The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-08-07
Director Of Bronx Zoo Issues an APP
peal to the Boy Scouts Of America
to Protect the
Game.
AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE
Wild Game is Now SO Scarce IN
America that a Stop Should be
Made to the
Slaughter.

William T. Hornaday, director OF
the Geological Park, the Bronx, N. Y,
has issued an appeal to the Boy
Scouts to protect the birds and wild
animals of the country. He urges
them not only TO refrain from killing
wild birds and animals but to watch
sharply for the violations of the
game laws and to help to bring such
violators to punishment His reason
is that unless something is done
quickly all the game animals and
birds will be exterminated
Il have an important message
he writes to the Boy Scouts. TO give
in behalf of those who cannot speak
for themselves.
All the wild birds and mammals
of this continent are in danger Of ex-
termination. within our own times.
know that this is sweeping state
ment; and to reach the bleaching
bones of slaughtered musk-ox herds
in the far north, and the wrecked
egret rookeries of Venezuela, it needs
to be SO.
The rage for the slaughter of wild
creatures never before was so fierce
as now The lust for killing seems
to be universal. Gun-bearing men
are ransacking the most remote and
inaccessible regions of the earth, in
order to find something new to kill.
Everywhere among the wild creatures,
civilized man is running 'amok,' like
the mad Malays, crying, Kill, kill!'
In the United States there are
owned today over 100000 shotgurs,
and at least 100000 Of them are
used every year. The hunting licenses
viii prove that Every year, in round
numbers. 100000 new shotguns are
sold in North America, and 775,0oo,-
00J new cartridges are made. OF the
new shotguns sold each year it is
estimated that $1,000 of them are
automatic and pump guns, firing from
FIVE to six shots without reloading-
most. unfair and unsportsmanlike
weapons to use against the pitifully
small remnant of wild life.
The men of today hold that the
wild life Of America is not ours. to
dispose of as we please. We hold t
in trust, for the benefit of those who
will come after US, and audit our &C
counts Of our stewardship.
Today, thousands of busy men anu
women are working hard, and at times
fighting hard, to preserve the remnant
of our birds and mammals, and avoid
the bitter necessity of turning over
to the boys and girls of 1850 a bird
less, gameless continent. We are
| fighting TO preserve your birthright as
we found it in the fields and woods,
and on the waters. Opposed to the
army of the defense is the mighty host
which constitutes the army Of de.
/ Htruction. The farmers, fruit growers
/ and forest owners, who have millions
of dollars at stake in the contest, are
/ as a rule terribly apathetic when il
comes to active fighting. They leave
! 1t to the sportsmen, the naturalists
| the nature-lovers, and the Audubon
societies, to save the lives of the
birds that work to protect the crops
1 and forests from destruction. They
do not give this cause one-tenth oil
the active aid that their own indus
4 trial interests demand,
4 call upon the Boy Scouts OF Amer
/ lea to enlist in the army of the de
! Tense. call upon them to watch
! sharply for violations of the laws
protecting wild birds and mammals
| and to help in bringing violators to
just punishment. In case of viola
4 ton, a citizen complainant is Just as
! necessary as a policeman The boys
of America have it in their power tt
render services of incalculable value
! to the wild creatures that are SO de
fenseless against the terribly deadly
modern firearms, nets and dynamite
II the pot-hunters and poachers orce
find that the boys of America are
after them, TO prosecute them wher
they deserve it. they will fear then
more than they fear the few PAID
game wardens.
I'm the United States, conditions
have terribly changed Thirty year,
ago, game was SO plentiful that 1t wal
right to kill it. Today it is so fear
fully scarce that there are few place,
in which it is right to Kill 1t, ever
under the law and a license! M.
last bird was killed ten years ago
and ] never again will shoot another
1t is now impossible for me to do 81
with clear conscience For fiv.
straight years | have not heard tn,
call OF bob-white until yesterday
yet have been much in the open. II
New York state, the bob-white hal
been nearly exterminated, by lega
hunting! The gray squirrel, the bob
white, the wood cock. snipe and WOO,
duck are entitled to FIVE year clos
season, everywhere save in F'lorid;
and the Carolinas. where they still
are fairly plentiful.
There is now entireIv too rnuct