Anti-hunting letter to LA Times from "student of Darwin"

T

tuc22

New member
Found in Letters to Editor, 11/27/00:

NORTH DAKOTA FOX HUNT

Re: "Hunters Win Constitutional Cover," Nov. 21: Am I the only one who sees the irony in a group of North Dakota hunters who form a circle to trap red foxes and shoot towards the center? As an opponent of "sport hunting" (and a student of Darwin), I can only hope that this winter perhaps a few of them will aim high.

(signed)
Mark Pickell
Pasadena, CA
 
He really should spend more time studying Darwin instead of writing idiotic letters. Darwin and his theory on survival of the fittest is very true. However, that survival is based upon natural predation. If wild game was left uncheck, they would end up killing each other off due to lack of natural predators.

Yes man has a big role in the reduction of the wildlifes' natural habitats. Yes man has a big role in the extintion of many animals. However, that is now a mute point. Deer, foxes, etc must be hunted for their own well-being. Otherwise, they too will die of starvation.
 
Darwin

I wonder if this individual harbors the notion that predator animals hunt in a sportsmanlike manner. He also is probably not aware that cats kill more for the fun of killing than for food (I know that we have one like that) .
 
Well, I agree with him on one point. The idea of being in a circle where everyone shoots toward the center makes me just a bit nervous! ;)

How big is that circle?
What guns are being used?

Two-mile circle with shotguns is a lot different from a 100 yard circle with rifles!! (SHIVERS! :eek: )
 
Dennis, I doubt he has any idea what in the world he's talking about. Who knows if the "circle" thing is true at all?

The Darwin reference is meaningless. Darwin's theories had nothing to say on the subject of human predation except that humans are better adapted for survival and therefore it is inevitable that they dominate the world until something better comes along or they destroy themselves. This pimple on the butt of science was just name-dropping. He might as well have said he was a student of Freud, for all the strength it lent to his argument.

Actually, I don't do sport hunting myself, in the sense of hunting only for fun. I hunt for meat, but I DO enjoy the hunt. I even enjoy the kill, and I won't apologize for that.

(In my class, we wrote essays on hunting, pro and con, last week. I actually had one girl who says she's a vegetarian who only hunts "for the sport of it." I have dubbed her Elmer Fudd. :D )
 
It is true....

This technique is true, my mom and uncles have told me about it. When they were young, the oldest probably 10 or 12, they used to do coyote drives in Kansas and Colorado. The whole town (farm towns) would organize a drive, and hundreds of men with SHOTGUNS would spread out and drive into the center of these huge tracks of land. The kids, and women without guns (lord knows they can't shoot;))(I'm kidding, please don't kill me:D) would wave bright coats and scarves and materials to help "herd" the varmints. Then they'd shoot them. I don't know how close the circle got to the other side, I figure probably 100 yrds, because then anything in the middle could be reached from one side or another. Most dogs were shot trying to escape through a break in the line. The Guys were paid two dollars for a bounty. To collect the bounty you just turned in both ears, which you cut off.


My uncle Sonny shot a coyote that dropped dead one time. He jumped out of his truck, went and cut off the ears, and then went back to his truck. He looks back and there goes his coyote, running off with no ears!!!! The funniest part is that some guy probably ended up shooting it, and not getting the bounty for it, though I doubt it lived too long:D
 
I figured this topic would get moved to The Hunt, but that's O.K. it is at first controversial more so than a hunting topic, so here we are.
This fellow, I believe, is trying to suggest the "Darwin Awards" that has become the source of many popular folklore type anecdotes. He thinks a bunch of redneck bubbas' gather in tight circle and shoot madly, Which is the only way (given a couple beers,) this rocket scientist and his friends would manage such an affair. Let him shoot his buddies, with his limited knowledge and experience, and leave the hunt to real men and women.
 
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