“People Who Feel Pleasure When They Kill Animals Cannot be Called Normal”

MP Oleg Mikheyev, of the center-left Fair Russia parliamentary party, told reporters on Monday just what I’ve been saying all along: “People who feel pleasure when they kill animals cannot be called normal.” That quote appeared in the following article entitled, “Russia mulls total ban on game hunting.” (It appears Russians have their own version of Dennis Kucinich—too bad no American politician is willing to go as far…)

Russia may soon ban both amateur and professional hunting, only allowing indigenous peoples in remote regions and certified rangers to hunt.

Mikheyev entered a draft law to ban most hunting for preliminary discussion and expressed his belief that hunting is unnecessary and immoral, regardless of whether one sees it as a sport, a pastime or an industry. “What many people call hunting now is more of a cruel killing…” The MP noted that modern hunters use helicopters and specially built towers, and that in Russia’s Far East region many animals are killed on an industrial scale, and their carcasses are smuggled to China where they are used in traditional medicines.

Fines for poaching cannot rectify the problem, Mikheyev argues, as they are too small and cannot be increased due to corruption. He suggested a total ban on hunting, and the introduction of criminal penalties for poachers totaling up to 500,000 rubles ($16,000), or three to five years in prison; poaching is currently an administrative offense in Russia.

[Unfortunately] the bill provides for some exceptions – hunting will be allowed for indigenous peoples of the Far North, Siberia and the Far East regions, but on the condition that hunters use only traditional weapons. (What, no rifles or snowmobiles?) Hunting quotas will also remain for forest rangers, but candidates will now be required to pass a psychological test to get a hunting permit (a practice that should be adopted by the US, Canada, etc., etc.).

“People who feel pleasure when they kill animals cannot be called normal. The procedure [of taking a psychological test] can help us in early detection of latent madmen and murderers,” Mikheyev told daily newspaper Izvestia.

Mikheyev also pointed to African countries, saying that nations like Zambia and Botswana did the right thing when they sacrificed income from safari tourism in order to safeguard endangered species.

Fair Russia will discuss the new bill next Monday; if approved, it will be submitted to the State Duma committee for natural resources and ecology. …

(Cross your fingers, but don’t necessarily hold your breath just yet.)

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23 thoughts on ““People Who Feel Pleasure When They Kill Animals Cannot be Called Normal”

  1. God how I wish there would never be another senseless murder of an innocent animal especially wolves and children. There’s entirely too much of that going on in the world today. And there’s etirely too much apathy and entirely too little empathy in the world as well. If only these sick bastards had too endure the very cruelties they force upon their victims publicly, maybe there would be a change in the mentality that seems rempant among them, from cruel to kind. How do you change cruel when most of these poor excuses for humans don’t have a kind bone in their bodies?

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  3. I keep hoping for something so dramatic that it produces a sea change of attitude toward these practices in the U.S. Not likely, but I can’t live without hope. Costa Rica did it, but I have a sense that even if other countries consider this measure, we’ll be last on the list.

  4. I just will never understand how a person can look at another being, human or non, and decide, “I am going to kill you,” and then still be able to sleep at night with no remorse. I hate that.

  5. As many wonderful and beautiful animals are slaughtered we stand by and do nothing. It is time to band together and try to put a stop to this. NO animal, be it small or large should be treated any different than you would treat your child. Again LET’S DO SOMETHING!!

    • You’ve hit on the issue that I keep coming back to over and over: WHAT can one person do to slow down the seemingly inexorable progression toward ecological apocalypse. The normal organs of government in our much vaunted “democracy” don’t seem to be of any help for the simple and obvious reason that the asylum is, for the most part, now being run by the inmates (the sociopaths who are at the heart of the problem, aided and abetted by an indifferent public). So why would anyone expect these institutions to work and provide any relief? Direct action of the most vigorous sort increasingly appears to be the tactic of last resort. It may not change the ultimate outcome of the humankind vs. everything else battle but it sure will allow one to sleep better at night knowing that you’ve done something.

      As far as “banding together”, be extremely circumspect about who you band with if you go outside the law. Informers, turncoats , and agent provacateurs are a real threat to those who prefer real action to perpetual handwringing. As Paul Watson advised, never plan anything with anyone you have not known intimately for at least seven years.

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