teams. They also worked with a nonprofit search and

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Speaker 1: rescue organization and had the help of dozens of volunteers.

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Speaker 1: One of those volunteers is the one who who eventually

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Speaker 1: spotted Devon's body at the base of a cliff face.

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Speaker 1: The area was so difficult to reach that it took

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Speaker 1: professional rope teams two days to get the body, but

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Speaker 1: they eventually got Devon out and now his family will

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Speaker 1: have the closure that many families of missing hunters don't get.

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Speaker 1: This story hits close to home, not just because Devon

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Speaker 1: was a hunter. He was also a good buddy of

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Speaker 1: Dave Smith, the founder of Dave Smith Decoy's. I'm sure

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Speaker 1: Devon's family and friends are happy to know what happened

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Speaker 1: to him, but this will be a tough road to walk.

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Speaker 1: Condolences to Dave and Devon's family and everyone who knew him,

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Speaker 1: and good reminder that you're not out until you're out.

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Speaker 1: I always get hacked on for getting home, taking care

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Speaker 1: of all my stuff, and forgetting to text or call

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Speaker 1: anybody who knew that I was out there doing my thing.

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Speaker 1: It's a good reminder to make those calls and text

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Speaker 1: the priority and let folks sleep easy. Weird things happen

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Speaker 1: out there. This week, New Zealand started a major new

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Speaker 1: offensive in the global war between faralcats and native species.

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Speaker 1: Feelines have been added to the list of target animals

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Speaker 1: in the country's anti invasives program known as Predator Free

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Speaker 1: twenty fifty, along with rats, stoats, ferrets, and possums. Faralkatz

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Speaker 1: will now face a coordinated government effort to completely wipe

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Speaker 1: them out. Faral katz are serious politics in New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three presidential debate, both major candidates pledged

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Speaker 1: to eradicate them, but current President Christopher Luxen has been

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Speaker 1: slow to add cats to Predator Free twenty fifty and

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Speaker 1: was getting hammered across the political spectrum for it. The

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Speaker 1: pressure became so intense that Conservation Minister Tama Putaka went

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Speaker 1: on Radio New Zealand to announce the feral cat eradication program,

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Speaker 1: calling katz quote unquote stone cold killers. To put this

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Speaker 1: in context, this would be like both Trump and Harris

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Speaker 1: pledging to exterminate faral CAATs during the twenty twenty four campaign.

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Speaker 1: After the election, Nancy Pelosi and Bernie Sanders would call

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Speaker 1: Trump soft on cats. Next, EPA had Lee Zelden would

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Speaker 1: go on Fresh Air Terry Gross and say that the

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Speaker 1: US was going to new cats, back to the Stone Age.

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Speaker 1: Imagine all that, and then imagine no real backlash. The

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Speaker 1: political climate is so different down to New Zealand because

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Speaker 1: cats have been responsible for driving fourteen species of native

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Speaker 1: birds extinct, and they've contributed to the extinction of ten

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Speaker 1: other bird species there. Bloodthirsty cats have also made headlines recently.

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Speaker 1: In the town of Ohakuna, a single feral cat was

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Speaker 1: documented killing one hundred and seven bats in one week,

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Speaker 1: and seventeen skinks were found in the stomach of another

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Speaker 1: cat in the southern region of Canterbury. These splashy incidents

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Speaker 1: have dramatically changed public opinion in New Zealand. When Predator

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Speaker 1: Free twenty fifty was established in twenty sixteen, cats were

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Speaker 1: kept off the list by animal rights groups, and when

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Speaker 1: the town of North Canterbury included cats to its list

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Speaker 1: of target species in a youth hunting competition a few

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Speaker 1: years ago, the backlash was so intense that the town

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Speaker 1: reversed the decision that opposition just doesn't exist anymore. In fact,

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Speaker 1: the New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to

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Speaker 1: Animals hasn't protested this recent move, instead joining other conservation

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Speaker 1: groups to advocate for a law requiring the desexing of

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Speaker 1: all pet cats in New Zealand. To be clear, this

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Speaker 1: extermination campaign is only focused on wild roaming, non pet cats.

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Speaker 1: Even when Conservation Minister Putaka was calling feral cats stone

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Speaker 1: cold killers, he emphasized that he is a pet cat

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Speaker 1: owner and lover. So what happens now? Large scale trapping

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Speaker 1: operations will likely start next year, including training of homeowners.

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Speaker 1: Many of New Zealand's other invasives like rats and stoats,

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Speaker 1: have been meaningfully reduced by traps in people's backyards. Funding

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Speaker 1: will also go to developing new cat control technology. For example,

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Speaker 1: much of the toxic bait targeting invasives in New Zealand

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Speaker 1: is dropped from helicopters, but the sausages that work best

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Speaker 1: for poisoning cats tend to burst open when you drop

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Speaker 1: them from high up, so I kid you not. Some

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Speaker 1: funding may go toward perfecting bound non exploding poison sausages.

