Shoot These Cranes With Cameras, Not Guns

Chalk up another completely predictable disastrous consequence of Kentucky's stupid decision to allow hunters to kill sandhill cranes.

Roger Alford at the AP:

Kentucky wildlife officials report they've spotted an endangered whooping crane at the Sloughs Wildlife Management Area near Henderson and that they've received a report of two others along the Pond River in Hopkins County.

The sightings of the rare birds, which are on the comeback from near extinction, prompted the Humane Society of the United States to again call for the halt of a hunting season on sandhill cranes for fear that shooters might mistakenly kill the whooping cranes instead.

Kentucky's second sandhill crane season, already under way, runs through Jan. 13 or until 400 of the birds are killed.

Everybody who thinks hunters can tell the difference between crane species, stand on your head.

Even if they could tell the difference, why should they bother? A few years ago, a Kentucky hunter killed a protected elk, then claimed he thought it was a deer. Even drove around town with the elk in his truck, bragging about how big a deer it was. Opinion remains divided on whether he was really, really stupid or really, really smart.

And there's a much bigger difference between deer and elk than there is between sandhill and whooping cranes.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2012/12/27/2456562/wildlife-agency-reports-whooping.html#storylink=cpy