Money, Macaws and Friends

[Phlox]

There are parts of Western WI where people are REALLY poor. Having a deer/rabbits/squirrels in the freezer was the difference between eating AND making the mortgage or deciding on which one to do. Even now, it has a dramatic impact on the amount of money we spend on food. A fishing license and hunting license is a lot cheaper here than the amount of money we'd spend on the same food. Not to mention wild food is typically healthier for you.

And if there's a trophy too? I don't see the problem. If you are going to kill something to eat it, I think using all of it and participating it the act instead of buying pre-wrapped meat is really an important way to be appreciative for the way life works.

But that's just my opinion. I know people love their stereotypes, because they make those stupid TV shows that people think mirror real life. But I've known hunters all my life...and they aren't drunk jerks killing stuff to beat their chests. They're conservationists and those who really appreciate nature and life enough to fully participate in it.

 

[Kiwibird]

There are parts of Western WI where people are REALLY poor. Having a deer/rabbits/squirrels in the freezer was the difference between eating AND making the mortgage or deciding on which one to do. Even now, it has a dramatic impact on the amount of money we spend on food. A fishing license and hunting license is a lot cheaper here than the amount of money we'd spend on the same food. Not to mention wild food is typically healthier for you.

And if there's a trophy too? I don't see the problem. If you are going to kill something to eat it, I think using all of it and participating it the act instead of buying pre-wrapped meat is really an important way to be appreciative for the way life works.

But that's just my opinion. I know people love their stereotypes, because they make those stupid TV shows that people think mirror real life. But I've known hunters all my life...and they aren't drunk jerks killing stuff to beat their chests. They're conservationists and those who really appreciate nature and life enough to fully participate in it.

I have been a complete vegetarian for the past 15 years, so obviously I wouldn't ever *personally* go out hunting, but I understand a whole lot better someone going out into the woods, tracking and then ending the animals life (who lived a natural, normal existence and the people will also eat the meat) a whole lot more than buying "factory farmed" meat (I think thats about as PC/nice as I can put it) at the grocery store. Hunting also controls overgrown populations, and does provide a lot of folks with food. Just understand, theres a HUGE difference between the hunting YOU'RE talking about (the traditional way, with the purpose of obtaining food from a wild animal) and the kind where an animal is raised in a pen just like any other livestock, then one day gets led up to some food positioned directly in front of where people with more money than sense have their guns sighted in on. And most of "those types" want the trophy, but not the meat. Since they have paid $5,10,15K+ on their hunt, there is no savings off meat at the grocery store. Saving money on food isn't the point with the kinds of hunts everyone is talking about here.

Thats not saying there aren't a lot of actual hunters out there, but theres also a lot of "trophy seekers" (really can't call them hunters) out there too. My parents knew a few "trophy hunters". They'd pay god awful amounts of money to go shoot all kinds of pen-raised exotic animals that were essentially tied up in front of their gun, then they'd take the head and hide, and leave the meat behind.... Nasty personality types too. Google the Texas exotic animal auctions... Or "exotic animal hunts" in Texas (unfortunately, TX doesn't have strict regulations on owning, selling or "hunting" exotic animal, like ibex, giraffes and zebras). Native and more common creatures have "farm hunting" all over the US. No joke, people pay to hunt these animals in a setting which is less than "sportsman-like" and have nothing close to a reverence for nature and animals:31:

 

[Phlox]

I dislike that faked canned hunt nonsense too. Its pointless and even if you only hunt for sport...there's nothing sporting about it.

The thing is, at least here, that's the exception, not the rule. The culture in the Midwest really frowns on that.

 

[Birdman666]

Hunting in Texas is pretty darn expensive. Almost all property is privately owned, so if you want to hunt you have to get a lease or go out of state and that's not cheap either.

I'd doubt there's anywhere in the US that 20 years ago you had to hunt to survive. 20 years ago was 1994.

