Our Vanishing Wild Life Part 69

In 1906 the Lewis and Clark Club condemned the use of automatic shotguns as unsportsmanlike.

The s.h.i.+kar Club, of London, a club which contains all the big-game hunters of the n.o.bility and gentry of England,[Q] and of which His Majesty King George is Honorary President, has declared the leading feature of its "Objects" in the following terms:

"To maintain the standard of sportsmans.h.i.+p. It is not squandered bullets and swollen bags which appeal to us. The test is rather in a love of forest, mountains and desert; in acquired knowledge of the habits of animals; in the strenuous pursuit of a wary and dangerous quarry; in the instinct for a well-devised approach to a fair shooting distance; and in the patient retrieve of a wounded animal."

[Footnote Q: This organization contains in its list of members the most distinguished names in the modern annals of British sport and exploration. Its honorary members.h.i.+p, of eight persons, contains the names of three Americans: Theodore Roosevelt, Madison Grant and W.T.

Hornaday; and of this fact at least one person is extremely proud!]

In 1908 the Camp-Fire Club of America formally adopted, as its code of ethics, the "Sportsman's Platform" of fifteen articles that was prepared by the writer and placed before the sportsmen of America, Great Britain and her colonial dependencies in that year. In the book of the Club it regularly appears as follows:

CODE OF ETHICS OF THE CAMP-FIRE CLUB OF AMERICA _Proposed by Wm. T. Hornaday and adopted December 10, 1908_

1. The wild animal life of to-day is not ours, to do with as we please. The original stock is given to us _in trust_, for the benefit both of the present and the future. We must render an accounting of this trust to those who come after us.

2. Judging from the rate at which the wild creatures of North America are now being destroyed, fifty years hence there will be no large game left in the United States nor in Canada, outside of rigidly protected game preserves. It is therefore the duty of every good citizen to promote the protection of forests and wild life and the creation of game preserves, while a supply of game remains.

Every man who finds pleasure in hunting or fis.h.i.+ng should be willing to spend both time and money in active work for the protection of forests, fish and game.

3. The sale of game is incompatible with the perpetual preservation of a proper stock of game; therefore it should be prohibited by laws and by public sentiment.

4. In the settled and civilized regions of North America there is no real _necessity_ for the consumption of wild game as human food: nor is there any good excuse for the sale of game for food purposes. The maintenance of hired laborers on wild game should be prohibited everywhere, under severe penalties.

5. An Indian has no more right to kill wild game, or to subsist upon it all the year round, than any white man in the same locality. The Indian has no inherent or G.o.d-given owners.h.i.+p of the game of North America, anymore than of its mineral resources; and he should be governed by the same game laws as white men.

6. No man can be a good citizen and also be a slaughterer of game or fishes beyond the narrow limits compatible with high-cla.s.s sportsmans.h.i.+p.

7. A game-butcher or a market-hunter is an undesirable citizen, and should be treated as such.

8. The highest purpose which the killing of wild game and game fishes can hereafter be made to serve is in furnis.h.i.+ng objects to overworked men for tramping and camping trips in the wilds; and the value of wild game as human food should no longer be regarded as an important factor in its pursuit.

9. If rightly conserved, wild game const.i.tutes a valuable a.s.set to any country which possesses it; and it is good statesmans.h.i.+p to protect it.

10. An ideal hunting trip consists of a good comrade, fine country, and a _very few_ trophies per hunter.

11. In an ideal hunting trip, the death of the game is only an incident; and by no means is it really necessary to a successful outing.

12. The best hunter is the man who finds the most game, kills the least, and leaves behind him no wounded animals.

13. The killing of an animal means the end of its most interesting period. When the country is fine, pursuit is more interesting than possession.

14. The killing of a female hoofed animal, save for special preservation, is to be regarded as incompatible with the highest sportsmans.h.i.+p; and it should everywhere be prohibited by stringent laws.

15. A particularly fine photograph of a large wild animal in its haunts is ent.i.tled to more credit than the dead trophy of a similar animal. An animal that has been photographed never should be killed, unless previously wounded in the chase.

This platform has been adopted as a code of ethics by the following organizations, besides the Camp-Fire Club of America:

The Lewis and Clark Club, of Pittsburgh, John M. Phillips, President.

The North American Fish and Game Protective a.s.sociation (International)

Ma.s.sachusetts Fish and Game Protective a.s.sociation, Boston.

Camp-Fire Club of Michigan, Detroit.

Rod and Gun Club, Sheridan County, Wyoming.

The platform has been endorsed and published by The Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the British Empire (London), which is an endors.e.m.e.nt of far-reaching importance.

Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton, C.M.Z.S., Warden of the Government Game Reserves of the Transvaal, South Africa, has adopted the platform and given it the most effective endors.e.m.e.nt that it has received from any single individual. In his great work on game protection in Africa and wild-animal lore, ent.i.tled "Animal Life in Africa" (and "very highly commended" by the Committee on Literary Honors of the Camp-Fire Club), he publishes the entire platform, with a depth and cordiality of endors.e.m.e.nt that is bound to warm the heart of every man who believes in the principles laid down in that doc.u.ment. He says, "It should be printed on the back of every license that is issued for hunting in Africa."

