High-tech weapons raise ethical questions for hunters

c. 1996 Religion News Service PORTLAND, Ore. _ America’s hunters and the industry that feeds them are buying into technology lock, stock and gun barrel. A hunter’s main advantage has always been a superior reasoning power than their prey. But evolving hunting techniques have bestowed upon humans more of the prey’s sensory powers, the wildlife […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

PORTLAND, Ore. _ America’s hunters and the industry that feeds them are buying into technology lock, stock and gun barrel.

A hunter’s main advantage has always been a superior reasoning power than their prey. But evolving hunting techniques have bestowed upon humans more of the prey’s sensory powers, the wildlife defense systems that for eons allowed the best and strongest animals to escape the cooking pot.


Today, weapons can calculate a target’s range within inches, shoot accurately from a thousand yards or more, use telescopic sights on revolvers, hunt with a muzzle-loader that looks nothing like their forefathers’ faithful weapons, and use arrows that fly 10 times faster and far more accurately than anything dreamed of when William Tell split the apple on his son’s head. Electronic tracking systems can help a dog bear down ever more efficiently on prey.

We can hear the tread of insects on the forest floor. We can see better, reach out farther and kill faster.

Where will it all lead?

_ To fewer days in the field and fewer hunters, say those who make the rules.

_ To profits, employment and industry stability, say the equipment makers.

_ To more efficient kills and happier, increased numbers of hunters, say those who sell the high-technology hunting toys.

It was only at the turn of the century that hunting shifted from centuries of subsistence to a sport. Since then, hunting has evolved into a respected hobby that pits man and his gun against prey and the elements.

But now modern technology has caught up in a big way. In every state,hunters, wildlife agencies, retailers and manufacturers are grappling with new rules and regulations to cope with the surge in high-tech gear.

When technology seems to get the upper hand, non-hunting voters have drawn some lines. For example, the addition of electronic tracking telemetry to the collars of bear- and cougar-chasing dogs was partly responsible for a close statewide vote in Oregon two years ago banning all dogs in those hunts. The loss of dogs effectively ended cougar hunting and cut bear hunting by more than half.


“We’ve just about pushed technology to the limits of acceptance,” said Jim Greer, wildlife division chief for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We’re going to need some help from the hunter sorting it all out.”

As hunters and poachers become more efficient killers, fish and wildlife managers are forced to consider effects on herds, flocks and coveys.

Instead of killing and eating the weakest, leaving genetically strong animals to procreate, human hunters are heading into the 21st century with both the desire and the ability to take the biggest and strongest.

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Is hunting itself in danger because of high-tech equipment?

“If all people could hunt with was a stone, we could offer a lot of hunting opportunity,” said Dan Edwards, big game coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Even a return to iron sights would let us open up a lot more hunting.”

“Every time technology gives people an advantage over the animal, the more we have to screw down regulations to control that advantage,” Edwards said.

“The best thing we could do is educate people that hunting is an opportunity and a privilege, and involves going out and seeking out an animal and matching wits with it,” he said. “When technology removes all that, it becomes a different issue.”


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Leupold and Stevens Inc. is one of the oldest and best-known manufacturers of top-of-the-line riflescopes and binoculars. More than 30 new product ideas usually are active on the drawing boards of the firm’s research department. And ethical questions are asked as often as technical ones.

“One of the first things we always ask is whether or not it’s right,” said Ray Oeltjen, vice president for marketing at Leupold and Stevens. “It’s a continual factor; not only the legality but, more to the point, the properness of the product.”

Oeltjen said Leupold and Stevens is developing new laser products. But night vision, a concept bought into heavily by some of their competitors, isn’t a priority.

“There’s very little hunting anywhere in the world that can be done at night,” Oeltjen said.

All the technology in the world won’t make you a better hunter, says Warren Lacasse, owner of the Gun Room, a Portland store.

“You still have to plan the hunt, make the stalk, aim the weapon and take the shot,” Lacasse said. “Some people just want to avoid learning good hunting skills. But hunting isn’t about the body count, it’s about developing those skills.”


Technology, Lacasse contends, is an aid, not a crutch.

The holographic sight system, for example, will help people with visual problems, and laser ranging systems are useful in long-shooting situations such as sheep and antelope hunts.

“But it still doesn’t adjust windage,” Lacasse said. “You still have to make the adjustments and do the hunting.”

Lacasse doesn’t sell night-vision equipment and said he doesn’t believe hunters use it.

Retailers are drawing their own lines on technology questions, he said.

“We always have and always will,” he said. “Some people just care about money, but some of us are concerned about ethics and the integrity of the sport.”

Scott Stouder, a free-lance outdoor writer, said, “It’s almost impossible to take a stand on high tech because it’s so subjective.”

Stouder, an avid deer and elk hunter, doesn’t use global positioning systems or hunt out of vehicles. “I won’t reduce my woodsmanship to remembering fresh batteries,” he said.

“But I use a high-powered rifle with a good scope because I want to kill what I aim at. When you pull the trigger or release the arrow, the game should be over.


“There are lines that we all draw. And then there are the slobs that draw none.”

MJP END MONROE

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