I thought I would post this for the benefit of those with means to travel to Hawaii. I found it on the ESPN Outdoors website. Maybe when I win the lottery - or my wife gets a Vet practice going .

I think they should do the same with all those wild horses and burros out West (yes, I am prepared to get flamed for this statement).

Hawaii park seeks hunters of feral sheep

Associated Press � Sept. 30, 2004

VOLCANO, Hawaii � Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is looking for volunteers with rifles to help rid the park's new 116,000 acres of thousands of feral sheep.

The National Park Service recently acquired the land on the Big Island from Kahuku Ranch. With the land came thousands of mouflon sheep, native to Corsica and Sardinia in the Mediterranean, that were brought to the ranch for hunting in the 1960s. Their population has multiplied over the years because they have no natural predators.

"Their grazing inhibits the regeneration of Hawaii's endemic plants, which are defenseless against sheep, goats and other chompers and stompers," the park service said in a news release.

The park service is required by law to control alien species that interfere with native species or habitats, park spokesman Jim Gale said.

The park service will conduct a public lottery Nov. 8 to select participants in the hunt, officials said. The project will continue indefinitely and lotteries will be held every six months, officials said.

There will be no limit on the number of sheep taken, and volunteers will be encouraged to keep the meat, the park service said.

Hmmm, doesn't sound so bad. You can probably write off the expenses on your taxes, and for sure it's a better deal than paying to fly to Africa to whack a "problem" elephant, which you can't take with you and for which you have to even pay a trophy fee.

Maybe I'll reconsider going to Hawaii afterall. Pretty uninteresting to me otherwise.

Brent

Hurray Redlander and Paul!! Kill them thar equine!!

However, they are "Feral" horses and donkeys, not "Wild." As long as people keep calling them wild they will be held up as some endagered species in need of protection. They are tearing up too much land, especially that used by desert big horn sheep and mule deer.

Now I want to go to Hawaii. Killing lots of goats sounds like a ton of fun.

Well, if Hawaii is so determined to get rid of those sheep, thay can pay my way over, supply my ammo and I'll be glad to help them out.
Now regarding the wild horses and burros, all you'll get from me is a free fire extinguisher. No flames from me.
After they passed that assinine piece of crap, I saw one of my favorite deer hunting spots totally destroyed by those damned horses. The place had a nice water hole, plenty of feed, and nice sized deer. Then a herd of those glue factory rejects moved in. We'd checked the place out in September when we did our scouting. Lots of deer. By mid-October the nags had already moved in. All the feed was gone, the water hole totally fouled by their droppings, and the deer had moved out. If it were up to me, I'd shoot every damned one of those useless four legged varmints and sell the carcasses for dog food, just like we used to do prior to that idiot, Wild Horse Annie. I'm hopin' hell has a special place for people like her.
Paul B.

I must be upfront on the horse thing - I like rodeos and such. My step-daughter even had a couple of horses in her English riding phase. And I even used to ride when I was kid - and received a cracked wrist, fractured face, and a broken/permantly readjusted elbow for my troubles. And really the only reason I would ever ride another is to get back in some wilderness area to hunt elk - and then only because they won't allow me to ride in on my ATV.

My wife is studying to be a veterinarian, and let me tell you that it is no surprise that the species died out in North America before white folks brought them back. They are just not a hardy animal; if they don't colic (from eating too poor food), they'll founder (from eating too much good food), or they'll get some terminal infection from the least little ol' scratch. If you pull too hard on the lead rope of a colt, it'll rear over backwards and crack it's skull open. If it wasn't so funny it'd be tragic. The opinion that I've heard that best describes the situation is that God created horses to make veterinarians rich.

That Wild Horse and Burro Act is the biggest farce ever, we the tax-payers are funding that thing to the tune of 10s of millions of dollars. For animals you literally can not give away fast enough. With the judicious application of a pallet of poisoned grain we could devote that money to the management of native wildlife all across the West. Did I mention I'm a wildlife biologist/forester?

If I ever get go out West, I want to see elk, mule deer, antelope and desert bighorns not some d@mn horse or jackass. And the only equine I want around my house is ... a zebra skin hanging on my wall .

As far as I am concerned, feral horses are no better than jack rabbits. Ok, they taste better, but that's the only difference.... LOL! Dutch.

I don't like horses to much myself, mainly because anytime I would like to see some of my relatives I can't because of some darn horse show and when I do well be at the stables with the pampered horses. They wont even let me take them out on a trail in fear of injuring the darn beast. Them horses take up all their time and I really hate loosing family time to potential glue. If I could shoot those feral horses/donkeys I'd have no problem doing it. They would be cheap target practice and a great way to test out your new gun or bullet expansion. Maybe not the best of trophies, but nothing wrong with helping the glue factories. Regarding the feral goats/sheep in Hawaii. I'd be happy to assist. They make mych nicer looking trophies.



Sevens

I'd love to go to Hawaii to hunt sheep! I can let my little woman do the Hawaii thing while I go hunting and we'll both be happy!!

As for the Feral Horse and burro thing, I think we all need to remember that they are just that, feral. In order to properly manage the ecosystem in an area the animals ( both game and non ) need to be in balance. Here in Kalifornia they have outlawed the the take of Mountain Lions and now the number of attacks has gone way up. Yet these idiots can't seem to understand why. The coyotes are coming into the Hollywood hills in broad daylight to haul off cats and dogs. I like it myself but now these morons want tax payers to pay for a birth control program,,, to what end? This has also been proposed for the "wild" horses too.

I was raised up in southern Oregon, where my family bred registered Paint Horses. I have had some horses that were useful but can't for the life of me figure why anyone would want one unless they have pasture to turn them out on! As for shooting them, I could care less! Having put pets down before I don't think shooting any of these would make me feel bad. When I think about the improvement made to the habitat I'd probably even be happy about it.

There are no good sense laws when it comes to game management it seems. They constantly allow the loud minority to dictate to the biologists what is to be done. If we sportsmen would get together to raise these issues one at a time we may make progress. Trouble is folks back east don't usually get involed in western issues. Yet the PETA / Greenpeace types get support from all over.

I suppose one could follow the rule of the three S's!

I love horses and a major portion of my income comes from sitting astraddle of one. I believe and am willing that my tax dollars be spent to manage a SINGLE SMALL remnant herd of wild or (feral) horses somewehere (no more than 100 head or so). The rest should be gathered and sold to the highest bidder. Maybe France wants them. The money could pay to manage the remnant herd.
I personally would find no joy in shooting one myself but if someone wanted to hunt them I say whatever trips your trigger. In the past when ranchers could legally they would shoot the studs on a herd and turn out one that would improve the offspring. Then they would catch the young ones and USE them.
I have rode one and been around several more from the adopt-a-dink program and saw nothing I wanted.
Anyway I think I am rambling and hopefully someday this mistake will be fixed.

http://www.cartridgeperformance.com/ this guy just got back from Hawaii from a pig and goat cull in some sort of park or preserve. He has the story on the shoot and on the performance of the calibers and bullets they used. Story is here: http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?disc=183178;article=7947;title=Gary%20Reeder%20Custom%20Guns