Tag Archives: pseudo-subsistence

Sport Hunting and Hobby Eating

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Text and photo copyright Jim Robertson

Okay, so there’s sometimes more to sport hunting than just mindless plunking away at innocent, undeserving animals. Besides the selfish, sociopathic satisfaction they get out of snuffing out their fellow sentient beings, some hunters are also motivated by the prospect of eating the flesh of their conquests.

These so-called “sportsmen” (or women) are not starving or suffering in any way (outside of being burdened with a low self esteem) at the time they commit their offenses; they just have a peckish for something perversely pleasurable to them. Case in point, here’s a description, in a hunters’ own words, of how much he enjoyed consuming the flesh of a scarce, embattled trumpeter swan: “You would think it would be goosey, but it’s more ducky, tight grained, very flavorful. The fat was delicious. I plucked it all the way to the chin and used the neck as a sausage skin.” (From the article, “Utah hunters killed 20 rare trumpeter swans by accident this year. Here’s why that matters.”)

Clearly, some of these sport-eaters fancy themselves gourmets and may even pride themselves in their abilities to turn a deceased carcass into a delectable feast, but the same could probably have been said about Jeffery Dahmer and his unfortunate victims.

Serial Killer Robert Hunter and victim

And the fictional serial killer (based on an actual doctor incarcerated in Mexico), Hannibal Lecter displayed typical hunter-bravado when bragged to FBI agent Clarice Starling: “A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chiani.”

Sorry to tell self-excusatory sportsmen and other unapologetic killers, murder does not magically become sacred once your victims’ flesh passes through your digestive tract.

Tradition versus technology: Northerners debate use of drones in caribou hunting

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BY THE CANADIAN PRESS

https://www.citynews1130.com/2019/07/07/tradition-versus-technology-northerners-debate-use-of-drones-in-caribou-hunting/

Posted Jul 7, 2019 7:00 am PDT

 

Wild caribou roam the tundra near the Meadowbank Gold Mine in Nunavut on Wednesday, March 25, 2009. Tradition and technology are clashing on the tundra, where Indigenous groups are debating the use of drones to help hunt caribou. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

YELLOWKNIFE — Tradition and technology are clashing on the tundra where Indigenous groups are debating the use of drones to hunt caribou.

The issue arose during public consultations on new wildlife regulations in the Northwest Territories, where First Nations and Metis depend on caribou for food.

Drones are not widely used to hunt, but the N.W.T. government says they have been utilized to find caribou and sometimes to herd them to a hunter. That’s caused fears of increased pressure on populations that are already struggling.

The Bathurst herd, nearly half a million strong in the 1980s, has dwindled to 8,500. The Bluenose-East herd has declined almost 50 per cent in the last three years to about 19,000 animals.

“We heard significant concern about the use of drones for hunting and broad support for a ban on their use,” Joslyn Oosenbrug, an Environment Department spokeswoman, said in an email.

“A ban on drones will help address conservation concerns for some species and help prevent new conservation concerns for others.”

The territory has proposed banning drones for hunting except for Indigenous harvesters.

Some Indigenous groups argue the ban should go further. The board that co-manages wildlife between Great Slave and Great Bear lakes wants a ban on drones to apply universally.

“The Wek’èezhìi Renewable Resources Board would prefer that drones not be used for harvesting purposes,” said board biologist Aimee Guile in an email.

The Northwest Territory Metis Association also wants to see drones banned for everyone.

Others argue that banning drones for Aboriginals would violate treaty rights.

An N.W.T. report into consultations on the proposed ban says both the Inuvialuit Game Council and the Wildlife Management Advisory Council stated that rights holders should be exempt from the proposed ban, “because of the potential infringement to Aboriginal harvesters exercising their rights.”

The Tli Cho government, which has jurisdiction in communities west of Great Slave Lake, also wants Indigenous harvesters exempted.

“It’s a matter of leaving it with us,” said spokesman Michael Birlea. “We want to be able to make our own decisions rather than somebody else.”

Tli Cho residents are uneasy with the technology.

“(Tli Cho leaders) also acknowledged the discomfort heard from many of their citizens,” the consultation report said. “Many citizens expressed that all harvesters should be prohibited from using drones.”

Members of the Fort Chipewyan Metis local in Alberta hunt in the N.W.T. and are concerned about the impact drones could have on the health of caribou herds and on Metis culture.

