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 worst exhibitions ever made of the wolfish instinct to slay that
springs eternal in some human (!) breasts are those brought about
through the distress or errors of wild animals. By way of illustration,
consider the slaughter of half-starved elk that took place in the edge
of Idaho in the winter of 1909 and 1910, when about seven hundred elk
that were driven out of the Yellowstone Park at its northwestern corner
by the deep snow, fled into Idaho in the hope of finding food. The
inhabitants met the starving herds with repeating rifles, and as the
unfortunate animals struggled westward through the snow and storm, they
were slaughtered without mercy. Bulls and cows, old and young, all of
the seven hundred, went down; and Stoney Indians could not have acted
any worse than did those "settlers."
On another occasion, it is recorded that the prong-horned antelope herd
of the Mammoth Hot Springs wandered across the line into Gardiner, and
quickly met a savage attack of gunners with rifles. A number of those
rare and valuable animals were killed, and others fled back into the
Park with broken legs dangling in the air.
In the interest of public decency, and for the protection of the
reputation of American citizenship, one of two things should be done.
The northern boundary of the Park should be extended northward beyond
Gardiner, or else the deathtrap should be moved elsewhere. The case of
the town of Gardiner is referred to the legislature of Montana for
treatment.
Beyond question, the highest sentiments of humanity are those that are
stirred by the misfortunes of killable game. During the past thirty
years, I have noticed some interesting manifestations of the increased
sympathy for wild creatures that steadily is growing in a large section
of the public mind. Thirty years ago, the appearance of a deer or moose
in the streets of any eastern village nearly always was in itself a
signal for a grand chase of the unfortunate creature, and its speedy
slaughter. Today, in the eastern states, the general feeling is quite
different. The appearance of a deer in the Hudson River itself, or a
moose in a Maine village is a signal, not for a wild chase and cruel
slaughter, but for a general effort to save the animal from being hurt,
or killed. I know this through ocular proof, at least half a dozen lost
and bewildered deer having been carefully driven into yards, or barns,
and humanely kept and cared for until they could be shipped to us.
Several have been caught while swimming in the Hudson, bewildered and
panic-stricken. The latest capture occurred in New York City itself.
A puma that escaped (about 1902) from the Zoological Park, instead of
being shot was captured by sensible people in the hamlet of Bronxdale,
alive and unhurt, and safely returned to us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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