I used to think that "a" was wrong - until they made deer protected near the Indiana Dunes area back home. Within a few years the deer were small, sickly and pathetic. There just wasn't enough food for all of them to exist anymore. The Game Commission in Indiana now holds a regularly scheduled and tightly controlled shoot each year for a very short period with very strict rules about who can shoot what and the number is minimal - just enough, in other words.

So, as much as it pains me to agree with it, I've learned to.

Be that as it may, killing anything from the air seems like the worst sort of arrogance.

It's not sport, it's slaughter.

While an avid target shooter, I've never been a hunter. Unless the animal has an equal chance to bag the hunter, I can't see it being called 'sport'.

By the same token, if someone's operating within the legal boundaries, and they consume the carcass, I don't object to anyone else hunting, either. We are omnivores and the vast majority of us do not refrain from eating meat on morality grounds. Those who do have earned protest rights. Everyone else sounds hypocritical, to me.

I do like baiting people, however. One conversation with a co-worker went along these lines:

"Hey Brian, why do you like killing things?"

I don't enjoy killing things, I just like being in the outdoors

"Surely you can be in the outdoors without hunting. Admit it: you just like killing things."

No I don't. I enjoy the chase and pitting myself against the instinct and reactions of the animal.

"You can still do that, and take a photograph as your 'trophy'. C'mon, Brian, don't be ashamed. You can admit you enjoy killing."

*Brian's turning a mite flushed at this point, but doggedly continues...*

But I eat what I kill, and I save money by not not having to buy as much meat at the store

"Wait a minute, Brian, weren't you just bragging a minute ago about how many $1000 + guns you have? That's a lot of meat. No, Brian, accept it. You enjoy killing."

I'm not sure if he ran out of arguments or finally realized I was messing with him. We laughed about it later, but I still (occasionally) refer to him as "Bwana".

*grin*


[This message has been edited by Jerry Glenn Hartwig (edited September 01, 2008).]

http://news.aol.com/elections/conven...737x1200476316

Well, that destroys the "grandma" rumor, doesn't it?

Poor Bristol.

My personal view is that shooting anything that is endangered, might be endangered, or has been endangered in the past is a bad idea. But if it has to be done for public safety, should be done by a licensed professional working for the state.

For example, in California, mountain lions have made a comeback. So much so that they've occasionally wandered out of the mountains into suburbia. When they do, if animal control and the parks department can't deal with them, it's only right and proper that the police shoot them. But I don't want hunters and other amateur gunbunnies running around in the hills shooting them and anything else they may think looks like a mountain lion.

My view with wolves and polar bears is much the same. And shooting wolves so there are more moose and elk for humans to hunt is simple selfishness. Regular bears? It really depends, but hanging out at the edge of a nature preserve to snipe any who wander across is unsportsmanlike to the level of creepy so I'd say no to that too.

Do people even eat wolf meat? I know they eat moose and bear and deer but wolf? Seems much like eating dog to me.

There's a big ole stuffed bear in Sarah Palin's office, I know that much. No one ate that one, that's for sure. It's a trophy bear all the way.


http://www.grizzlybay.org/PalinBear.jpg

[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited September 01, 2008).]

Kevin, the mountain lions haven't invaded suburban backyards;sububurbia has invaded the mountain lion's backyard, the same way that oil pipelines do in the northern wilderness refuges of wolves, brown bears, caribou, and many other species. Migration routes and breeding and hunting territories are lost or changed. The animals pay the price. It's a lose lose situation.

I agree though that there is often nothing else to be done besides killing the animal when it endangers the public. We are running out of places to relocate them.

Donna

Ugh..I am getting unhealthily wrapped up in the madness, despite promising to drop our of public life in 2004. I retract and detract this and future weigh-ins on my part.

Gimme a beer.

RM

[This message has been edited by Rick Mullin (edited September 01, 2008).]

What's your point? If you've never tasted dog you may not know what you're missing. Cat, now, is a different story. Stringy and musky...

As for Palin's up and coming grandchild, well at least now the liberal gossips will have something accurate to gossip about.

Good for Obama: he stated Bristol's pregnancy is a family matter, not for political discussion, as it has nothing to do with Sarah's lack of qualifications to be a governor or VP.

cheTONGUEek...



[This message has been edited by Jerry Glenn Hartwig (edited September 01, 2008).]

My kitties and I don't even want to think about it.

Isn't it illegal to eat dog in The United States?

Or is that an urban myth?

edited to add: Never mind, I looked it up. It's considered socially taboo in The States but it's not illegal at all. They DO occasionally eat dog in Alaska, but it's uncommon. Some dude regularily killed, cooked and ate his sled dogs when they became too tired or run down to pull his sled any longer. Seems like a poor way of paying them back, but I suppose it's not wasteful.


Virtually no one eats wolf. Not in any country. People will resort to it when they're starving but they say it doesn't do much for a person. No nutrients or something.
It has been reported to taste like chicken, but that's what people say about iguana, too.

And just as an aside, when they aerially hunt wolves, they don't shoot them from the air - they chase them with low flying planes until they pass out from exhaustion and then they land the plane and walk up to them and kill them where they lay.

Nice, huh?

That's even less sporting than trying to hit them with a bullet from a moving vehicle.




[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited September 01, 2008).]

Laura, I don't know. It's illegal to treat an animal cruelly, but not not humanely putting them down. If they were put down humanely could they be legally consumed? Have to research it.

Cats are not domestic animals, as are cows and dogs, but they don't have a hunting season as do deer, etc. so it's the same question from a deifferent angle.

I'll see if I can find out.