Chumster, it was my impression that you condoned their actions because you believe baiting to be the ethical method of hunting and did not approve of poaching being reported.

Do I speed? Sure I do, but you really can't compare speeding to laws concerning hunting. Why? Because there aren't throngs of people united to stop us all from driving! There are anti-hunting lobbies, however, and they love to see hunters screwing up.

No, the extremists will not exuse hunting because its done legally. But hunters are shooting themselves in the foot if they allow others to blatently break the law and don't report it. Extremists are looking for hunters to slip up and show the masses who don't have a stake in the issue either way that we're all law breaking poachers. These stories will run time to time no matter if hunters report eachother or not. People who are prosecuted for bear baiting and other crimes provide lots of public record evidence all on their own.

I am not at all forgetting that I am lumped in with those unethical hunter/poachers. All the more reason to report them!! I don't want people who give ALL hunters a black eye to get away with their crimes. Hunters HELP every other hunter out there when they report poaching/law breaking because it takes those a-holes out of the hunter population or reforming their ways for risk of prosecution.

Have fun uniting with poachers and law breakers because that's what you're doing when you promote silence. I want NOTHING to do with poachers and won't hide their crimes under the rug.

Hunters aren't nailing their own coffin by trying to do the "just" thing in reporting. Poachers, rule breakers, and those who wish to keep their crimes secret are! You're just allowing the practices to continue, allowing more crimes to be committed by condoning it, and giving the media more fodder (because many will be caught by wardens) to report on.