“Drones could undermine the transmission of traditional knowledge to younger hunters about how to hunt and what to look for,” the local said in its submission.

It suggested that restrictions on drones should come from Indigenous governments, not the territory.

Others have made similar points.

Summarizing what the government heard during consultations, Oosenbrug said: “Using drones is bad because it is another loss of the Indigenous culture of NWT people as it does not represent a traditional way of hunting.

“(It) shows a lack of respect for Indigenous culture and the wildlife, and it should be considered cheating.”

The N.W.T.’s new wildlife regulations came into effect July 1, but the territory chose to defer a decision on drones until there are further talks.

More discussion is planned for the fall, said Oosenbrug.

“(The wildlife council) looks forward to continued discussions with the (territory) on the potential conservation issues for wildlife and implications to harvesters with Indigenous rights,” said council resource co-ordinator Jodie Maring in an email.

Indigenous hunters have already accepted restrictions on the number of animals they can take. In some areas, no hunting is allowed at all.

Altered forests threaten sustainability of subsistence hunting

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Makah Whaling – Whales Must Be Protected in U.S. Waters

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Makah Whaling – Whales Must Be Protected in U.S. Waters

March 11, 2015 

http://www.seashepherd.org/commentary-and-editorials/2015/03/11/makah-whaling-whales-must-be-protected-in-us-waters-692

Commentary by Sea Shepherd Founder, Captain Paul Watson

Gray WhaleGray Whale
Photo courtesy of Wiki media commons.

Sea Shepherd Legal (SSL) will make a presentation on April 27th in Seattle at a hearing to be held by NOAA Fisheries on the proposal by the Makah Tribe to kill gray whales in the waters off Washington state. SSL’s position is that this permission should not be granted and that whales must be protected 100% in U.S. waters.

SSL is also exploring legal avenues of opposition to this proposal. Tradition and culture must never be a justification for the killing of whales and dolphins or for violating international conservation law.

In 1998, Sea Shepherd exposed documents released under the Freedom of Information Act that exposed negotiations between the Makah and the Japanese whaling industry that would have sold meat from the “traditional” hunt to the Japanese market.

As Makah Tribal Elder Alberta Thompson said at the time, “This is not tradition. It was part of our culture to weave baskets and to pick berries in the mountains. It was part of our culture to speak our language. No one want to weave baskets or to speak Makah. What they want to do is to kill a whale with an anti-tank gun – and that has never been a part of Makah culture.”

Sea Shepherd Legal is a 501(c)(3) entity, operating separately from Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Makah tribe grey whale hunt question reopened by NOAA report

A World that Never Was

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Revisionist history may seem like harmless, feel good child’s play, but the threat it poses (to all other animals at least) is that without hearing the real story, people will never learn from the past.

It’s tempting to want to believe that all that has gone wrong with the human race is the result of being led astray by our technology, and if we could just get back to our caveman roots, everything would be happy and harmonious like it surely was back then. But contrary to contemporary popular belief, that’s a world that never was.

Even the earliest human hunters drove countless species to extinction and exhausted their carrying capacities time and again, ever since plant-eating primates first climbed down from the trees and decided to take up big-game hunting.10418292_778659628825562_4081410081902108848_n

The notion of the peaceful savage has long since been disproven, but people want to cling to it rather than accept the truth about human nature. Just look at the dead-animal adornments any warrior or tribal chief wore, and it’s easy to see the roots of trophy hunting.

The thought that any spear-wielding species who took advantage of fire to herd animals toward a cliff or into a box canyon had an innate sense of ecological fairness goes against all that made us human—envy, lust, greed, gluttony, a lack of empathy and an over-blown ego are the kinds of things that ultimately define a hunter, whether the motive for their behavior is sport or subsistence.

Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson summed up the chapter, “Paradise Imagined,” of their book, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, thusly, “There is no such thing as paradise, not in the South Seas, not in southern Greece, not anywhere. There never has been. To find a better world we must look not to a romanticized and dishonest dream forever receding into the primitive past, but to a future that rests on a proper understanding of ourselves.”

Humans have achieved an awful lot of success as a species over the years, but judging by our planet-crushing prowess, we may have finally breached our collective britches.

