118 



THE GAME BREEDER 



taken by thousands of market gunners 

 using big guns and traps in England 

 where the area frequented by migratory 

 fowl is small and why the sale of the food 

 should be prohibited in America. 



Those who wer,e asked to support the 

 migratory bird bill were told that it was 

 intended to stop the shooting of wild 

 ducks in the spring and to stop the shoot- 

 ing of- migratory song birds at all times. 

 This kind of legislation properly placed 

 in the statute books where all can find it 

 is different from what Congress is asked 

 to enact. 



As we read the bill it grants to certain 

 people the right to prevent the sale and 

 shipping of game, and since many fowl 

 which are descended from the migratory 

 birds are now owned by American breed- 

 ers who no doubt will . be arrested and 

 fined or imprisoned for selling and ship- 

 ping game, we insist that the bill be re- 

 written so that all may know .what is 

 criminal and what is not criminal before 

 it is enacted. 



It is a remarkable grant that Congress 

 is asked to make to certain people who 

 have shown a decided hostility to the pro- 

 duction of game by industry. The most 

 prominent advocate of the pending meas- 

 ure recently tried to put the game breed- 

 ers on Long Island, N. Y., out of busi- 

 ness, and is reported to have expended a 

 large sum of money in the effort. Why 

 should such people be granted the right 

 to make criminal laws and publish them 

 in bulletins which undoubtedly will affect 

 those who are engaged in what has re- 

 cently been made a legal food producing 

 industry by amendments to State laws ? 



It is claimed that the wild fowl are 

 abundant just now in America because 

 Congress passed a law which has been 

 declared unconstitutional in several 

 States ; which never has been executed 

 and which has been treated with con- 

 tempt or possibly never has been heard 

 of on many marshes. 



The present increase in the numbers of 

 our wild fowl is largely due to the fact 

 that thousands of Canadian sportsmen 

 who formerly shot big bags of fowl daily 

 during the season are not shooting ducks. 

 The stopping of spring shooting by the 



Canadian Provinces and by the Northern 

 States where some ducks breed has re- 

 sulted undoubtedly in an increase in the 

 number of the fowl. Thousands of wild 

 ducks also have been bred by sporting 

 and commercial breeders during the past 

 few years, and some of these which are 

 bred in the North have been shot as far 

 south as North Carolina. 



We are confident it will not be neces- 

 sary to turn over the crime making power 

 of Congress to the people who seek to 

 exercise it if the game breeding industry 

 can be encouraged in all of the States, as' 

 it now is in many, and we certainly be- 

 lieve and insist that before the present 

 bill is enacted if it must be in the interest 

 of politics, it should be amended so as to 

 read that nothing in the act shall apply 

 to game owned by game breeders until it 

 becomes migratory and escapes and de- 

 parts from the game farms where it has 

 been produced by industry. 



The game breeders have had some dis- 

 agreeable experiences with State officers 

 in States where the game has been a foot- 

 ball of politics. They have reason to fear 

 what will happen if those who have shown 

 a decided hostility to their food produc- 

 ing industry have the right to appoint ir- 

 responsible officers with the powers of 

 United States marshals and the right to 

 search without warrant food ^producing 

 plants conducted under State licenses. 

 Tame ducks, barnyard fowl, have been 

 seized and taken from a breeder because 

 he had them before he applied for a li- 

 cense when he offered tO' pay because his 

 ducks were descendants from wild birds. - 

 This method of game saving which it is 

 now proposed to make national has not 

 kept the markets full of desirable foods. 

 We insist again that licensed food pro- 

 ducers should for their own safety and 

 for the good of the people be excepted 

 from the provisions of this most extra- 

 ordinary bill before it becomes a law if it 

 must. 



A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION. 



Before Congress proceeds to enact the 

 Migratory Bird Bill we respectfully re- 

 quest that it call for a report from the 

 Bureau of .-\nimal Industry as to the 



