Error in culling

[Pajarita]

It seems you can't really train hunters not to shoot anything that moves and they ended up killing four birds of a highly endangered species - what a shame!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-21/e ... ll/6716330

[Wolf]

You can't train idiots ! No hunter is going to kill indiscriminently and always is sure of what he is shooting.

[Kakariki]

Thank you Wolf, for understanding that not all hunters are bad. I am not one, but I do know many. Doug would never ever shoot anything he shouldn't, and a lot of his hunting group are similarly law abiding and decent. There is one fellow however that has at times done things he should not and it bothers the whole group AND reflects badly on the group and hunters in general. A couple of years ago Doug stopped him from shooting a wolf, and not because the guy agreed not to but because when he was going to anyway Doug yelled and the shot was no longer possible. He took a lot of flack for that. I could never hunt, I can shoot targets but could never kill an animal, but I can eat them because I am not a vegetarian and it would be hypocritical of me to eat beef, pork, chicken etc...and refuse to eat venison.

[Blu]

These men are idiots, but what you said about hunters pajarita is not true at all.

[Wolf]

Although I have not hunted for some time, I have hunted most of my life. Hunting is an art form, it is being able to walk out your door and find and get close to the animal of choice, any idiot can pull the trigger of a gun, not everyone can touch a wild deer.

[liz]

You can't fix stupid.

[Pajarita]

These men are idiots, but what you said about hunters pajarita is not true at all.

I don't think it's idiocy... In my personal opinion, anybody who hunts for sport is a person who is not as civilized as it should be. It might sound harsh but if you think about it for anybody to find pleasure in killing a defenseless animal there has to be an element of callousness, a lack of empathy for another being's pain/distress/fear and either a disregard for life in general or a feeling of such superiority that the lives of what they consider 'inferior' beings don't even matter to them to the point that the arbitrary extinguishing of them doesn't even stir a sense of moral wrongness.

I did not think this way when I was younger (my first husband and his father were hunters) but I do now. And I am not a vegetarian, either, but I see no contradiction or hypocrisy in my beliefs. I think you can find a balance between eating animal flesh and empathy for animals.

[Kakariki]

I respect you opinion and feelings, Pajarita. I do know that many of the the food animals raised in captivity have horrible lives. If I think about this too much I feel bad when I consume them. I console myself about the occasional wild game ( he only hunts deer and moose for a week each in autumn, Doug that is) the wild animals at least had a natural and free life.

There was a letter to the editor published in a paper one time, I cannot reiterate the whole thing but the last bit said ' everyone should buy their meat in the grocery store where no animal has been harmed....' hmmmmmm....

[Pajarita]

Well, the truth is that you can get meat from animals that did not suffer. I don't eat any baby animals (so lamb and veal are out), I don't eat any animals that are becoming too rapidly depleted (like tuna, for example) or wild animals, I only eat animals that are domesticated, bred for food and have had a reasonably 'normal' life so I only eat beef, turkey and chickens that have been raised and killed humanely (I also eat farmed tilapia and shrimp as well as sardines), fed natural food (no soy, hormones, antibiotics, etc) and that have had access to the outdoors, sunshine and the company of others of their species (they are called 'pastured'). It's expensive (there is a farm in Pennsylvania that does this) but, in reality, humans don't need to eat large amounts of meat all the time. I also eat dairy products that follow the same guidelines (organic, pastured, humanely killed). Last night, for dinner, I had half a tub of Sabra's olive tapenade hummus with blue corn chips, a large mixed salad with sunflower seeds, and, for dessert a mango Italian ice, a banana and Maria cookies (I always have 3 desserts, I have a BIG sweet tooth ) with a very cold bottle of beer and a glass of seltzer. A great tasting and highly satisfying dinner with good levels of protein, fiber and carbs that involved no cruelty whatsoever. But, if my husband is home, I need to be more creative because he is a meat and carb man but, thankfully, he likes pasta and chicken a lot and has gotten used to eating turkey sausages and hamburgers as well as beef bacon so I use them to replace the 'real' things in all recipes.

[Wolf]

Well these hunters were requested to cull a different bird from the same island that the endangered birds were on so as to keep them from being forced out by the other bird. The other bird looks similar to the endangered species, although the hunters were instructed on how to tell them apart. So they were not hunting for sport but as part of a conservation effort.