Page 266 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

CHAPTER XXV
LAW AND SENTIMENT AS FACTORS IN PRESERVATION
There is grave danger that through ignorance of the true character of about 80 per cent of the men and boys who shoot wild creatures, a great wrong will be done the latter. Let us not make a fatal mistake.
After more than thirty years of observation among all kinds of sports- men, hunters and gunners, I am convinced that it is utterly futile and deadly dangerous to rely on humane, high-class sentiment to diminish the slaughter of wild things by game-hogs and pot-hunters.
In some respects, the term "game-hog" is a rude, rough word; but it is needed in the English language, and it has come to stay. It is a disagreeable term, but it was brought into use to apply to a class of very disagreeable persons.
A "game-hog" is a hunter of game who knows no such thing as sentiment or conscience in the killing of game, so long as he keeps within thelimitofthelaw. Regardlessofthescarcityofgame,orofitshard struggle for existence, he will kill right up to the bag limit every day that he goes out, provided it is possible to do so. He uses the "law" as a salve for the spot where his conscience should be. He will shoot with any machine gun, or gun of big calibre, in every way that the law allows, and he knows no such thing as giving the game a square deal. He brags of his big bags of game, and he loves to be photographed with a wagon- loadofdeadbirdsasabackground. Hebelievesinautomaticandpump guns, spring shooting, longer open seasons and "more game." He is quite content to shoot half tame ducks in a club preserve as they fly be- tween coop and pond, whenever he secures an opportunity. He will gladly sell his game whenever he can do so without being found out, and sometimes when he is.
Often a true sportsman drifts without realizing it into some one way of the confirmed game-hog; but the moment he is made to realize his position,hechangeshiscourseandhisstanding. Thegame-hogisim- pervioustoargument. Youcanshameahorseawayfromhisoatsmore easily than you can shame him from doing "what the Law allows."
There are hundreds of thousands of gentlemen and gentlewomen who never once have come in touch with real cloven-footed game-hogs, who do not understand the species at all, and do not recognize its ear-marks. Thousands of such persons will tell you: "In my opinion, the best way tosavethewildlifeistoeducatethepeople!" Ihaveheardthat,many, many times.
For right-hearted people, a little law is quite sufficient; and the best