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Speaker 1: Although I'm not counting out feral cats just yet. New

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Speaker 1: Zealand does lead the world in successful pest eradication. There

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Speaker 1: are many lessons that North America could take from this effort,

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Speaker 1: but unfortunately it won't help on some of our worst problems,

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Speaker 1: like pythons in the Florida Everglades. Just zero point one

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Speaker 1: percent of successful eradications in human history have been of

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Speaker 1: reptile species. Even non exploding poisoned sausages can't conquer the python.

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Speaker 1: Time for a legislative roundup from across the country, and

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Speaker 1: as usual, it's a busy week. The FEDS have announced

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Speaker 1: their plan to dramatically shrink the definition of Waters of

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Speaker 1: the United States, or wotas under the Federal Clean Water Act.

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Speaker 1: WODOS defines the areas that the EPA can protect from

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Speaker 1: pollution and destruction, and in twenty twenty three, the Supreme

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Speaker 1: Court ruled that only wetlands that had a quote unquote

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Speaker 1: continuous surface connection to a relatively permanent waterway like a

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Speaker 1: river or lake, can be protected. The Trump administration has

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Speaker 1: now interpreted that decision to mean that wetlands would have

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Speaker 1: to contain surface water during the quote unquote wet season

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Speaker 1: every year, and a stream has to have a quote

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Speaker 1: unquote bed and banks to qualify. Wetlands connected to intermittent

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Speaker 1: streams which dry up during part of the year would

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Speaker 1: therefore lose protections. Ephemeral streams which only flow after rainfall

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Speaker 1: or snow melt would also be excluded. That might not

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Speaker 1: sound like a big deal if you're not familiar with water,

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Speaker 1: but approximately fifty percent of the country's drinking water passes

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Speaker 1: through these kinds of intermint waterways. Trump's new WODAS proposal

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Speaker 1: would strip protections from about eighty five percent of known

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Speaker 1: wetlands in the lower forty eight to get a sense

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Speaker 1: of what this would look like in dryer states. In Arizona,

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Speaker 1: just two point four percent of wetlands would be protected

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Speaker 1: under this plan. The EPA will be soliciting public comment

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Speaker 1: on this one when it gets further along, so we'll

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Speaker 1: give you a heads up when it's time to weigh in.

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Speaker 1: Make no mistake, kids, The revisions in twenty twenty three

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Speaker 1: were a major setback for migratory bird species and all

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Speaker 1: the other species that live in intermittent wetlands and benefit

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Speaker 1: from them. These revisions will, without a doubt, have a

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Speaker 1: major impact on the huntable populations of migratory birds get

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Speaker 1: tuned in. Trump has also released a separate plan to

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Speaker 1: roll back several protections under the Endangered Species Act. The

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Speaker 1: first Trump administration initiated many of these same changes back

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Speaker 1: in twenty nineteen, which were then reversed under Biden, so

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Speaker 1: now those reversals are being reversed. One proposal would bring

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Speaker 1: economic considerations into the decision making process on whether to

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Speaker 1: list a new species under the ESA. That means that

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Speaker 1: if the habitat of the Railroad Valley toad, a species

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Speaker 1: that only exists in a tiny part of Nevada, happens

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Speaker 1: to overlap with a big deposit of cobalt, we would

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Speaker 1: have to weigh the value of that cobalt when we

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Speaker 1: decide whether to list the toad. Until now, only scientific

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Speaker 1: considerations have been included in listing decisions. Another proposal would

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Speaker 1: limit projections into the future as a reason to list

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Speaker 1: a species. So even though scientists predict that the Yarrow's

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Speaker 1: spiny lizard in Arizona's Mule Mountains will completely lose its

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Speaker 1: habitat due to ongoing climate change, those predictions will have

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Speaker 1: less weight in a listing decision. A third would end

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Speaker 1: the so called blanket rule, which automatically applies protections to

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Speaker 1: all species designated as threatened. Each individual species would now

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Speaker 1: have to get its own specific protection plan, which is

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Speaker 1: a much higher hurdle. The same groups that sued to

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Speaker 1: stop the changes back in twenty nineteen will be suing

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Speaker 1: to stop these changes as well, so we'll continue the

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Speaker 1: eesayo yoing that we've all gotten used to. Bouncing over

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Speaker 1: to Alaska, the trumpet Menministration is preparing to issue a

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Speaker 1: rule that will allow hunting for bears overbait on National

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Speaker 1: Preserve land in Alaska. Although baiting is legal on state

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Speaker 1: land in Alaska, the Biden administration prohibited it on federal land,

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Speaker 1: but this new plan will make the rigs closer to

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Speaker 1: consistent across the board. It's interesting to step back from

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Speaker 1: the politics on this one and take a historical view.