I am profoundly impressed by the fact that it is high time for sportsmen all over the world to take to heart the vital necessity of adopting high and clearly defined codes of ethics, to suit the needs of the present hour. The days of game abundance, and the careless treatment of wild life have gone by, never to return.

CHAPTER XLIII

THE DUTY OF AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EDUCATORS TO AMERICAN WILD LIFE

The publication of this chapter will hardly be regarded as a bid for fame, or even popularity, on the part of the author. However, the subject can not be ignored simply because it is disagreeable.

Throughout sixty years, to go no further back, the people of America have been witnessing the strange spectacle of American zoologists, as a ma.s.s, so intent upon the academic study of our continental fauna that they seem not to have cared a continental about the destruction of that fauna.

During that tragic period twelve species of North American birds have been totally exterminated, twenty-three are almost exterminated, and the mammals have fared very badly.

If "by their works ye shall know them," then no man can say that the men referred to have been conspicuous on the firing line in defense of a.s.saulted wild life. In their hearts, we know that in an academic way the naturalists of America do care about wild-life slaughter, and the extermination of species; and we also know that perhaps fifty American zoologists have at times taken an active and serious interest in protection work.

I am speaking now of the general body of museum directors and curators; professors and teachers of zoology in our inst.i.tutions of learning--a legion in themselves; teachers of nature study in our secondary schools; investigators and specialists in state and government service; the taxidermists and osteologists; and the array of literary people who, like all the foregoing, _make their bread and b.u.t.ter out of the exploitation of wild life_.

Taken as a whole, the people named above const.i.tute a grand army of at least five thousand trained, educated, resourceful and influential persons. They all _depend upon wild life for their livelihood_. When they talk about living things, the public listens with respectful attention. Their knowledge of the value of wild life would be worth something to our cause; but thus far it never has been capitalized!

These people are hard workers; and when they mark out definite courses and attainable goals, they know how to get results. Yet what do we see?

For sixty long years, with the exception of the work of a corporal's guard of their number, this grand army has remained in camp, partly neglecting and partly refusing to move upon the works of the enemy. For sixty years, with the exception of the non-game-bird law, as a cla.s.s and a ma.s.s they have left to the sportsmen of the country the dictating of laws for the protection of all the game birds, the mammals and the game fishes. When we stop to consider that the game birds alone embrace _154 very important species_, the appalling extent to which the zoologist has abdicated in favor of the sportsman becomes apparent.

It is a very great mistake, and a wrong besides, for the zoologists of the country to abandon the game birds, mammals and fishes of North America to the sportsmen, to do with as they please! Yet that is practically what has been done.

The time was, thirty or forty years ago, when wild life was so abundant that we did not need to worry about its preservation. That was the golden era of study and investigation. That era ended definitely in 1884, with the practical extermination of the wild American bison, partly through the shameful greed and partly through the neglect of the American people. We are now living _in the middle of the period of Extermination!_ The questions for every American zoologist and every sportsman to answer now are: Shall the slaughter of species go on to a quick end of the period? Shall we give posterity a birdless, gameless, fishless continent, or not? Shall we have close seasons, all over the country, for five or ten years, or for five hundred years?

If we are courageous, we will brace up and answer these questions now, like men. If we are faint-hearted, and eager for peace at any price, then we will sidestep the ugly situation until the destroyers have settled it for us by the wholesale extermination of species.

If the zoologist cares to know, then I will tell him that to-day the wild life of the world _can_ be saved by law, but _not by sentiment alone!_ You cannot "educate" a poacher, a game-hog, a market-gunner, a milliner or a vain and foolish woman of fas.h.i.+on. All these must be curbed and controlled _by law_. Game refuges alone will not save the wild life! _All_ species of birds, mammals and game fishes of North America must have more thorough and far-reaching protection than they now have.

Do not always take your cue from the sportsmen, especially regarding the enactment of long close seasons! If you need good advice, or help about drafting a bill, write to Dr. T.S. Palmer, Department of Agriculture, Was.h.i.+ngton, and you will receive prompt and valuable a.s.sistance. The Doctor is a wise man, and there is nothing about protective laws that is unknown to him. Go to _your_ state senator and _your_ a.s.semblyman with the bills that you know should be enacted into law, and a.s.sure them that those measures are necessary for the wild life, and beneficial to 98 per cent of the people _who own the wild life_. You will be heard with respectful attention, in any law-making body that you choose to enter.

People who cannot give time and labor must supply you with money for your campaigns. _Ask_, and you will receive! I have proven this many times. With care and exactness account to your subscribers for the expenditure of all money placed in your hands, and you will receive continuous support.