Wyoming bill banning pursuit of wolves with snowmachines fails 🛷

Welcome to 4th best day of the week besides Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

While we’re slowly inching back towards the weekend, let’s all take a minute to grab a coffee or whiskey (no judgement) and get into what this beautiful Tuesday has to offer.

Here's what's worth reading about so far this week:

• Sleds a go - Wyoming bill to ban snowmachine use in predator hunting fails 🛷

• Florida man and a swan - Poacher gets a lifetime ban in the Sunshine State 🦢

• Something stinks - Texas man busted for illegal hunting in a Port-a-Potty 💩

• Bring us a bear hunt - Connecticut GOP lawmakers are rallying for a bear hunt 🧸

• Got the girl and the deer - This dude proposed to his girlfriend and dropped a deer in under 5 minutes 💍

APPARENTLY, IT’S A NECESSARY TOOL
WYOMING BILL THAT WOULD BAN RUNNING OVER WOLVES AND COYOTES WITH SNOWMOBILES FAILS

Despite garnering support from the hunting and outdoors community, the Taking of Predators on Public Lands bill along with another amendment to another anti-animal torture bill both failed last week in Wyoming. 

I have to admit, on the surface, it seemed to me like a non-sensical form of killing wolves, coyotes and other predators. In earnest, I blindly supported the bill based on the actions taken by one Wyoming man last winter. After mowing down a wolf with a snowmachine in Daniel, Wyoming last year, the man then paraded the near-dead animal about town before shooting it behind a bar. 

It was an outrageous situation and certainly one I wouldn’t want to be associated with. On the heels of the incident, the pressure has been applied to Wyoming lawmakers to make a change to the way these predators are pursued. I, like many others, supported the bills that would remove snowmachines from the list of available equipment allowable to kill wolves and coyotes.

But with news this week of the bills being defeated, I lent an ear to those advocating for their use and here’s what I learned…

🦢 Florida hunter who illegally shot a rare Tundra Swan last year gets a lifetime hunting ban plus fines. It was last January when a group of bird watchers were alerted to the rare presence of Tundra Swans in Tallahassee’s Lake Jackson. Scrambling to the shores of the lake, they soon watched in horror as a hunter rolled up alongside the pair of swans (which mate for life) and blasted one of them into oblivion. 

Hoisting the white swan out of the water by the bird’s neck, he seemingly taunted those along shore who soon made contact with Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Commission about the suspected illegal killing. As officers arrived on the scene, the swan slayer stated that he shot a snow goose, which officers soon proved to be untrue. After he was charged last January with two misdemeanors for violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, he was back in court last week where he entered a plea on Tuesday. 

The hunter was sentenced to six months on probation, ordered to forfeit his hunting licenses for life and pay a $1,500 fine to Florida Fish and Wildlife, which plans to create a display to educate people about the rare swan.

💩 Texas Game Wardens bust man hunting on private property in converted Port-a-Potty. When it comes to fishy hunting practices, our trusted game wardens are trained to smell sh*t from a mile away. And in one interesting case coming out of Henderson County, Texas, game wardens were on the trail of a Port-a-Potty perpetrator who was allegedly hunting on private property without permission.

After receiving reports of a man trespassing and hunting out of a converted Port-a-Potty that had been spray painted camo, game wardens spent the end of last season trying to catch the man in the act. By failing to be there at the right time, wardens opted for photographic surveillance this past season and finally had their man. Game wardens confronted the man on opening day before he could have a ‘sit’ in his utilitarian blind where he admitted to the wrongdoing. He was then charged and forced to remove his makeshift blind and feeder from the property.

🧸 GOP lawmakers in Connecticut are calling for a bear season after recording 68 home invasions last year. In another state where the mention of bear hunting is a taboo subject, Republican lawmakers have submitted 16 new bills aimed at normalizing the bear hunting conversation in the Constitution State.  While the goal of the bills is to have a statewide bear hunt, the wording in some of them say they will settle on a season in Litchfield County, which seems to have the most problems with neighborhood bruins.

After recording a staggering 68 incidents of bears entering residential homes last year, the effort will serve to build on 2023’s legislation that OK’d residents to use deadly force against bears that pose a threat to human or pet life. Both sides of the aisle are planning a public hearing on the proposals and might even have a vote regarding a possible bear season.

1. Life wasn’t sweeter in your childhood because you were a kid. It was sweeter because you lived fully present in damn near every moment.

2. Regret is for the uncommitted.

3. We need a GLP-1 agonist that blocks the pleasure centers for social media.

   • Ozempic for Instagram.

4. Faith doesn’t make things easier, it makes them possible 🙏

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💍 This is what happens when you propose in a deer lane.  Watch as this dude decides to propose to his main squeeze and just after she says “yes” a shooter doe walks out. I think that’s God’s blessing right there!

Oh, and one more thing…