From: "E.J. Totty", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> The essence of the question is: if a wild predatory animal inflicts
>>a certain level of misery upon its prey -- in the process of subduing it, what
>>would you deem to be onerous when a human is conducting the same act?
>
>Oh please - there is a massive difference. You cannot equate a natural kill
>by an animal with what is basically a human sport with rules, conventions
>and a yearly fixture. You know I firmly believe that a major reason that
>people oppose fox hunting, in this country anyway, is because the
>supporters try to justify their cause with comments like this. In short you
>are treating the people who oppose you like idiots and they fight harder
>because of it.
--snip--
I'll bite.
First, and foremost, the reasons for allotting of licenses is to
ensure that the 'pool' of animals that are hunted will not be decimated.
Left to their own devices, most of the so-called 'game animals'
would face extreme cycles of famine caused by over-population, and
then near extinction as their natural predator's populations grew as a
result of their herd sizes.
The 'game' animals are called such, because of the royalty of
yore, who engaged in 'hunting games', whilst the paupers and serfs were
usually denied such pleasures, depending instead on the more abundant
vermin.
The rules you speak of, were devised as a means to ensure that
the animals were given a fair chance to escape their predator, who in the
modern guise may avail himself to easy transport, roads, and increased
efficiency of methods for dispatch.
I rather despise the term 'game' animal for several reasons, but
mostly because it has been taken advantage of by those whose antipathies
would deprive every essence of the natural spirit of humanity.
It seems that we have been elevated to the status of demigods,
and therefore must pooh-pooh what was formerly done by our near
ancestors, if only because it connects us to the reality of our essential selves.
And, heaven help us, should we should suddenly realize that we
really are some kind of blood spilling predator dependant upon the flesh
of other animals for our survival.
That people hunt is not to be disparaged, anymore than attacking
the proclivities of a wild -- or domesticated predator.
Again, as I've stated previously, there are people 'out there' who
have an abiding hatred of humans, and would -- if they possessed the power --
seek to decimate every human on the face of the earth, except themselves
and some close friends. They see humanity as vermin unto themselves,
predating the entire biosphere.
Are we unnatural? I think not, that is, unless we seek to deny our
essential qualities, and then we seek all manner of unnatural things.
It might be noted here that it isn't the hunter that has disrupted
the environment, and caused all manner of chaos, but the anti-hunter who,
in seeking to prevent a 'perceived' misery, has instead created in the wake
of the 'theme' park all manner of misery. It is the artificial expressions of
those who can't face the truth of the matter, that have created the largest
depredation's. And to continually hide the blunders of stupidity, they
hire 'government hunters' to fix the 'occasional problems'.
That, Neil, is the real problem.
--rest snip--
--
In Liberty,
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"Whenever we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember
that virtue is not hereditary." --Thomas Paine
By way of the The Federalist http://www.Federalist.com/
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ET
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