While I appreciate the "cute and cuddliness" of any baby animal, I don't loose sight of the "Big Picture", and I challenge anyone to question my love of animals. I don't know if pulling road kill from the jaws of death, or spending funds on the attempted revival of a fawn is necessarily a success story any more then the breeding of ligers/tiglons or the running of a Sanctuary is. I suggest the medical funds would be better spent on research into an overpopulation/how do we live together situation. The "success story" is the overpopulation of many species given our sophisticated worldwide wildlife management practices. The Muntjak fawn is a non native species, introduced through human error/mismanagement, and we are familiar with the destruction of habitat by non native species in our own country. Amy one time questioned hunting, and Mary Ann speaks of sharpshooters going out on night hunts. If it is licensed and the funds from said licensing used to support Wildlife Management, I see that as a great means of keeping the populations in check while also providing for their future. If they have nothing to eat due to over breeding/land available, they die a terrible starving death or they wander into the roads and become road kill or crippled rehabs.
This is written with all due respect to the blogs animal lover readers. I received the email about the death of the fawn yesterday, and was not going to post it as it would have then justified a counter point. But Mary Ann asked and Jody told, so I had no option but to finish the story. Sad as it is, there is a much bigger reality.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Respectful counterpoint to the "female/motherly hormones rageing today.
Posted by
Wade G. Burck
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7 comments:
Wade, again you are correct about the big picture, just as you were in the post about the death of Elsa. There are much worse ways for an animal to die than "a quidk bullet to the brain". I for one appreciate that you do show us the big picture
Mary Ann
Mary Ann,
If I truly love, appreciate, and want them around forever what good would I do the animal running a self serving personal publicity campaign. Often times death is the better alternative. I used to say, "Webster" came up with the word hypocrisies after spending only 24 hours in the animal world.
Wade
I was having a conversation with my dad, about a lady he met while giving elephant rides. She had just came back from a safari vacation in Africa. She began to tell him how great his elephants looked in comparison to the ones that was underweight or dead in Africa. One night there was a storm and blowed down a few trees and the elephants had eaten the trees in no time. Starvation is got to be one of the saddest and worst ways to die.
Wade,
Great pic of the deer.
I personally love watching them and I'm not a hunter. I'm not against hunters but I am against hunters that kill and don't hunt. Hunting season starts here in November. The 2 months before ranchers start putting out feed. I will never understand their mentality. What challenge is it to shoot a deer when they are going to the same spot they've received food for the last 2 months. That's not hunting........
We do have an over abundance of deer here. On a daily basis I see anywhere from 10-30 deer walk around or through my property. Most are axis which hunters are allowed to kill year round..Few are whitetails which can only be killed during hunting season.
You can't drive the 20 minutes to town without seeing at least one dead deer on the side of the road after being hit. Takes a little away from the otherwise beautiful scenic drive. It's illegal to pick up a dead deer from the road. I'd feel better about their deaths if someone could pick them up and feed the homeless or other animals. Meanwhile all I know is that when I die I want to come back as a Buzzard and live here. Needless to say, they eat very well.
Wade,
Another lesson from my ecology class. The reason for the overpopulation of deer in the US has to do with the lack of natural predators such as the grey wolf and mountain lions,which we are to blame for their small numbers. As much as I hate hunting, when a species is overpopulated, it is necessary to keep other animals and plant species alive.
Amy
Amy,
You got it. Thus man becomes the predator. And now you should start to see how unnatural and unwild the natural wild world of animals in reality is. Reporters used to be shocked when I would suggest the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation was a great conservation organization in which to donate funds. "But don't they also hunt the Elk?" they would ask. "Of course," I would answer. "They have become that good at the conservation game, it's a necessity."
Wade
Jody,
The Axis/Chital deer you mention are the nonnative species that cause habitat destruction, and are the reason for stringent wildlife regulations. If tree stand feeding is a means of eliminating them, great. Machine gun them if necessary. But it is not "hunting" it is eradicating. But like "training" each person has their own idea of what it is. And I respect, although I may not agree with, their opinion as an American citizen.
I enjoy bow hunting for larger species, and the ultimate is Falconry for smaller species For me it is about being outdoors, isolated in nature, one on one against an opponent, with equal opportunities for success or failure. A great day of Falconry might consist of eight misses and two kills.
I also enjoy what I refer to as "counting coup" hunting, although I have not had the pleasure or honor of partaking in it since 2001. in Wisconsin.
In the evenings a large herd of deer, approximately 60 to 70 would gather in a clearing to eat out of the alfalfa fields surrounded by woods. They only used one entrance into the clearing and the same exit out which was about 150 yards from the middle of the clearing. There is a hill the same distance from the exit in the trees overlooking the clearing. Each evening I would ride a magnificent Arabian colt, named Illusion(Dianne met him) that I had just put under saddle out to that hill, and watch the deer through binoculars for an hour or so. At approximately 7:48 PM each evening the larger of the 4 bucks in the herd would stop eating and walk towards the trees. That's when a "counting coup" hunt starts. Illusion and I would gallop down the hill, at an angle across the clearing and try to get to the opening first and I would try to slap the leader on the shoulder and attempt to turn him back into the clearing, while everything else jumped over our heads in a panic. In two months of daily attempts, Illusion and I managed to beat that magnificent 12 pointer to the trees 9 times. I used to "count coup" hunt Pronghorn Antelope when I was growing up in North Dakota but I only managed 3 my whole life. They are faster then the wind and they have a lot of open space to run. I actually had a horse, stop and refuse to chase any more. He thought it was an exercise in futility, and I couldn't convince him there was an off chance we could catch one. Unfortunately wasn't an Arabian.
If you want to experience a great hunt, Jody try a "count coup" on one of those Axis deer. If nothing else, you might chase them back to India. LOL
Wade
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