You know, there is legitimate hunting...

[Archae]

And then there are bozos like these:

http://www.memes.com/~sealion/vestry.html#Misting

:wtf:

[HEyHEY]

1. was that Hunter THompson in the pic?

:-)

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

2. Hell no, Hunter would not lower himself to using big guns on

little problems like that. He would have advanced to flamethrowers at least.

[Gman]

3. This guy reminds me of Bill Murray

in Caddy Shack.

I'll bet he's probably got that crazy look in his eyes too. The kind of person to whom you just say, "Oooooh K..."

[madrchsod]

4. how much money did

this guy spend!!! hell i just used an ol`e bolt action 22lr to kill mice and rats on the farm. i wasn`t really interested in watching them explode....

[DoNotRefill]

11. the problem is...

that generally prarie dogs will stay in their burrows if there's a human within 1-200 yards of the burrow. The target area is roughly the size of a playing card. Consequently, you ned a really accurate sub-MOA rifle to hit the target at the ranges you're going to encounter, and your average .22LR ain't gonna cut it.

And no, I've never hunted prarie dogs.

[Lady Freedom]

5. Sick!

@$$es!

[scarlet_owl]

6. This is why black footed ferrets are about extinct in the wild.

Also why burrowing owls are moving into urban areas and living in drain pipes. Prairie dogs are very important parts of their ecosystems. This is sad.

[NickB79]

9. Timeline off

I don't want to start anything, but shooting of prairie dogs is probably not what caused the problems you mentioned. Prairie dog numbers were tanking long before prairie dog shooting became popular (in the late 70's/early 80's is when I remember it starting to become popular). Widespread use of poisons and plowing under of the Plains grasslands to monocrop corn and wheat fields for the last century killed far more wildlife than any hunters ever could. Also, prairie dogs are susceptible to the plague, which Europeans brought to the Americas a few centuries ago. Many prairie dog colonies were wiped out by plague, and still are wiped out on a yearly basis to this day. The fact that they live in massive, closely packed colonies makes it very easy for the disease to spread very rapidly and obliterate the entire colony.

[DuctapeFatwa]

7. Yes, there is legitimate hunting - it's done with a camera

For people who like to shoot guns, there is an ample supply of inanimate objects that can be found in any respectably full dumpster.

[alwynsw]

10. legitimate hunting includes

eating what you kill. If you're not going to eat it, don't hunt it.

EXCEPTIONS: threats to people, livestock, and crops. Did you ever have to put down a horse or cow because of a broken leg? Have you ever had to clean out a chicken coop after a mink, feral dog, or other carnivore got into it at night? Did you ever lose much of your family's income because of animal damage? If you haven't lived on a farm or have close ties to a farmer/rancher the odds are that you probably haven't. If you have, you understand.

Personally, I'm happy being at the top of the food chain. I don't hunt or kill pests for pure pleasure. Yes, I do find hunting pleasurable. I find it more pleasurable sitting down to a nice venison roast, fried rabbit, or any other game you might think of prepared in any way you can imagine.

If nature had intended me to only eat those things with roots, it would have given me thicker enamel on my teeth.

[NickB79]

8. I've hunted prairie dogs before

But even I didnt feel the need to videotape and brag about it, or use the term "red mist" that is so popular with varmint hunters.

There are legitimate hunters who shoot prairie dogs. The ranch we have hunted on in South Dakota had many acres of healthy, heavily populated prairie dog towns. The problem was that the rancher was willing to set aside some acreage for wildlife, but the colonies would quickly grow beyond his limits (they are a member of the rodent family, after all). His only recourse besides allowing hunters to thin them out every couple years was to deploy poisons. Entire colonies were wiped out when poisoned, not to mention the many predators such as owls, hawks, fox, and coyotes that died after eating poisoned carcasses. Simply going out and shooting for a few weekends over the spring and summer was much preferable, in my mind, to poisons, and didnt come close to wiping out the entire colonies or endangering other species of wildlife.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. OK, that answers the question...

Why hunt prairie dogs anyway?

[TreasonousBastard]

12. Well, there's the thrill of the hunt...

but some people seem to just get a kick out of killin'