Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and PreservationHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Game-laws -- United States; Wildlife conservation -- United States
The principles of wild-life protection and encouragement are now so
firmly established as to leave little room for argument regarding their
value. When they are set forth before the people of any given state, the
only question is of willingness to do the right thing; of duty or a
defiance of duty; of good citizenship or the reign of selfishness. Men
who do not wish to do their duty purposely befog great issues by noisy
talk and tiresome academic discussions of trivial details; and such men
are the curse and scourge of reform movements.
There are a very few persons who foolishly assert that "there are too
many game laws!" It is entirely wrong for any person to make such a
statement, for it tends to promote harmful error. The fact that our laws
are _too lenient_, or are not fully enforced, is no excuse for
denouncing their purposes. We have all along been too timid, too self
indulgent, and too much afraid of hurting the feelings of the game-hogs.
Give me the power to make the game laws of any state or province and I
will guarantee to save the _non-migratory_ wild life of that region. I
will not only make adequate laws, but I will also provide means, men and
penalties by which _they will be enforced_! It is easy and simple, for
men who are not afraid.
I have been at considerable pains to analyze the game laws of each
state, ascertain their shortcomings, and give a list of the faults that
need correction by new legislation. It has required no profound wisdom
to do this, because the principles involved are so plain that any
intelligent schoolboy fifteen years old can master them in one hour. I
have performed this task hopefully, in the belief that in many states
the real issues have not been plainly put before the people. Hereafter
no state shall destroy its wild life through ignorance of the laws that
would preserve it.
Let no man say that "it is too late to save the wild life"; for
excepting the dead-and-gone species, that is not true. Let no man say
that "we can not save the wild life by law"; for that is not true,
either. As long as laws are lax, even law-abiding people will take
advantage of them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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