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Show I The WORLD OUTDOORS 7HAT happened to th "boun- ty hunter" after "ths law" came to the Old WestT Many of them kept on working they just changed their habita bit. Instead In-stead of chasing outlawed people, they chased outlawed animals. Predators such as the wolf, coyote, fox, bobcat and pests such as the rattlesnake and magpie have through the years been the target of bounty hunters. From the start, the bounty system sys-tem had opposition. Some wildlife authorities contend that the balance bal-ance of nature is a good one. Predators kill the weak and the sick, they argue, pointing out that this insures the health and vigor of the species preyed upon. "Kill olf your fox population and watch the rodents take over," is another anti-bounty argument. Some states discontinued the bounty system after discovering they were making payment on animals killed in other states and brought home for collection of the bounty. Also, the individuals responsible re-sponsible for making bounty payments pay-ments often didn't know one species of wildlife from another. Other states kept the system. Less than five years ago, one state estimated it was paying more than $2,000 each month in bounty payments. Another state took stock after little more than a decade of bounty payments and discovered that its conservation department had paid out more than a million dollars in bounties. The day of the real bounty hunter is gone, in the Old West, r.nd in the world outdoors. In the states where bounties are still paid, most payments are for animals ani-mals taken during open seasons. V'kllife populations have dis::p-r- aicd to the extent that animai3 o.-.lo subject to hu.iiuy are or t' r "protected" l-st. |