Bounties for wolves? Who’d'a thunk it!

Severed foreleg? How cruel…about as cruel as bringing in whatever mandated part of the predatory animal as proof of a kill where’er such bounties are and have been introduced. Added the world “severed” does add a bit of drama, though.

…wildlife management…what a concept!

A good counter-ad might be to examine what these “defenders” and their organization advocate to regulate predators, or if they advocate regulating them at all. It might be a good idea to examine where they get their funding.

I wonder if this is another of those suburban east/west coast “feeling the pain of Mother Earth” orgs who never seem to worry about the facts on the ground, or ever bother to consult with landowners and citizens in the areas they intrude their heart-felt politics into.

Sure…this sounds all blood-thirsty in Berkley or Westchester County, but wildlife management is a necessity when wildlife is more than a furry face on a National Geographic cover or in a zoo.

Maybe these “defenders” would get behind an effort to gather all of these nice, furry wolves up and resettle them on the North Slope, near ANWR. I hear that there’re lots of caribou up there for them to chow down on.

Puritan1648 on September 12, 2008 at 4:04 PM

What’s the best way to cook whale blubber?

Akzed

(pardon me if I butt in)

Isn’t it usually eaten raw? I believe that is the case. It’s also an ingredient in fish “ice cream”, isn’t it?

…nummy…once you’ve a taste for it…

Here’s an argument for our vegan friends: the Inuit and others formerly-known-as-Eskimos have a diet (or did, pre-settlement) which was almost entirely meat-based…and they have incredibly robust health and aren’t “carnivore aggressive”, but are acually rather nice blokes, generally. Mind you, like suburbanites of generally European extraction, the bodies and especially the digestive tracts of Eskimos are predisposed to tasty high-fat pre-Atkins-diet comestibles.

So much for feel-good myths.

Puritan1648 on September 12, 2008 at 4:16 PM

A moose or deer that falls prey to a wolf doesn’t get a quick and painless death either, nor does the animal that starves to death due to overpopulation.

Hollowpoint

…excellent point.

Walt Disney’s folks did a great job of making kids like me (when I used to curl up in my jammies watch “The Living Desert” on “Wonderful World of Color”) aware of the wonders of nature. They gave us “Charlie the Lonesome Cougar”, and make us all want to pet his furry face…made him look like a big tan house cat. Better they showed us running down a buck and chowing down on his intestines…to add a bit of perspective.

No…with ol’ Walt’s boys, it was always just a setup for the “money shot” in wildlife “porn”: raccoons trashing a pantry.

“Humane” has little to do with hunting, other than it’s humans who do it. If they die in their tracks or they bend over double and gnaw their wounds, as in this leftist issue-driven wildlife porn, they are still dead. You can either kill them to cull and strenghten the herd, to limit the numbers of harmful animals (e.g., predators next to ranching or residential areas), or enjoy a “good day out” and come back with dinner in a tidy fur bag. Either way, the critter’s dead.

Dead is dead. Once he’s dead it’s a matter of how valuable you plan to make that death. An animal eaten, pelt used, etc. means that the death wasn’t wasted.

Humane is a tricky word. Sometime you have to track a wounded critter for hours…in Alaska, I can imagine, that might be days…and that being an animal shot with a modern, high-powered rifle in the hands of a skilled marksman.

No less a hunter than old Uncle Ted Nugent has had to take up a blood trail, when daylight fails, the next morning. It happens.

I remember, on exercise in the Army, putting up in a stand of nasty, slow-slung baby trees to wait for a helicopter pickup (which is not a rotary-wing redneck conveyance, but I digress). Seems we ended up in an old deer bedding site, and came upon ol’ Bambi’s dad (or brother-in-law or life-partner or someone), all decomposed to bits of fur and bones. The antlers were sawn off by a team-mate of mine to be used the next year for rattling. In short, we found one ol’ Uncle Ted (or whoever) didn’t find.

So, “humane” and “didn’t suffer” don’t really enter into it. By the same token, yuppie-hunter’s convenience and yahoo-hunter’s thrills shouldn’t enter into it, either. Most sportsmen know what I’m saying.

Think about this: not only do these gut-shot critters try to crawl off to die if your marksmanship is off; or die very slowly of starvation if there’re too many of ‘em, which is actually a regular in nature. Populations wax and wane, and Ol’ Mom Nature is a real bitch-on-wheels when her “children” get out of hand. But, think of a deer/caribou/moose/slow tourist kid run down by a pack of wolves. They’re still trying to get away when the big guys in the pack are dining on their entrails. None of this “killing bite” crap for wolves. You’re only brought down, and are still alive when they begin to tear you apart.

Puritan1648 on September 12, 2008 at 4:39 PM