<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>CleanCut said:
"Art says "If you leave a coyote where you shot it, something will eat it." You mean, you'd really just leave it there, Art? Isn't
that kind of sloppy? Wouldn't want you on my land. Art then says, "As long as species survival is ensured, all else is personal beliefs and morality - and not germane to what other people do." What about The Hunt, Art? Is wanting to be sportsmanlike just about personal beliefs and morality? Where's the sport? "[/quote]
First, CleanCut, do you actually
have any "land," as such? No, I'm not talking about a 5 acre "mini-ranch," I'm talking about a piece of LAND. Say, at
least 50 acres. No? On most properties where varmint-hunting takes place, the acreage runs to hundreds and even thousands of acres. Sections, even. One 30-lb yodel-dog takes up very little space, indeed. We're not talking about a dead animal rotting on your front yard in the St. Augustine, to be hit by the morning paper. We're talking about an animal dying in the wild, to be consumed as animals are in the wild, by carion. Part of the cycle. Happens every day. Also consider that when you say that that's kind of messy, you're indicting EVERY SINGLE deer, elk, antelope, hog, moose, and bear hunter here. We ALL leave large gutpiles behind when we hunt. Better than half the time, I end up wrapping the entirety of my gut pile in the fresh hide to throw into a bush off the trail. This pile of guts and hide from a mature whitetail amount to every bit as much mass as the average dead coyote. "Isn't that kind of messy?" Nope. The possums, turkey buzzards, crows, ants, and
coyotes will eat it.
Read the rest of Art's post. His point is that you aren't ever going to hurt the coyote population using traditional hunting means. His statement is that, if you're not hurting the population, your moral objection is just in the killing. You apparrently have to justify every thing you kill. "I kill for the meat. I kill the woodchucks because they're pests." You DON'T kill for the meat, and you know it! Hamburger is $.95/lb, and you're taking a $400 rifle out on a hunt that you spent your vacation money on, to bring back maybe 50 lbs of venison?! NO. One reason Man hunts is because he's a hunter. A predator. Morality in coyote-killing is trying to kill them without causing undue suffering, and not contributing to their extinction. Place your shot carefully, and don't use poison. There. You're a moral coyote hunter, and you don't have to take up free-range chicken-farming to feel that warm glow of morality.
# # # #
BTW, many of you know that Art is my personal friend, and may think that I would simply blindly jump to his defense. (as if I would have to...) Not so! I just feel that this incessant need to
justify our hunting is going on too far! PROVE to me that we're cutting into the coyote populations with our techniques of hunting, and then we'll talk. Art speaks as someone with a CARREER background in environmental impact studies. The man thinks like a scientist, because, for all intents and purposes, he is one. He's very warm, but his convictions aren't swayed by emotion. FACTS, on the other hand, get the man's attention faster'n a gut-pile attracts a coyote! Got any?
,
Regards,
L.P.
[This message has been edited by Long Path (edited February 12, 2000).]