blackbyrd2: So, yesterday I was running through the

Blackbyrd (

blackbyrd2) wrote,
@ 2008-04-22 23:53:00

So, yesterday I was running through the channels (Bruce Springsteen; 57 channels and nothing's on) and I ran up against the Hunting channel again. I spent a whole five seconds there, and wouldn't have spent that much except for the scene the selector happened on; 5 guys in camo, one with a bow, kneeling beside the dead body of a giraffe.

The guy says "This is the biggest thing I've ever brought down with a bow; 3000 lbs, 19 feet tall. You have got to come to Africa and get one of these!"

Yes, because nothing says brave hunter like killing an herbivore. It's right up there with tracking and killing the dangerous, deadly cow. That's right. At 3000 lbs and 19 feet, it could kill you with a single kick, if you cornered it, pissed it off, and made it scared or angry enough to fight. Because you know, giraffes have such vicious reputations.
And you know he didn't track it down, run it to ground, or sneak within shooting range. He hid in a shelter while his buddies drove it to him, or else they went to a game farm and hung out in a camouflaged shed until one stumbled by.

At 3000 lbs, he'll need approximately 10 full size freezers for the butchered meat, and he gets to pay to ship it home from Africa. I figure the cost ought to put a steak in the $75-$100 a lb range. What do you think the odds are that he's actually going to take home more than 20 lbs of meat? If that. The rest of the carcass, I'm sure, will be donated to charity. Right. Because they surely wouldn't just leave it to rot in the savannah, now would they? I guess the hyenas will have a good meal, anyway.

The entire point of the trip was to kill the biggest thing he could. Not the most challenging. Not the most dangerous. Simply the biggest. I am unable to properly articulate how much loathing this engenders in me; how much disdain, how small I think the man is, and how little respect I have for him, and the producers of this crap.

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	Thank you. saminz 2008-04-23 07:54 am UTC (link)
	I'll join you in un-articulation, then. (Reply to this)

slamlander
2008-04-23 08:13 am UTC (link)

You would prefer a less humane culling?

Remember the Grand Canyon Mule deer? They were made extinct by stopping the hunt. The overbred their environment and they all starved off one winter. All because people like you loather hunting. That's alright, would strangling the whole herd be any better than one hunter getting his rocks off? Or is it that, you rather slowly starve the herd to death before letting anyone else get any pleasure from the kill of even one?

These guys weren't poaching, this was a sanctioned, managed, and licensed kill, within certain rules. The herd was thinned, the region made money off the fees, which is probably going to help manage the remaining herd.

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Or so you assume.

thewrongcrowd
2008-04-23 09:09 am UTC (link)

Jumping to conclusions isn't much of a sport.

There's absolutely nothing in the information BB2 provides that indicates the location of the herd, whether the herd needed culled, was facing a lack of food, or whether this is just a situation where some government moron decided charging some numbnut an exorbitant amount to be machoman was worth knocking off a giraffe (or elephant or hippo or gorilla) or ten hundred.

And before you jump to conclusions that make you look like an idiot, BB2 has said in a number of his posts that he's not against hunting per se. As a hunter, I can say without qualification that this kind of shit (trophy hunting) needs to stop.

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	Safe assumption, It was a TV program. slamlander 2008-04-23 10:49 am UTC (link)
	But, I don't like trophy hunting any more than you do. However, PETA has been using such arguments lately to try and get hunting banned. I'm sorry if I over reacted. bTW, did you catch Clinton's statement v-a-v Iran yesterday? I couldn't believe my ears! (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

This was cable. Nothing can be assumed.

thewrongcrowd
2008-04-23 01:22 pm UTC (link)

PETA's arguments are a tad different... and have been spectacularly unsuccessful... to the point that they're a red herring.

Which statement? The one she made Sunday night during the debate? The one about retaliating against Iran? The one immediately twisted out of context? The likelihood of US retaliation in the event of Iran launching nuclear attacks against Israel (or any other nation (the context of the statement) goes a long way to keeping that particular djinn in the bottle.

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blackbyrd2
2008-04-23 02:50 pm UTC (link)

TWC has suitably answered you, I think. I would like to point out also though that government sanctions mean nothing so far as environmental awareness goes. You have no evidence which indicates the local government was doing anything other than making money. Many nations are well known for promoting businesses which are less than environmentally friendly. Take a good hard look at the forestry/agricultural trade in places like Brazil where shortsighted government policies result in the complete destruction of the rain forest; The very epitome of non-renewable resource practices.
On the other hand, I think it is highly likely the giraffe was from a farm designed for specifically this type of hunting, rather than free range, which, if true, would completely invalidate your point. In this case the giraffe was bred specifically so some bozo with a bow could claim it for a trophy, and not for meat.

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Big game hunting does provide much needed revenue

buddha41
2008-04-23 03:32 pm UTC (link)

for some areas of Africa. I'm not a proponent of trophy hunting, but in places like Kenya and Tanzania it is a major part of their economy. Hunters can easily spend $50,000 on an African hunting safari (as opposed to $5,000 if they only took a camera).

How do you know he didn't track it down? I know several people that have hunted in Africa, and they all stalked their prey. I know there are areas where you can get the game driven to you (I think that is the only way to hunt rhinos anymore) but I think most hunting in Africa is tracking and stalking.

Most likely all the meat will go to local villages, that is the usual arrangement for large animals.

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Re: Big game hunting does provide much needed revenue

blackbyrd2
2008-04-24 01:42 am UTC (link)

As I note above, just because government sanctions something doesn't make it a Good Idea. I understand that economic issues can cause bad decisions to be made, and really, I'm not all that ticked at the government, if it's involved at all. It's the very fact that there IS a market for killing animals for no other reason than to kill them. It's that mindset which irks me.
It's entirely possible that the meat was given to a local village. Wouldn't it be better for their economy to put a number of villagers to work raising livestock, butchering it, transporting it to market and selling it? Not to mention bulding stores, manufacturing cold storage facilities, servicing trucks...
Instead of one guy with some acreage making lots of money, you'd have hundreds of people making a living wage and having ready access to food.

And I don't know that he didn't track it. However, all the bowhunters I've seen, both on this show, and in all the commercials, are hanging out in shelters. Th original concept of bowhunting was to get back to the basics of tracking and stalking, but that's gone now, replaced by this desire to kill bigger and bigger animals with a bow. While tracking a giraffe would be a bit more challenging, especially if our hero is on foot, it's unlikely the people on this show are going to expend that energy and money. That's not why they do this. From his single phrase above, it's clear his only interest was in the size of creature he could bring down with a bow. Well, that, and promoting the game hunting trade in Africa. (He probably got a discount for the plug, don't you think?)

Yes, it's entirely possible that I've gotten a completely mistaken impression of this show and the people on it. Unlikely, but possible.

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