Is this a good reason to skip school?

[MJD]

Everyone here is missing the point.

[EPelle]

But Sierra does not see it that way. She says she jumped up and down after bringing down the bear, which she plans to turn into a rug.

Could have gone to school and then purchased a rug from K-Mart instead.

[Daisy]

It's outrageous that they allow women on the hunt Or am I missing the point here

[tafnut]

Sierra's achievement was not universally celebrated. Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, called allowing an 8-year-old to hunt "terrible cruelty."

ditto

[tandfman]

There are places in the US where the schools are closed on the first day of the hunting season.

[SQUACKEE]

i realize people like to hunt. i dont get it, but i do enjoy fishing and i eat meat. so at the risk of a hypocrite label here goes.


couldnt the 8 year old girl wait for the weekend to gun down a little innocent bear?

[slowcoach]

couldnt the 8 year old girl wait for the weekend to gun down a little innocent beer?

No! 8 year-olds are not allowed alcohol.

[slowcoach]

Kids should be allowed miss school for a relative's funeral, but not a bear's.

[SQUACKEE]

maybe she should learn to read before she learns to kill.

>No! 8 year-olds are not allowed alcohol. <

damn that freudian slip but most 8 years do feel a couple of shots help with the shooting

most eight year old girls are busy hugging their teddy bears not pumping them full of lead

[tafnut]

I get killing animals for food and skins, etc. What I do NOT get is the Sport part. Nor the 'thrill of the kill'. Nor the 'enjoyment' of inflicting pain on a living creature. But that's just me. I'm in the vast minority where I live.

[SQUACKEE]

I get killing animals for food and skins, etc. What I do NOT get is the Sport part. Nor the 'thrill of the kill'. Nor the 'enjoyment' of inflicting pain on a living creature. But that's just me. I'm in the vast minority where I live.

couldnt agree more. hunting is apparently a very natural part of human history and if i was trying to survive in the wilderness i would hunt without hesitation. but to see a beautiful creature so alive in its natural habitat and really enjoying shooting it is something completely beyond me. the people who do love the hunt are not sick or depraved at all. its just a differant point of view that i cant fathom because i wasnt brought up "enjoying the KILL"

[EPelle]

I have been on hunting trips. Boo hiss. I just moved from the forest into the city three weeks ago - just in time for Hunting Season out back yonder. Most folks deer hunt with rifles, while other hunters use a bow-and-arrow.

I personally have not hunted (meaning have not been the one on the chase and standing there with the murder weapon) since I was 10 years old (rabbit hunting). My personal opinion is that hunters are out for the kill - and the feed. There is a lot of pleasure in taking out a deer, but it is more in the pride of being able to hit a target rather than in the kill itself. The kill was necessary; the target was what made the hunt exceptional.

The deer is eaten - nothing left to waste. It doesn:t struggle with dying... if it is still alive when the hunters arrive on scene, it very quickly is put down. Seems better than if it had been eaten alive by a wolf (which scarcely prowl the forest just outside of Stenungsund any longer).

As far as this 8-year-old: I understand and agree that she should have been in school instead of standing there holding a rifle. If she becomes a national and international marksperson in the future and can attribute it to the days she went out huntin as a kid, will that make a difference now in how each of us feels on the topic?

[SQUACKEE]

thanx for giving the other side

[tafnut]

I do get what you're saying EPelle, and like the squackman, I would not put down a hunter - that's a personal choice by him or her, but this line:

"There is a lot of pleasure in taking out a deer, but it is more in the pride of being able to hit a target rather than in the kill itself."

concerns me. I was on a Navy Pistol team for 3 years and loved the competition and the 'thrill' of a bullseye, but why does an animal have to die just to give a peron this 'pleasure'? Isn't skeet the same thing, but the only animals who have to die are clay pigeons?

[EPelle]

... why does an animal have to die just to give a peron this 'pleasure'? Isn't skeet the same thing, but the only animals who have to die are clay pigeons?

Good question, Tafnut.

This is how I see it: The hunters in my part of the woods were out for food. Deer roamed the open space in Bohuslän, and were in abundance during a four-month stretch throughout the year. The jägare hunted for food, but took pride in being not just capturing his prey, but in how he went about hitting his mark (Was it a clean shot? Did the animal suffer?). S/he is out there in the snow. The look through their spy glasses. Food source acquired. Food source locked. Bullseye. Food on the table.

There are those out there who like the entire hunt-and-kill challenge. These people may be out there just to see if they can hit a moving target. They shoot and someone else gets the spoils, so-to-speak. I don:t agree with that type of hunting.

