Bobcats need to be controlled like any other creatures

[Fluff effect]

To the editor: In the jan 27 edition Ms. "Doe" criticized a father in a previous article who had trapped two bobcats, then showed them to his two young sons. I would like to address her comments. Mountain lions,coyotes,wolves,bear,wild dogs,lynx and wolverines all prey on bobcats. Mountain lions may kill an adult bobcat and also a wolf, but none of the others above could catch an adult bobcat. Contrary to what one might believe based on current reporting, Missouri does not have a bumper crop of mountain lions or bear. Therefore, the only way to humanely control the population is through controlled hunting or trapping. I think most would agree that starvation due to overpopulation is not a good alternative. Personally I applaud this father. He's providing his children a love of the outdoors. Through hunting,fishing and trapping, he's providing his children with a lifetime of enjoyment. Im always reminded of this quotation, "take your kids hunting and you won't be hunting your kids.

[Fluff effect]

Its something from a local paper. Just curious what People think about The Letter above.

[drdave514]

Is there a large bobcat population? Are they legal to trap? What was Doe's problem? That they were trapped or shown to the trappers own kids?

[Flintstone]

I think it crap..... You asked... JMO.... I hunt some very remote areas in MO. Trust me as a guy who knows... We are not over run with bobcats.. Like i said you would think a guy like me me would know if we were... CRAP, NOT FACT

[joshuaream]

I think there is probably a proper age to introduce kids to hunting/trapping, but aside from that I don't see anything wrong with a parent showing his children something that is part of their culture. I take my son fishing, and don't try to hide the gutting cleaning process. When he was 4 or 5 he didn't like it and would go inside when we got home, now he likes me to point out the different organs.

I've never really agreed with the logic that hunters need to control populations like bocats (or foxes, mink, etc.) If you want to kill one and it's legal in your area, that's cool. But don't say you are doing it help mother nature. Small predator species starve in off cycles all the time in the wilderness, but they breed accordingly... Nature is beautiful, but many parts aren't G rated.

Sure hunters need to kill deer since we've changed the 'checks & balances' that a good predator/prey cycle has, but wolves, mtn lions, dogs, etc usually take weak and injured animals, rarely does the hunter take the small limping buck with on antler..

Originally Posted by Fluff effect

To the editor: In the jan 27 edition Ms. "Doe" criticized a father in a previous article who had trapped two bobcats, then showed them to his two young sons. I would like to address her comments. Mountain lions,coyotes,wolves,bear,wild dogs,lynx and wolverines all prey on bobcats. Mountain lions may kill an adult bobcat and also a wolf, but none of the others above could catch an adult bobcat. Contrary to what one might believe based on current reporting, Missouri does not have a bumper crop of mountain lions or bear. Therefore, the only way to humanely control the population is through controlled hunting or trapping. I think most would agree that starvation due to overpopulation is not a good alternative. Personally I applaud this father. He's providing his children a love of the outdoors. Through hunting,fishing and trapping, he's providing his children with a lifetime of enjoyment. Im always reminded of this quotation, "take your kids hunting and you won't be hunting your kids.

[Fluff effect]

I cant find The other paper for "does" side.

[paleo_joe]

Many people who write letters to the editor are a few bricks short of a load. There are so many bobcats, we must kill them before they die of natural causes. Ohhhh Kayyyy..

[TurtleMan]

Without haveing seen either original posts, I would just like to say that as long as the bobcats in question were leagaly and humanely dispatched I don't see a problem. As far as the children are concered its good to know that a tradition that predates recorded history will be carried on to the future. I think the problem is that the animals in question were "cats" and not a more asteticly displeasing critter like a possum or skunk.
As for pop. densitys I can't vouch for Mo. but haveing hunted and fished nothern Arkansas for many years I can safely say there are plenty down there, just becouse you don't see the acual animal (they are quite reclusive) dosn't mean they arent there. A fact the Father (being a good traper) probably deduced threw the carfull observation of sign e.g. tracks, fur, and scat. Also I think that all kids instinktivly want to hunt, fish, and trap. It is when "grownups" tell them that something is dirty and digusting that they develop an ovresion to said activities. Something that was probobly ingrained in Ms. Doe by her own parents. Not wanting to step on anyones toes, let me remind everyone that this is still a free country and EVERYONE is still intitled to there opinion, including Ms. Doe's but also the Father's in alowing his childeren to be a part of nature and not casual observers.

[JDSouth]

From the time I was 2-6 I was out on the trapline with my dad. After that I set my own. When I was two and he was walking through 2-3 foot of snow I was in his trapping basket. I distictly remember him trapping bobcat (lynx), beaver, coyote, mink, ermine, muskrat, and coons. This was all done in Idaho and at the time, in the early 80s it really wasn't nothing out of the norm where we were located. Sure enough, I remember smacking some of the animals over the head with a trowel and it has never bothered me at all or even putting the 22 pistol through the head. I was very excited to have something to take home because that was the money we needed to put food on the table.
So anyways to the point, I have recently visited that area of Idaho and it is still flourishing with all abovementioned animals. I really don't understand the point of "ms. doe". Like somebody else said in this post, see what happens when management does take place. Stop all trapping and hunting and just wait and see what kind of animals you can go out and photograph. The lovely sickly, disease ridden, over populated animals that we all love to see.

[longtimefree]

any animal can get out of sync. with its enviornment,mother nature has a way of fixing that , man seems to like to help for some reason , usually after it becomes obvious he inadvertantly caused the problem, over fishing has caused a massive imballence in the humbolt squid here, the usually rare squid is now so common its displaced natives,, i understand that they are going to allow wolf hunting again around yellowstone because theyve desimated the once over abundant elk, the deer population here in sandiego has exploded since major fires allowed new vegitation to grow where forrest trees once stood , amazing the size of there antlers now and how big there bodys are now that they have so much food , twins were rare and now are common, the mountain lion coyote and bob cat populations have also noticably grown, its not out of sync. yet but everyone knows its going to start to go bad , the deer already are getting sick , ive personally seen several with goiters covering there whole bodies like they caught something from the elephant man, a few years ago they were air lifting the rare big horn sheep out of the desert here and vaccinating them for a desease that was threatning them , the pop. was around 400. this year they estimated the pop. around 235 the reason was mountain lion predation, so.. to save the sheep there going to hunt mountain lions , a vicious circle, if we can keep our children safe and educated were lucky, my ex. blew a gasket when my 11 and 13 year old girls let it slip that i took them to a hunting club gun range and got them some shooting lessons. all we can do is educate the ones who will inherit what we leave, hunting is the least of their worries