Sprawl Is Killing Hunting

Bonnie

I'm sorry Bonnie you are a very misguided person.

Ummm, huh?

Nice that you could squeeze in some bragging about your vacation to Alaska, but how do you figure sprawl will effect whale hunting? Were you up there to shop in an underwater strip mall or something? And what does whale hunting have to do with deer? You are swerving all over the page like a drunken typist. Maybe your editor should have a breathalyzer tube installed on your typewriter. Impaired typing is a so-called sport that I have never understood.

Oh, and Bonnie, the deer freeze in front of you when you shout and clap because they so rarely see douche-bags.

Eco-feminism is truly schizophrenic....

Actually it was the hunters and fishermen who started the environmentalist movement--read "The Last Stand" by Michael Plunk, an excellent book on the efforts of George Bird Grinell, editor of a major hunting and fishing magazine in the late 1800's, to save the bison.

As a young eco-feminist, I cheered when one of our rangers shot an offending snowmobile. Then a couple years later found myself riding one of the "evil beasts" on vacation in Northern Minnesota--and having a blast! Bonnie, you cannot condemn the practice just because it isn't your culture. It is part of our culture and we're not ready to say it isn't. That doesn't make us bad, only different.

Before you say it, animals, not even my dogs whom I love dearly, are the same as humans. Is killing wild animals somehow making us less human? Well, given that mice have 95% the same DNA as humans, only if you are going to also condemn killing the mice in your larder or the rats in the New York City sewers--rat brains are actually even more like ours. At what similarity to humans do you say its okay to kill the living being, since you are so fond of science? Have to check on deer DNA...but hey guys, lizards are probably okay. Taste like chicken...

Rural sprawl, the practice of building huge houses in undeveloped areas is much more invasive to my sensibilities and to the environment than hunting. This is true disrespect of others and selfishness. Especially the ones built on a ridge so that the owners can enjoy a 360 degree view for the two weeks a year that they are there, while we put up with a huge blight from 360 degrees for 52 weeks a year. Not to mention pay for the firefighting to keep their "cabins" from burning in naturally started forest fires, and disrupt the local ecology to shoo the predators away so their children can play "without fear." Irritating to those of us who learned how to co-exist with wild animals while we grew up. But my favorite idiocy was the sign on the MT backroad to slow to 10mph because there might be dust in their precious "cabins." Don't like dust?--Too bad , it's not like it's optional.

Hunting is a dying Sport

There are peobably more deer killed and injured by cars than hunting. The cost of too many deer is signficant.

But the basic idea is correct as more people grow up in surburbia and cities there is less hunting and fewer hunters.

Also there is less public lands available for hunting.

Hunting

You are obviously a vegetarian; otherwise you would not condone the slaughter of helpless cattle & hogs for the sake of eating pleasure.

Bonnie Kills Bambi

Bonnie, that was some of the dumbest, uneducated liberal nonsense I have ever read. By your own admission, hunting is something you do not understand yet you blatantly attack the sport anyway.

However, in spite of your lack of understanding, you have helped to change my mind about hunting. You have clearly shown that the sport is indeed in danger and I have not been doing my part to promote it. This week is deer season in Ohio but I have had a lot of work to do so I was not planning on going. Since you are so persuasive, I have just called my boss and I will be taking Thursday and Friday off to go hunting.

That's right. Now I am going hunting and I am looking for a juicy doe. When I find her (its not as easy as you would make it seem) I a going to take her in honor of you. Because of the liberal hemorrhaging from your mouth, pen, keyboard or whatever, a furry critter is now going to die just as if you pulled the trigger yourself. Bambi's mom is headed to my freezer because of what you have done. You want me to save you the heart?

Thank you!

Sprawl Is not Killing Hunting

Really? Then how do you explain my having to dodge deer in the parking lot of Macy's at the (Chicago area) mall? Sprawl didn't chase them away. Becuase we can't hunt them, hundreds will stave to death this winter. That is, those that don't leap out in front of cars and injure innocent humans.

Thank You

Thank you for writing on this Ms. Erbe. I agree wholeheartedly. While I'm not at all surprised by the comments I've read here, there is one thing I'd really like to address. As a vegetarian, tree-hugging animal lover - I've found that it is nearly inevitable during the course of a conversation on anything having to do with animal rights to be hit with some kind of "pro-life" argument. For example: "I think you need some new worries; 1. 40 million babies aborted for the sake of convenience." and "You should, as has already been pointed out, find a more crediable cause. -- millions of murdered babies each year."

Honestly, the consistency with which this argument is brandished against me is without fail, and still each time I hear it, as now, I'm truly baffled by it. First, by what it is about such a peaceful concept that inspires such a visceral response from people (as clearly demonstrated here)? Second, by my opposition's automatic assumption that I am pro-choice - and finally, how and why anyone seems to think these two issues are so closely linked? Why on earth is that the go-to response for so many? If anything, I'd think a true "pro-life" individual would be able to identify with my core belief that all life is precious and deserves to be treated with respect.

Um...

I love hunting and look forward to the season's beginning all year. No, I don't really enjoy the killing part. Instead, I enjoy the process of taking game from the field to the table. Fresh, organic, fat-free meat properly prepared is a wonderful thing. Being outside stomping around with my kids is another. My only regret is that I don't harvest enough animals to feel my family year round. Game is a treat at our house.

I really don't think people with no experience with a subject should be passing judgment on those of us who enjoy a fantastic endeavor.

"inure young Americans to the cruelty of hunting and to portray it as a family event and an American heritage."

Just curious, why is hunting cruel? Something humans have done for thousands of years and other animals for far longer.

But keeping an animal caged up and then killing it in a factory complex is not cruel. I have great respect for hunters (at least those who eat and utilize the animal they kill). Unlike us, they're not paying someone else to do their dirty work. Furthermore, the animals killed in hunting at least have an opportunity of free life, where as our deli meat was enslaved in brutal conditions often never seeing the light of day.