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"BSP, you know seals aren't for eating or for wearing their fur...they're made for hugging"

You first!!! I like to keep my neck between my head and shoulders for now thank you very much, ha ha!
It would be wonderfull if the world was like that!
Wouldn't It???
Well then maybe not??

"Here are the numbers, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, and other public sources:

** $746 million - Annual amount of money spent by hunters in the United States on licenses and public land access fees alone. Sportsmen's licensing revenues account for more than half of all funding for state natural resource agencies

** $300 million - Additional monies contributed to wildlife conservation every year by the more than 10,000 private hunting-advocate organizations, like the National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation

** $4.2 billion - Amount of money sportsmen have contributed to conservation through a 10% federal excise taxes on firearms, ammunition, and gear since the 1937 Pittman-Robertson Act established the tax. Millions of acres of public-use land has been purchased, preserved, and maintained with this money."

In case you're wondering how much money animal rights groups devote to habitat preservation and the welfare of wild species, take a gander at PETA's 2004 financials. Straight from its Web site, I discovered that PETA's prodigious revenue of over $29 million bought:

** 2,700 media interviews

** 703 organized demonstrations

** Nearly 11,000 mentions in print

** Coverage on at least seven major TV networks

** 150,000 "vegetarian starter kits" disseminated to the public

** Enough "educational materials" for 235,000 teachers and 11,000,000 students…

But not a single acre of land for wildlife preservation - not even for endangered species!"

How do these numbers compare with other high-participation outdoor sports? For some perspective, compare hunting with another popular gear- and travel-intensive sport, skiing. According to the Census Bureau's Statistics of U.S. Businesses and other sources, the skiing industry annually:

** Employs approximately 127,000 people (less than a quarter as many as hunting)

** Pays gross salaries of around $1 billion (about 6% of what hunting pays)

** Yields just over $500 million in ski equipment sales (hunters spend more than this on their DOGS).

See what I mean? Hunting is big business in the United States. So big that animal rights groups could never even come close to matching, dollar for dollar, the positive impact sportsmen have on America's bottom line.

http://dailyreckoning.com/right-to-hunt-vs-animal-rights/