Page 268 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

246 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
the enactment of a hunter's license law and repealing the law against thekillingoffemaledeerandhornlessfawns. Thecontinuedexistence of that organization on that basis would be a standing disgrace to the fair name of Pennsylvania. I think, however, that that organization was founded on secret selfish purposes, and that ere long the general body of members will awaken to a realizing sense of their position, and range themselves in support of the excellent policies of the commission.
A PoT-HuNTER is a man or boy who kills game as a business, for the moneythatcanbederivedfromitssale,orotheruse. vSuchmenhavethe same feelings as butchers. From their point of view, they can see no reason why all the game in the world should not be killed and marketed. Like the feather-dealers, they wish to get out of the wild life all the money there is in it; that is all. Left to themselves, with open markets they would soon exterminate the land fauna of the habitable portions of the globe.
No one can "educate" such people. For the gunners, game-hogs and pot-hunters, there is no check, save specific laws that sternly and amply safeguard the rights of the wild creatures that can not make laws for themselves.
Nor can anyone educate the heartless woman of fashion who is de- terminedtowearaigrettesaslongashermoneycanbuythem. Thebest women of the world have already been educated on the bird-millinery subject, and they are already against the use of the gaudy badges of slaughterandextermination. Butinthegreatcitiesoftheworldthere are thousands of women who are at heart as cruel as Salome herself, and whose vicious tastes can be curbed only by the strong hand of the law. "Sentiment " for wild birds is not in them.
Because of the vicious and heartless elements among men and women, we say, Give us far-reaching, iron-bound laws for the protection of wild life, and plenty of courageous men to enforce them.