Comments on: Can The Real Estate Predators Fight Off the Oil Company Predators? Or is Florida doomed?

By: John Marino

John Marino — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:17:19 +0000

I have a friend who hunts constantly. He goes from Africa to Siberia and most places in between. He has a hunting lodges in Tanzania, Alaska, and Wisconsin [ which is also a game farm]. He also has a group in northern Mexico he goes mule deer hunting with. He has killed over 40 bears including 2 Polar bears and many Grizzlies. He just got back from Africa a few months back and called me. He said I just got my 16th leopard, 30th african buffalo, and 8th Lion. Of course he leaves a pile of money in all the local economies that he hunts in. He has killed hundreds of deer, moose, antelopes, elks, and thousands of birds. Most of this meat goes to the poor or is eaten by him and his friends. He took me along as camp cook on his last trip to Alaska. Boy was it isolated. The grizzly bears were all over the place and it wasn't hunting season for them. Was I scared. I can't even shoot a gun anymore. We were there for moose and salmon. We got no moose but a lot of salmon. None of these species is rare or endangered. Up to half a million deer are killed in my state every year. Hunting is needed to keep these animals under control. Dr. Roberts is all wet on this issue. He should stick to the good work he does on other issues.

By: J McKean

J McKean — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 03:31:25 +0000

I own many firearms, but rarely hunt. When I do, it is explicitly for food. I do not enjoy killing animals. It is to provide for family or defend human life. I have a unique outlook on killing after being paid by our government to target ICBMs on many innocent people in other (unspecified) countries. Long, quiet shifts in the launch control center have a way of focusing the mind on what is important. In fact, I often read Chronicles there, with my hand mere inches from the launch switch.

What an irrelevant topic in a society that legalizes abortion, euthanasia, birth control and embryonic stem cell research. Save the humans!

By: Red Phillips

Red Phillips — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 21:46:28 +0000

Shooting something you don't intend to eat or give to someone else to eat is, with a few exceptions for true pests to humanity, ignoble (good word) as SLT suggested, and I would venture unchristian. So, for that matter, is killing non-venemous snakes out of unthinking hysteria. A pet pieve of mine since I am a herpophile since childhood.

Mr. Howard, I'm curious how coyotes harm you.

By: Thomas Howard

Thomas Howard — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:20:51 +0000

From #7 "I wouldn’t even be able to shoot a coyote. "
Those things live among us like vampires,they are rarely seen in the light and do their damage at night.Sometimes I catch one out at dusk and dawn and I shoot every single one I can get a bullet in! I wish I could snap my fingers and every one of them in the State would be dead.

By: MAP

MAP — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:05:56 +0000

Florida has been totally and completely destroyed. Why anyone would choose to live in such a vile environment is beyond me. Yet it continues. They move in out of the North by the hundreds of thousands, transforming what was a beautiful state into a waste land. I speak as a Florida cracker that now lives elsewhere in the South. With what Florida has become, they can have it.

By: Jon I

Jon I — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:46:17 +0000

The divide that exists in the culture of hunting for the most part is a class divide.

Only a rich man and his kin go on a hunt and automatically expect to kill an animal. They pay top dollar to go into enclosed game reserves, have a guide show them where to stalk, and then have that guide show them where to point their rifle scopes. They usually don't indulge in the meat they have harvested, or take only the best partss, cleaned and butchered by others.

For the rest of society, one must hunt on public lands, and the lands of farmers, which is increasingly more difficult to do.

My father was right, America is becoming too much like Europe. Soon only the wealthy will be able to enjoy hunting or fishing.

PS I for one could never shoot a wolf or a bear, unless it was attacking me or a loved one. I wouldn't even be able to shoot a coyote. The idea of killing God's natural predators for bragging rights does not sit well with me. Perhaps these "tough" men should sign up for the Guardian Angels and patrol the ghettos, barrios, and trailer parks, if they want to prove how tough they are. Not that I'm a fan of the aforementioned organization, of course.

By: Theodore Van Oosbree

Theodore Van Oosbree — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:28:03 +0000

It is my understanding that big game hunters in Africa keep the game preserves economically viable which allows the preservation of the species therein (outside the preserves, poachers hold sway). Granted, the hunting methods would not find approval with Hemingway.

By: Steve Berg

Steve Berg — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 01:32:07 +0000

I am a bit conflicted by this column. On the one hand, I am a responsible hunter. I do not trophy hunt. I gave up shooting prairie dogs, because I did not like killing something, even it it is a real pest for the ranchers, without eating them. I hunt deer, and do so for the meat, though the hides are used, too. And, I have known enough idiots in the hunting fields to make me cringe. But, I have to admit that if I were to see a wolf in the woods with me, I would shoot it on sight. I know all the environmentalist rhetoric on this, and some good friends of mine have been involved in reintroducing these great predators into Southwestern ranch lands. I have even wrestled with a timber wolf that was brought around to show wolves are not necessarily bad. But, again these animals are great predators, and while it is nothing personal with them, we humans are just another hunk of meat on foot for their dining pleasure. I have noticed that the people who want to reintroduce these great predators, do not put them in their own neighborhoods, though there is plenty of prey there in the form of dogs, cats, joggers, and children waiting for the school bus. No, they inflict them on the rural folk, and then cannot understand why these unenlightened rustics cannot see the benefits of restoring the balance of nature in their locale. They also cannot see their own hypocrisy. So, while the environmentalists inflict great predators on the fine people of Idaho and other pristine rural places, and not in the Hamptons or in Santa Monica, they do this because they can do so with impunity. It should not be surprising when those most directly affected by these superbly lethal animals get revenge by shooting them as a sport.

By: robert m. peters

robert m. peters — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:39:51 +0000

In our household, we hunted deer, squirrels, ducks, rabbits, quail and doves. We killed only that which we intended to eat. The dogs got the entrails, and my father often had things made out of the fur and the hides, although not always.

When fishing, we caught a "good mess" and no more, a "mess" being determined by the number of folks who might come to dinner or supper.

My class is now reading The Golden Christmas by William Gilmore Simms. In chaper seven of that work, a Southern fall hunt is described with such clarity that one is there among the horses, dogs and men.

For me, the hunt includes the prep, the actual hunt, the food and fellowship during and after, and the stories.

I begin my fishing trips by getting up early. I make potato salad and iced tea. I also prepare my onions, pickles and olives. I get the ingredients ready for Mexican cornbread. Then I go fishing. I catch the aforementioned mess, fishing hard if necessary. After cleaning the fish, I build a fire and fry the fish in an old iron pot which my father used for years. If I am on the creek bank, I cook my cornbread in a Dutch oven. Such is always done in the fellwoship of others, usually kith and kin. Any extra fish, that being rare, are frozen and kept for a next time. I treat hunting in much the same way, having well prepared fresh meat with the sides on the very day of the kill.

I hunt deer with a single-shot, rifled shotgun, using a slug. The only shot which I will take is that of a sure kill. I hedge my bets by having an excellent trailing dog close by in case I hit but do not kill. Animals should not suffer, and meat should not spoil.

By: S.L. Toddard

S.L. Toddard — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 19:45:37 +0000

I think PCR has a point. Hunters are some of the most effective and sincere conservationists there are, and most - I suspect - would recognize the practices PCR describes as being repugnant, ignoble and disrespectful. That such practices make it easier to demonize gun owners is, I think, obvious.