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Speaker 1: Many contemporary anti hunting orgs will still defend hunting by

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Speaker 1: indigenous groups, especially those practices that started before European contact,

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Speaker 1: but all indigenous bear hunters that we know of historically

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Speaker 1: located bears in their dens and killed them there. Later,

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Speaker 1: almost all bear hunting was done over hounds, so because

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Speaker 1: bears are so reclusive, baiting can be considered the bear

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Speaker 1: hunting method that exemplifies fairchase the best. This won't convince

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Speaker 1: the antis, but it's worth remembering. Regardless. Ohio WANs you

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Speaker 1: might get the chance to vote next year on a

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Speaker 1: constitutional right to hunt and fish. Rep. Ron Ferguson introduced

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Speaker 1: House Joint Resolution one, which calls for constitutional amendment declaring quote,

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Speaker 1: the right to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife is a

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Speaker 1: valued part of Ohio's heritage and shall be forever preserved

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Speaker 1: for the public good. If approved by three fifths of

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Speaker 1: both legislative chambers, it would be presented before the people

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Speaker 1: of Ohio next November. If a majority of Buckeye State

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Speaker 1: residents approve it, it will be adopted. Like most similar amendments,

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Speaker 1: this one would also make hunting and fishing quote a

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Speaker 1: preferred means of managing and controlling wildlife. This is designed

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Speaker 1: to fend off recent efforts to marginalize hunters and ensure

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Speaker 1: hunting and fishing remains the primary tool in the Ohio

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Speaker 1: dn r's arsenal. Of course, it still has a high

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Speaker 1: bar to hurdle. Three fifths of the Ohio House and

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Speaker 1: Senate need to approve it, So if you haven't already,

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Speaker 1: get on the horn with your state legislators and tell

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Speaker 1: them to vote yes on House Joint Resolution one. Next up,

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Speaker 1: the Wisconsin legislatures for the third time, considering a bill

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Speaker 1: to establish a false sand hill crane hunt. Opponents worry

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Speaker 1: that the crane population will collapse under the hunting pressure,

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Speaker 1: but as it stands now, as many as thirteen hundred

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Speaker 1: cranes are already killed every year and the population is

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Speaker 1: stable and growing. Unfortunately, those thirteen hundred birds are all

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Speaker 1: shot under depredation permits to protect farmer's crops, and so

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Speaker 1: they cannot be eaten and instead just rot in the field.

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Speaker 1: Tim Andrik of Ducks Unlimited testify at the state hearing

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Speaker 1: decrying the waste. He said of people opposing the sandhill

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Speaker 1: crane hunt quote, I think they're opposed primarily because they've

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Speaker 1: not eaten one. Tim, I couldn't agree. More Over, in Minnesota,

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Speaker 1: the state will end shotgun only hunting zones, now allowing

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Speaker 1: rifles in all designated areas. DNR Big Game Program Coordinator

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Speaker 1: Paul Burr clarified that shotgun only rules historically weren't created

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Speaker 1: for public safety, but instead to limit effectiveness of means

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Speaker 1: of take when deer populations were lower. But now those

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Speaker 1: populations are much more We're robust bird told the KTTC

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Speaker 1: News Channel quote. They're just a better tool for deer hunting,

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Speaker 1: so opening it up to let everyone use a rifle

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Speaker 1: will hopefully result in people being more successful. Finally, in Wisconsin,

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Speaker 1: Republican lawmakers are the latest call for all users of

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Speaker 1: state lands to pay for permits, not just hunters and anglers.

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Speaker 1: A hiking permit would cost twenty for adults, ten for kids.

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Speaker 1: Non motorized boats would have to pay a registration fee,

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Speaker 1: and foragers would buy a yearly license for forty bucks.

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Speaker 1: These fees are intended to patch a sixteen million dollar

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Speaker 1: hole in the Wisconsin Dnire's budget without hiking the cost

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Speaker 1: of a hunting or fishing license. We're going to see

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Speaker 1: how the recreational user permit issue plays out across the country.

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Speaker 1: Let me know what you think by writing in to

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Speaker 1: ask cal at the meateater dot com or by dialing

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Speaker 1: four h six two two zero six four four one

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Speaker 1: and give me an earful thanks. Again, That's all I

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Speaker 1: got for you. If we'll talk to you next week.

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Speaker 1: Have a wonderful, safe, Thanksgiving it outside. H