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Talk About Double Standards

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Predictably, ever since I posted about Jaylen Ray Fryberg, the teenager who went on a shooting rampage at a Washington State High School, killing a female student and wounding four others before killing himself, I’ve been getting comments stating that since the school shooter was a native, he was entitled to hunt for food (as though he came from an exceptionally poor household–which he did not). The fact that went completely over their heads was that having been taught to kill an animal like an elk at an early age made it easier for him to shoot his fellow humans. It was as though, to them, he was a saint, even though the news is now telling us he lured his victims to the lunchroom before shooting them.

“…On Friday, after texting five friends to invite them to lunch, he pulled out a handgun in the cafeteria and started shooting. The victims were Zoe R. Galasso, 14, who died at the scene; Gia Soriano, 14, who died at a hospital Sunday night; Shaylee Chuckulnaskit, 14, who remains in critical condition; and his two cousins, Nate Hatch, 14, and Andrew Fryberg, 15.

Andrew Fryberg also remained in critical condition. Hatch, who was shot in the jaw, is the only victim who has shown improvement. He was upgraded to satisfactory condition Monday in intensive care at Harborview Medical Center…”

If a non-native person murdered with such premeditation, people would be demanding to know what was wrong with him to behave that savagely. Or, he would just be considered evil (as perhaps he should).

I decided not to give the would-be commenters special treatment by approving their pro-hunting statements. Natives no longer live in the stone age or use primitive weapons, so why should they remain in the dark ages as far as their treatment of non-human animals? 

Talk about double standards.

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A Field Guide to the North American Hunter

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People tend to paint all wildlife-killers with a single brush stroke, referring to them all simply as “hunters.” Yet close scientific observation reveals that there are at least five different categories, or sub-species, of the mutation of Homo sapiens known as the North American hunter (Homo hunter horribilis). Oddly, members of some sub-species don’t like to be associated with others. They can’t all be bad apples, can they? Read on…

1) Sport Hunter

This category can actually be applied to all the other sub-species, including theimagesD5ZT7PC1 universally maligned trophy hunter, as well as the so-called subsistence hunter, since nearly no one in this day and age really has to kill wild animals to survive anymore. Lately we’ve been hearing from a lot of hunter apologists quick to make a distinction between sport and subsistence hunters. Truth is there’s not all that much difference between the two. Sport hunters and subsistence hunters are often so closely related, they’re practically kissin’ cousins. Rare is the hunter who doesn’t justify his sport by boasting about “using the meat.” By the same token, you hardly ever find one who openly admits to being just a sport hunter.

But, being by far the largest sub-class, there are obviously plenty of adherents. For reasons known only to them, they like to refer to themselves as “sportsmen” (or “sportswomen”). When not out killing, they are often seen petitioning Congress to enshrine their perceived right to kill animals (meanwhile mocking the very notion that non-human animals have rights).

Tracks: On the rare occasion that these good ol’ boy traditional sport hunters get out of their vehicles (usually a pickup truck with a bench seat, so they can sit on their camo-clad asses three abreast), you’ll find their tell-tale boot tracks weaving along the roadway—a sure sign the Schmidt-swilling hunter has spotted a deer, or needs to take a pee.

Other spoor to watch for: spent shotgun shells and cigarette butts in parking lots, or 16 ounce beer cans and empty fried pork rind bags ejected out the truck window, along forest roadways.

 

2) Subsistence Hunters

10478663_666186560097028_1055574252307234730_nThis category includes the holier than hemp types who use words like “foodie,” and all those others who claim to hunt mainly for food. Subsistence types conveniently ignore the fact that there are 7 billion human meat-eaters on the planet today, and if they all followed their model for “living off the land,” there would be no wildlife left on Earth.

Like sport hunters, subsistence hunters do what they do because they want to; they enjoy the “outdoor lifestyle.” But not many self-proclaimed “subsistence” hunters are willing to give up modern conveniences—their warm house, their car, cable TV or the ever-present and attendant “reality” film crew—and live completely off the land like a Neanderthal…at least not indefinitely.

While everyone has a right to feed themselves and their family, what gives them the right to exploit the wildlife is unclear. Sure, all people need some form of protein, yet millions have found a satisfying and healthful way to eat that doesn’t involve preying on others. And they don’t seem to understand that dead is dead and it doesn’t matter to the victim whether their killer eats every part of them or just sticks their head on a wall.

Call: Often overheard uttering feeble catch-words like “management,” “sustainability,” “population control” or “invasive species.” Unfortunately, they never think to apply those same concepts to the species, Homo sapiens.

