From: vanetten@unix.cie.rpi.edu (John S. Van Etten)
Subject: Re: Hunters Needed
Organization: CIE, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 23:59:00 GMT

James M Hoskins writes:

>Two points and a question:  1)  People, especially people who live in
>urban areas, will not know many hunters nowadays.  The stereotype is
>easily made--Jennifer probably (I hope) likes many people she knows who are
>meat eaters, obviously they just didn't personally kill their lunch;

I'm disinclined to agree.  They did just kill their lunch, no matter
how much people don't want to admit to it.  And 99 times out of a
hundred it was in a more cruel fashion than at a hunter's gun.  That's
the key.  The stuff sold in supermarkets and restaurants is DEAD
ANIMALS.  Period.  (Note -- it doesn't make them bad people for eating
pre-killed animals, but I do have a problem if they (or AR-types)
somehow think they are better than hunters because of it.  When I drop
a deer with one shot from my .284, I can sleep at night.  I've also
seen veal calves raised in factory farms and seen them butchered, and
I don't eat veal unless served to me because of it.  I've recently
petitioned a local duck farmer for cruelty in force-feeding ducks.
I'm not so quick to condone these actions committed by the people
that eat them.)


>2)  in spite of the almost unanimous good sense and tolerance
>exhibited by the hunters in this group with their lofty goals of only
>hunting what they eat and aiming for a quick kill there are slob hunters
>out there who a) enjoy killing and b) could care less if the animals
>suffers when they kill;

Yes, there are.  They are small in number (fortunately) and we try
very hard to police our own ranks.  As a youth, one of my close
friends used to cut the back legs off frogs and throw them back in the
water and watch them try to swim with just their front legs.  We tried
to talk him out of it, but he would just laugh.  On one particularly
cruel day, he started cutting off both back legs and one front leg
just to watch the frog swim in a circle. :-( :-(  So a couple of us
got mad and beat the sh-- out of him for it, which cured him.  We need
less of the "good ole boy" mentality and more policing of slob
hunters.  I agree.


>3)  I have such a fellow who hunts on the farmland I rent.  I suspect
>he is up in his deer stand drinking beer while he waits for his deer.
>I am not saying that he is drunk; he probably puts down a 12 pack per
>day regardless of whether he is hunting or not.  Because I am not a
>hunter I want to know if among hunters drinking beer while hunting is
>just considered "slob hunting" or in fact is illegal in certain states?

I'm tempted to say that hunting (or using any gun, for that matter)
while drinking is against the law in *all* states.  If not, it should
be.  Turn this guy in; he is an accident waiting to happen.  I've
turned in people for drinking at the rifle range before (to the
rangemaster, not the cops who are 20 minutes away) and got them kicked
out.  I've also turned in trespassers on other peoples land that were
hunting without permission.  We don't like slobs any more than you do.


John

--
******************************************************************************
               John S. Van Etten     vanetten@unix.cie.rpi.edu
       Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute  1000 MIPS GaAs F-RISC Project
       --"If sand didn't irritate oysters, there would be no pearls"--
Newsgroups: talk.politics.animals