Although Sue makes a good point about education being the key to these types of things, I highly doubt that this Owl was shot by accident. Out of the many hunters out there, some are unethical. Unethical hunters will shoot anything that comes in their path. These guys get bored and get trigger happy. I am sorry to say that I have a lot of evidence to support this. I met a guy this summer who does a lot of illegal trapping and hunting and he said it happens all the time. He would not give me his last name, so I talked to him for a couple of hours to get a sense of how these people think and how common it is. Even if he was exaggerating, it was still mind boggling how common and prevalent this is. I also must confess that in my youth I was a unethical hunter. When I was 12 or 13 I remember killing many animals for the "fun" of it. Please understand that I am very different now and have spent a lot of time trying to understand why it was so "fun" at the time. Its all about the power of it. The power to take life is intoxicating. The other surprising thing is that I was raised as a ethical hunter. I took firearm safety and knew about wildlife. Education in general will not solve this problem. We have to promote ethics that are grounded in ecological concepts and ideas. People in general need a paradigm shift from being masters of the universe to part of it. I actually think this behavior gets to the heart of conservation and environmentalism in general and it is evidence that we are not doing a good enough job. A hunter who respects his prey will be ethical in his dealing with it. He will only shoot if the shot is clean and the death is fast. A humane death. He would not even think about killing anything but his prey because of the effects that death may have on the fabric of the system of nature.
I could go on for days. My point is that I believe this Owl was killed on purpose by a unethical hunter just to shoot something and feel the "power" of taking a life. I would appreciate not getting a bunch of hate mail back about this. I have not hunted since my youth and am a staunch environmentalist and activist. I do more than my share to improve wildlife and habitat. My passion is education about ecology and how the world works. I just can't share Sue's optimism about her fellow humans on this planet. We have a long history of treating nature well when it suits us and is convenient and doing whatever we please with it when it doesn't. I believe that society needs a huge paradigm shift in how it views nature. Until that happens I believe we are destined to a dismal future of extinction and ecological collapse. One last statement, most hunters are ethical and ecological. Sportsman and their groups do many great things for wildlife. I appreciate the time and effort they put in to habitat improvement, even if it is targeted at Game species. Thanks, Chad Aakre >From: "SSMORTON" <[email protected]> >To: "Chris Fagyal" <[email protected]>, ><[email protected]>,<[email protected]> >Subject: Re: [mou] Northwest Minnesota Birding Report- Friday, December3, >2004 >Date: Fri, 3 Dec 2004 13:17:46 -0600 > > >Many people use birds and critters for target practice out of ignorance. >They are not stupid people, just ill informed. Don't jump to conclusions. >It >could also have been an accident...someone aiming at something else, even a >large branch, and hitting the owl by mistake. They may not have even seen >it or even know that they shot it..It takes a keen eye to spot an owl. I >think the solution to this problem is education. Write your local paper, >offer to give a talk at a local club, organization, or school. There are >so >many positive things we well-informed birders can do. If the culprit is >found, give them the "benefit of the doubt". Educate them. Take them out on >an owl watch. A positive makes change more easily than a negative. If the >shooting was done on purpose...Hey it's illegal to shoot owls so let's go >shoot some...well, I guess that is another story. Just remember, we live >in >a country where you are innocent until proven guilty and that's a good >thing! > >Sue Morton, Cottonwood >----- Original Message ----- >From: "Chris Fagyal" <[email protected]> >To: <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> >Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 9:21 AM >Subject: Re: [mou] Northwest Minnesota Birding Report- Friday, December3, >2004 > > > > This sickens me. Why would anyone shoot a Great Grey Owl, an owl whose > > primary food are rodents which most people consider pests (voles have a > > hasty habit of digging under fresh lawns and creating tracks all through > > the lawn..it really looks pretty let me tell ya). I hope the person > > responsible for shooting an Owl gets caught, prosecuted, and stuck in > > jail for his/her stupidity. > > > > > > Chris Fagyal > > Senior Software Engineer > > United Defense, L.P. ASD > > Fridley, MN > > (763) 572-5320 > > [email protected] > > > > >>> "Jeanie Joppru" <[email protected]> 12/02/2004 20:22:27 PM >>> > > [snip] > > > > Owls are again the big news this week. From Lake of the Woods County, > > Gretchen Mehmel sent in a secondhand report of two GREAT GRAY OWLS at > > Long Point on Lake of the Woods on November 27th. These were spotted > > by > > a resident there. Jeff Birchem picked up a dead one that had been shot > > near Warroad. Two more were picked up by Beth Siverhus after being hit > > by cars, and sent to the Raptor Center for rehabilitation. One was > > found > > east of Clementson along MN 11, and one was picked up 6.5 miles south > > of > > Warroad on CR12. > > [snip] > > > > _______________________________________________ > > mou-net mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://cbs.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mou-net > > _______________________________________________ > > mou-net mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://cbs.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mou-net > > > > > > >_______________________________________________ >mou-net mailing list >[email protected] >http://cbs.umn.edu/mailman/listinfo/mou-net
