Nutty tree hugger.

[nastygunz]

Open season on bobcat study
Activist pre-empts hunting changes

By Ray Duckler / Monitor staff

January 31, 2011



While researchers and state officials continue their four-year study on bobcat populations, an animal rights activist, worried hunting and trapping season on the stubby-tailed cat will reopen after 22 years, is working to keep the season closed.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department stopped bobcat season in 1989 because of the declining population. Recently, though, a program to establish new bobcat numbers was initiated by Fish and Game, which sought help from a University of New Hampshire research team.

Since then, Suzanne Fournier, the coordinator of Speaking for Animals in New Hampshire, has secured more than 3,000 signatures in a fight she says is needed to save the bobcats' skin.

She fears if the data shows bobcat populations have rebounded, the practice of trapping and killing them for their fur will return.

"Fish and Game I'm sure is very surprised to have a movement against trapping and hunting," said Fournier, of Milford, who says she's been speaking on behalf of animals for years. "Trappers have already been asking for a season, even while the research has just begun. This is being proactive. Data is the last obstacle Fish and Game needs. . . before they could legally open a season again."

If the season on bobcats reopens, Mark Ellingwood, a wildlife supervisor for Fish and Game, predicts it won't happen until the study has been completed, three years from now.

"We would wait until the study had been finished . . . at which time the information would be available to the broad public, and we'd make a decision at that time," Ellingwood said.

Fournier, though, feels a sense of urgency. She believes an aggressive campaign against Fish and Game, which regulates hunting and trapping in the state, is the only way to keep bobcat season closed.

"The signatures on the petition will tell the Fish and Game Department and the Legislature that you cannot hunt or trap bobcats in New Hampshire," Fournier said. "The people don't want it."

Bobcats, which can weigh 35 pounds or more, were notorious for eating small livestock through the 19th and 20th centuries. A bounty, in fact, was paid for each one killed. Then the bobcats faded away, pushing Fish and Game to close the season in 1989.

Now, it seems, the bobcats are back. More sightings have been reported in populated areas recently, with people spotting them in their backyards, eyeing birdfeeders.

That prompted Fish and Game to partner with John Litvaitis and his team of professors and biologists at UNH. Litvaitis, a professor of wildlife ecology in Durham, has conducted research on everything from turtles to flying squirrels.

"Our major objective is to provide an assessment of the status of bobcats and their habitat within the state," Litvaitis wrote in an e-mail to the Monitor. "Additionally, we are exploring ways to monitor population change and exploring the application of bobcat movement patterns to identify wildlife corridors."

Litvaitis added in his e-mail, sent Friday, that his team had captured its 17th bobcat, most of which were caged in the southwest portion of the state, the program's first target area. Each bobcat's health is checked, DNA samples are taken, and a radio collar that uses GPS technology for tracking is fitted.

Enter Fournier, whose letter-writing campaign to many of the state's newspapers reflects her passion.

"I'm not targeting UNH," Fournier said. "I'm targeting Fish and Game. There's going to be a lot of opposition."

Fournier is well-known in the hunting and trapping community. Gilmanton's Dan Dockham, a member of the New Hampshire Trappers Association for nearly 40 years, mentioned Fournier as soon as the bobcat issue was raised on the phone.

"She doesn't want anybody to hunt or fish or trap or do anything," said Dockham, a retired plumber









Dockham said Fournier and others suffer from the softening effects of media programming, calling it the Bambi syndrome.

"If you saw the movie, Bambi and Thumper the rabbit, they play in the woods, they have voices, they show emotions, they cry tears," Dockham said. "It's strictly an emotional issue. If you don't like fur, fine, don't wear it, but don't stop people from doing it. They think of us as bloodthirsty murderers."

Dockham added that trapping and hunting, part of the American landscape, is necessary to prevent wildlife food sources from declining.

"They don't understand that we're practicing our heritage, that we're actually giving Fish and Game a tool to manage our wildlife," Dockham said. "This is how we keep healthy populations, like with deer and elk."

Fournier, though, suspects a covert operation is in play. She says numbers are being manipulated.

"The Fish and Game has it in their big-game management plan to increase the overall population of deer in New Hampshire," Fournier said. "They control the seasons to either increase the population locally or to decrease it. But overall they have a plan to increase the deer population, and they've been succeeding. They increase the deer population to have easier hunting."

Ellingwood said research on any type of wildlife is important, and results dictate what path the department takes.

"Essentially what we're being told is, 'Don't generate this data because it might conflict with how I see what the world should be,' " he said.

Litvaitis, meanwhile, remained neutral on the issue, saying in his e-mail that Fish and Game, state government and the public should combine to find common ground.

"We will not be making any recommendations on whether the trapping season should be opened or not," Litvaitis wrote. "I too have gotten a number of inquiries on the subject and have encouraged people to learn about bobcats and get involved in the public hearings when they occur."

[THO Game Calls]

Fournier is a 60's throw back hippy who used to represent the HSUS, and even they dumped her.  Anyone who has been involved with NH Fish and Game Legislation knows her, and when she speaks, most people either groan or yawn.

The only reason bobcats are being seen in south central NH at bird feeders is because the eastern cottontail rabbit population has declined due to loss of habitat to critical levels.   They are in  fact, now protected in several areas of the state.  In addition, snow shoe hares do not do well in southern NH, which leaves the bobcats that are here, hungry.   Bird feeders in winter attract birds, which are nothing more than chicken mcnuggets for hungry bobcats.

Her statements about the Big Game Management Plan and the deer herd are ludicrous.   The first plan called for the state to work to increase the deer herd from 70,000 to 105,000.  It was put in place in 1994.

In 2003 the Big Game Management Plan was revisited and a new 10 year plan was put in place to increase the deer herd from...are you ready?   70,000 to 100,000.   To date, 5 years into the plan, the deer herd is still sitting somewhere around 70 to 75,000.   Little if any progress has been made in the last 15 years to increase the size of NH's deer herd. 

Her 3,000 signatures will be trumped by the over 67,000 people who buy hunting licenses each year in the state.  She has no credibility and her personal hygiene is a question mark as well.   They let her speak because they have too.   But no one takes her seriously, or sits too close.