Hunting - if it is to be permissible - should be about feeding your family and feeding some animals that live off the extra remains not taken back home to the freezer. This young kid was going to make a rug out of her kill.

[maggot]

Why do people hunt bears anyway? Does anyone eat bear meat? What about bare meat?

[tafnut]

If it's to feed your family and the intent is to put the animal out of its pain as quickly as possible, I'm all for that. What they do to cows and pigs and chickens, being raised for the slaughter, is MUCH worse than that. [and yet, I eat my Quarterpounder with a smile on my face - there IS something hypocritical about my doing that!]

[EPelle]

If it's to feed your family and the intent is to put the animal out of its pain as quickly as possible, I'm all for that. What they do to cows and pigs and chickens, being raised for the slaughter, is MUCH worse than that. [and yet, I eat my Quarterpounder with a smile on my face - there IS something hypocritical about my doing that!]

Nah, nothing hypocritical about that at all.

I love the McNasty with fries and a Fanta. Could be my own bull that I consume - most meat here is Swedish-sold. Had 12 cows and a bull on our farm - along with 17 chickens/roosters. Every second year a bull was slaughtered (we purchased a new one every other year just after that) for my family; my wife:s mother:s family; my sister-in-law; my brother-in-law and a neighbour. Before distributing the meet, we had nearly 50% of what was slaughtered - the other 50% of the weight (bones, scrap, etc) kept at the slaughter house for further sale. This meat - frozen until we felt like hamburgers, stew or any other major meat dish - lasted our own family 15 months ... and that was one portion of a bull. It was odd to walk outside and check the electric fences and look that little fella in the eye. I knew he:d be gone in two, and then another would be raised on our farm for the same reason. Then another.

[skyin' brian]

Where I'm from the deer population can get too big, and sometimes professionals have to be brought in to take out lots of deer. would you rather hit one with your car every couple of months, or have the population under control.

I have never hunted, but a guy in one of my high school classes once came in mid-day with blood on his camo outfit. true story. my school district allowed more days of excused absence for hunting then they allowed excused days for illness.

[tafnut]

would you rather hit one with your car every couple of months, or have the population under control.

There are many humane ways to control animal populations. I've even heard of ways of distributing contraceptive hormonal extracts that thin herds very effectively. Hunting for sport is not the only way to accomplish population control.

[tlb747]

I would not want an 8 year old to shoot guns. People here would not let me shoot a gun. Why would anyone let an 8 year old shoot? They might shoot their eye out.

[MJD]

Here is a cute pic for the family album.

[MJD]

I would not want an 8 year old to shoot guns. People here would not let me shoot a gun. Why would anyone let an 8 year old shoot? They might shoot their eye out.

Maybe she comes from a "complicated" family.

[tlb747]

Maybe she comes from a "complicated" family.

Careful with the picture. The military would love to use her. Who is NOT complicated? 8)

[MJD]

I think you might be missing my point. Only thing that picture is missing is the furry dice and the gun rack.

[MJD]

There are places in the US where the schools are closed on the first day of the hunting season.

First time I ran into that in WNY, I was stunned. I kick them off my property down there all the time. Usually pretty polite about leaving though.

[gh]

I would not want an 8 year old to shoot guns. People here would not let me shoot a gun. Why would anyone let an 8 year old shoot? They might shoot their eye out.

I started shooting a real rifle at 4 (seriously). The earlier you learn how to handle the infernal machines properly and give them their due respect, the few eyes--yours or anybody else's--you'll put out.

When I said I wanted a BB gun my father said no, got me a real gun of my own instead because he had seen too many eyes lost to them. (Year or so later good friend knocked his own eye out w/ a BB ricochet.)

[tlb747]

I think you might be missing my point. Only thing that picture is missing is the furry dice and the gun rack.

Yes! I am missing your point! Can you help explain it to me?

[MJD]

Well, so far we have managed to keep a thread about guns on the board. If I spelled it out for you, that could be the end of it. But I'll give you a clue:

Chinatown

[tlb747]

Well, so far we have managed to keep a thread about guns on the board. If I spelled it out for you, that could be the end of it. But I'll give you a clue:

Chinatown

Okay, I got the clue.

[tlb747]

(Year or so later good friend knocked his own eye out w/ a BB ricochet.)

Now this really reminds me of "The Chirstmas Story."

[MJD]

Columnist says this is a front on the war between the sexes:

"It's unfair, because with the advent of hunter safety tests, they can even trump us with intellect. Young Sierra scored a 98 on her safety test. This explains why there weren't more boys in the hunt.

Test: "If you see movement in the forest, shoot before you know what it is so it doesn't get away."

Boy: "What do you mean, 'false'?" "

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