I'm not opposed to hunting (though I'd never do it myself or marry someone who did it) but I am opposed to trophy hunters.

EXACTLY!

You're talking about ranches that are exclusive "members only" places for the uber-rich redneck. Where they raise exotic african animals, simply for the purpose of hunting them for sport.

And let's see, the blinds are placed on the places on these ranches where the animals have always come to feed. So, there is just SOOO much skill involved.

Hunting for food is one thing. I get that.

This?! This is something else entirely. Yeah, must've had to track that Gazelle really far through the bush there...

And excuse me, but you are a filty rich person, living in a gated community in the suburbs... WHY DO YOU NEED A FRIGGIN' ARSONAL IN YOUR BASEMENT?!

None of these people are the type who believe the black helicopters are coming, they just are rather fond of guns...

I, personally, just don't see it.

I don't get it.

 

[thekarens]

To me it's not the same thing hunting for food and getting a trophy with it, as a trophy hunter, the person who hunts strictly for the trophy and has no interest in the rest.

What Birdman is talking about is pretty common here. My partner's boss (whom she loves) is strictly a trophy hunter, gazelle, bear, etc. He gets the head and maybe the pelt and goes on his way, spends thousands of dollars going a lot of places to do it. That's what I have a problem with.

 

[Phlox]

I am totally opposed to that too. I really don't understand that level of wastefulness.

 

[Birdman666]

There are parts of Western WI where people are REALLY poor. Having a deer/rabbits/squirrels in the freezer was the difference between eating AND making the mortgage or deciding on which one to do. Even now, it has a dramatic impact on the amount of money we spend on food. A fishing license and hunting license is a lot cheaper here than the amount of money we'd spend on the same food. Not to mention wild food is typically healthier for you.

And if there's a trophy too? I don't see the problem. If you are going to kill something to eat it, I think using all of it and participating it the act instead of buying pre-wrapped meat is really an important way to be appreciative for the way life works.

But that's just my opinion. I know people love their stereotypes, because they make those stupid TV shows that people think mirror real life. But I've known hunters all my life...and they aren't drunk jerks killing stuff to beat their chests. They're conservationists and those who really appreciate nature and life enough to fully participate in it.

That is entirely different than the childish trophy hunters I know around here... and it's way different if you're going to eat what you kill, or to thin out the herd to keep the balance of nature in the area...

That's how it should be... I don't have a problem with that.

But these are not THOSE kinds of hunters. And I, personally, fail to understand how you can even feel like sitting in a deer blind, downwind, of a place you've conditioned an animal raised on a ranch to eat, solely for the purpose of shooting it later for sport, can be considered an accomplishment.

And those wealthy hunting ranches... well, that's what these people are paying for.

Fortunately, the guys I know usually kill more beer than deer. It's a social thing around here. Drink a few beers, have a BBQ, shoot something, do something stupid in an ATV...

 

[Birdman666]

To me it's not the same thing hunting for food and getting a trophy with it, as a trophy hunter, the person who hunts strictly for the trophy and has no interest in the rest.

What Birdman is talking about is pretty common here. My partner's boss (whom she loves) is strictly a trophy hunter, gazelle, bear, etc. He gets the head and maybe the pelt and goes on his way, spends thousands of dollars going a lot of places to do it. That's what I have a problem with.

EXACTLY!!!

HUNTING RANCHES UP HERE ARE WHAT GOLF CLUBS ARE IN A LOT OF PLACES... IT'S A STATUS THING.

ONLY THE ANIMALS THEY RAISE ON THE RANCH ARE SEMI TAME, AND ARE CONDITIONED TO COME AND EAT AT CERTAIN PLACES, AT CERTAIN TIMES OF THE DAY.

So, you pay your money, sit in a deer blind for an hour, shoot your animal, and then go and have BBQ & cocktails while they make your awesome bear skin rug, or other stupid tacky thing to take home...