 

3) Trophy Hunters   

This group can be confused with other “sportsmen,” but though both types are clearly in1383480_10151726970777825_1974489269_n it for the fun, trophy hunters are obsessed with every aspect of the so-called sport. These are the kind of people who hold “contest hunts” on anything seen as competition, yet ironically are intent on recruiting more hunters, including women and young people, encouraging them to take up the “sport.” Although their professed enemies are predators like wolves and mountain lions, their most dreaded foe are the anti-hunters.

The trophy hunters’ fixation with horn curl or antler spread is in fact causing a reversal of evolution in the species whose heads they covet.

Breeding plumage: Camouflage from head to tail; flashy orange vest. Mates primarily with themselves.

 

4) Sadists  

1384140_564330240283396_857016214_nThis category includes bow-hunters, trappers and wolf hunters. Often seen on reality T.V.  shows or in homemade snuff-film videos on U-Tube. Hunters who consider themselves in one of the other categories would do well to self-police their kind, lest normal people (non-hunters) think all hunters are sadists who enjoy the act of killing and are turned on by watching animals suffer and struggle under their power.

Habitat: Disgusting personal websites or Facebook pages where they parade around in camo, showing off their evil deeds for anyone who’ll give them the time of day.

 

5) “Ethical” Hunters

This is the category that virtually all hunters want to be included in. Unfortunately, the phrase “ethical hunter” is an oxymoron, like “humane slaughter,” “virgin mother,” “fair chase,” “free-range poultry” or “friendly neighborhood serial killer.” As withSmalfut UFOs, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, no one has ever been able to locate one of these mythical phantoms.

Spoor: This make-believe subspecies leaves no tracks or scat because, well, they’re fictitious. The only impression they make is in the minds of the easily influenced. There’s simply no way an animal-killer can be considered ethical, unless of course he gives up hunting.

Quebec hunters prevented from harvesting Labrador caribou

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http://www.thetelegram.com/News/Local/2014-04-22/article-3696336/Quebec-hunters-prevented-from-harvesting-Labrador-caribou/1

by Derek Montague
Published on April 22, 2014

Hunters were going after threatened Mealy Mountains herd: source

A group of Innu hunters from the Quebec North Shore were recently prevented from illegally hunting the threatened Mealy Mountains caribou herd in Labrador, according to a source.

A Labrador woodland caribou is shown. Some herds are considered threatened, such as the Mealy Mountains herd. — Photo courtesy of the provincial wildlife division

The 10 or so hunters were headed to the Birchy Lakes area, about 150 kilometres away from Happy Valley-Goose Bay, when wildlife officers stopped them.

The incident happened earlier this month.

Considered threatened

According to a 2009 publication from the Department of Environment and Conservation, the Mealy Mountains herd was estimated at just 2,500 animals and considered threatened under the provincial Endangered Species Act and the federal Species at Risk Act.

Quebec hunters crossing the Labrador border to hunt caribou illegally is a problem that stretches back several years.

Back in 2007, two Quebec men from Pakua Shipi Innu were fined $18,000 each for killing caribou from the Mealy Mountains herd.

Serious problem

Former Labrador wildlife officer Hollis Yetman recalls how serious the problem was in the early 2000s, when caribou poaching near the Quebec-Labrador border was common.

“(The hunting) was significant. In 2003, there was endangered species legislation enacted and that was the catalyst for wildlife officers to have some strength and some backbone … that they could officially charge aboriginals for hunting these threatened caribou herds,” said Yetman.

Protected by wildlife officers

“If it wasn’t for a small, core group of wildlife officers that have had continuity protecting these herds for the past 10-15 years, I would say that the population would be far less than what they are now.”

Yetman is worried a few undetected hunts will be all that’s needed to decimate the Mealy Mountains herd and other woodland caribou.

“Basically, the Department of Justice keeps its eyes over these woodland caribou herds. Right now they’re doing a good job with their limited surveillance. (But) it only takes one or two undetected hunts by anyone and you will cause serious population problems with these herds,” said Yetman.

“The numbers are that sensitive.”

Yetman also feels that conservation efforts are also held up too much by the notion of aboriginal hunting rights.

“I think that the aboriginal right overshadows the need to protect these caribou a lot of the time,” said Yetman.

“The only thing keeping some of these caribou alive is the dedication of two or three of the wildlife officers who keep an eye on them.”

TC Media requested an interview with Justice Minister Darin King, but there was no response by press time, as government offices were closed Monday.

