Technology in hunting is ever evolving, and as it does, Pope and Young continues to to lead the discussion ensuring technological advancements are not violating bowhunting fair chase ethics. Bowhunting is a privilege, not a right. With any privilege the ethics and perception of the activity to the greater public must be preserved.
Pope and Young is the voice for bowhunters not only when it comes to attacks on our passion for bowhunting, but working to draw those lines in the sand, to help ensure we are following the rules of Fair Chase, ethical bowhunting.
In the past, the policy was that if an animal had a picture captured on a camera that then transmitted the picture to the hunter, it was not eligible for the record books. “Obviously, as technology increases, the cellular camera gained popularity,” said Justin Spring, Executive Director of Pope and Young. “It got to the point where technically, if you looked at that rule, if I get a picture of a fawn, in essence, per fair chase rules as it reads, that deer is basically safe for its entire life from ever getting entered into the records book, which obviously wasn’t the intention. So that started the conversation between both Pope and Young as well as Boone and Crockett, that what we are really trying to avoid is the idea of “on-call hunting” where somebody’s sitting in their basement watching cameras, sees a deer out in front of stand six, they sneak out there and shoot it.” Read more