TC media was also been unsuccessful at reaching Pakua Shipi Chief Dennis Mestenapeo.

Killing of entire Alaska wolf pack upsets National Park Service…And Me!

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Before admiring the “subsistence” lifestyle, think of wolves that the state of Alaska shoots from planes to provide “game” for their hunters…

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by Nick Provenza

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — Alaska Fish and Game officials killed an Eastern Interior wolf pack last week, and the National Park Service — which had been studying the animals — is none too pleased.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that all 11 wolves in the Lost Creek pack near Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve were shot. That included the pack’s alpha pair, which had been fitted with tracking collars as part of an ongoing research project.

Doug Vincent-Lang, acting director for the Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation, says the wolves were in an area adjacent to the preserve that has been targeted by the state for aerial predator control, which is part of an effort to boost moose and caribou numbers.

But Yukon-Charley Superintendent Greg Dudgeon said the shootings are a setback for a long-term study of wolf behavior that began roughly 20 years ago. He said the Lost Creek pack had been monitored for the past seven years.

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/03/killing-of-entire-alaska-wolf-pack-upsets-national-park-service/
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ALASKA… National Park Service and State Clash over the recent Wolf Pack Killing

An entire wolf pack was shot and killed by aerial gunning for the sole purpose of boosting moose and caribou numbers, discarding the fact that they were part of a twenty year study by NPS!

On Feb. 21, the state agency shot all 11 members of the Lost Creek pack near Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. That included the pack’s alpha pair, which had been fitted with park service collars as part of an ongoing research project.

Yukon-Charley Superintendent Greg Dudgeon said the shootings are a setback for a long-term study of wolf behavior that began roughly 20 years ago. He said the Lost Creek pack had been monitored for the past seven years as part of the study, which looks at wolf migration patterns, denning habits and population changes.

Alaska fully intends to continue it aerial killing of wolves, calling it Predator Control.

TAKE ACTION…

CONTACT ALASKA FISH AND GAME, AND ALSO DIVISION OF TOURISM AND TELL THEM WHY ALASKA IS NOT A TRAVEL OPTION…

TOURISM DIVISION
Kathy Dunn
Tourism Marketing Manager
907-269-5734
kathy.dunn@alaska.gov

ALASKA FISH AND GAME
Online Comment link…
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=contacts.emailus

Nuking Idaho is as Sick as What Hunters and Trappers Do

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Occasionally I get comments that I don’t completely disagree with, but are clearly from troll hunters and therefore by their very nature not allowable here, as per the commenting policy and scope of this blog, spelled out in the “About” section: https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/about/

Today I received just such a comment, which starts out, “I think the comment about the whole state being nuked is seriously sick and just equally sociopathic as the actions of the ‘idiot’ dominators who care more about the money the state will gain from big game hunting tags…” Ok, I can see where you’re coming from there–the act of nuking Idaho would be about as bad as what hunters and trappers there do.  Don’t worry, I don’t think that particular commenter was even remotely serious about actually nuking Idaho. But, to be fair to others whose comments have been removed, and to avoid anyone comparing her comment to something a hunter might say, I’ll remove it.

I’ve removed or disallowed plenty of comments from hunters. The difference being, they aren’t just blowing off steam. When they talk about killing animals, it’s for real. So hunters, please don’t waste time writing a comment that doesn’t get posted. As a rule, I remove any comments that talk about so-called “ethical” hunters killing animals “respectfully.” That said, because it includes a few kernels of truth, here’s the full text of a comment I received today:

 

“I think the comment about the whole state being nuked is seriously sick and just equally sociopathic as the actions of the “idiot” dominators who care more about the money the state will gain from big game hunting tags and the big game small penis hunters that need to show their bravado (which means lack of courage) by placing any animal on their wall in their home. Ethical hunters don’t need to do this, they hunt/kill to eat and they do it respectfully. But, in our sick greedy culture of monster trucks and steroidal men who learn at an early age (through abusive words and actions) to stuff their emotions for fear of becoming too much like a woman or even worse a gay man and likely go home from drinking with the good ole boys who have experienced the same young lives, to beat their wives…we are creating more to come in the future of our country and yes, particularly in Idaho.”

 

Of course, since human beings don’t have to kill and eat animals in order to survive, there is no such thing as an “ethical hunter,” and taking the life of a healthy animal can never really be considered “respectful.”

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