Canned Hunts: Sports Afoul

[AtomicKitten]

Canned Hunts: Sports Afoul

By Walter Brasch
Thu Aug 24th, 2006

Excerpt:

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), with 10 co-sponsors, introduced a bill (S. 304) in February 2005 to ban the interstate transport of exotic animals for the purpose of them being killed on private preserves. “There is nothing sportsmanlike or skillful about shooting an animal that cannot escape,” said Lautenberg at the time he introduced the bill, and emphasized, “In an era when we are seeking to curb violence in our culture, canned hunts are certainly one form of gratuitous brutality that does not belong in our society.” That bill is buried in the Senate’s Subcommittee on the Judiciary. A companion bill (HR 1688), introduced in the House of Representatives by Sam Farr (D-Calif.), with 39 co-sponsors, is buried in the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security. Under the Republican-controlled Congress, neither bill is likely to emerge from committee.

For his part, President Bush wants to amend the Endangered Species Act to allow trophy-hunting Americans who kill endangered species in other countries to import them into the U.S. The proposal has roots in the Safari Club International; its political action committee has given about $800,000 in campaign contributions, mostly to Republican candidates, since 2000, according to an investigation by the Humane Society of the United States. The plan has the support of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whose former deputy director was chief lobbyist for the Safari Club before his appointment by Bush. He is now with the International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies.

Many of the animals on canned hunts are surplus animals bought from dealers who buy cast-off animals from zoos and circuses; the animals sold to the preserves are often aged and arthritic. Dozens of preserves have bought black bears, zebras, giraffes, lions, boars, and just about any species of animal the client could want, solely to be killed, photographed, and then skinned, stuffed, and mounted. Ralph Saggiomo’s sheep may have come from a breeder in Missouri. The proprietors at Tioga, said Saggiomo, “were gracious, humane and helpful.”


more at http://ezinearticles.com/?Canned-Hunts:-Sports-Afoul&id=282049

[flvegan]

1. Not hunting...bloodletting. Shooting and killing for joy.

It's an event for people that feel the need to feel superior, but don't want to actually have to try.

"Hunting" is bullshit in many cases, and this doesn't even merit being called that.

[jody]

2. IMO most Democrats who hunt accept hunting game that has been raised

specifically to be hunted. That's a result of so little land available for hunting.

Hunting such game animals is in many ways no different than killing animals raised on farms for the sole purpose of being eaten.

I doubt very seriously that a political party running on a platform advocating laws for a strictly vegetarian diet would be elected.

[flvegan]

7. Wrong.

Most "sportsmen" abhor this practice, regardless of their political leaning.

These are NOT "game" animals, and it is very different than slaughtering animals on farms.

Nobody is running on any platform advocating any form of diet. Kucinich is a vegan and didn't mention any form of "platform" to the best of my knowledge.

[jody]

8. Sorry but I'm right. I know hundreds of sportsmen who hunt game raised

for the sole purpose of being hunted and those hunters come from all fifty states.

How many hunters do you personally know that object to hunting game raised for hunting?

[TreasonousBastard]

9. We're not talking about the equivalent of...

stocking trout streams here. We're talking about canned hunts where in the worst of them some drunken slob shoots a bear in a cage tied to a stake. This isn't the thrill of the hunt-- it's the kick in killing. Just live target shooting.

These "hunts" are popular in some areas and many states have already made them illegal, with the full support of real hunters and sportsmen.

[jody]

11. Sorry but the bill is so vague it could be used to limit hunting of game

raised for the sole purpose of hunting.

As a side note, how is hunting an animal raise to be killed by hunting different from fishing for an animal to be killed by fishing?

Do you like mammals and birds and hate fish?

Perhaps it is the size of animals that bother you, e.g. you love deer but hate squirrels.

[flvegan]

13. Let's first do this...define "hunting"

then we can get to "sole purpose"

This ought to be good...

[jody]

14. "Hunting 1. The activity or sport of pursuing game." (American Heritage

Dictionary)

[flvegan]

21. Good. Define "game"

[jody]

25. No thanks. I believe it's past your bedtime and you probably have homework

to complete.

Have a peaceful evening.

Goodbye :hi:

[flvegan]

29. In other words

I haven't got anything else to say that substantiates anything I've said previously.

Fucking Freepers.

on edit: yes, goodnight, kitten.

[LeftyMom]

10. Did you miss all the uproar when Cheney shot a guy on his canned hunt?

There were comments all over the news from hunters and pro-hunting groups opposed to canned hunting. There were also a lot of comments from DU hunters that they found the idea of canned hunts abhorent.

For what it's worth, Cheney's canned hunt occured on an *enourmous* tract of land in rural Texas. There's plenty of non-captive quail to hunt on grasslands like that, but you can't drive up in an SUV and just start blasting which is why he and other well-heeled people opt to shoot hand-raised tame birds instead. All the blood, none of the work, time, chance of failure or dirt.

[jody]

16. Was Cheney on a canned hunt or was he hunting wild birds? For the

record Cheney is scum IMO.

[LeftyMom]

18. The 500 birds were human raised and released to be shot.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3675813/

[jody]

19. Sorry but you said Cheney shot a guy on a canned hunt. That was not the

hunt cited in the article you provided. I asked "Was Cheney on a canned hunt or was he hunting wild birds" and the context was the hunt on which he shot Harry Whittington. The hunt was on a Texas ranch.

I know Cheney has been on canned hunts but so have many Democratic leaders. So What :shrug:

[flvegan]

23. Defend Cheney all you want, those birds

were flushed out.

Funny how you DEFEND Dick Cheney. Intriguing, almost. I guess priorities are what they are, eh?

Shooting and killing are above all else. Good for you. Enlist...that's my advice.

[LeftyMom]

24. Whoops, wrong link.

I'll try to get the correct one. If I can't track it down check Time for that week, I read it at the doctor's and they spelled out the canned hunt thing pretty clearly.

[AtomicKitten]

26. from the article I posted in the OP that I guess you didn't read

In December 2003, Cheney and nine of his friends—including former Naval Academy and Dallas Cowboys quarterback Roger Staubach, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), and some Texas high-roller Republican party donors—went to the exclusive Rolling Rock Club in Ligonier, Pa., about an hour’s drive east of Pittsburgh. The owners of the country club, being the good hosts they were, released 500 domesticated and penned-up ring-necked pheasants in the morning. Bird Dog and Retriever News reports that about 40 percent of all domesticated pheasants, if not shot by pretend-hunters, either starve or are killed by predators within the first week of their release; about 75 percent die within a month.

At Ligonier, starvation wasn’t a problem. A game keeper told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Cheney alone killed about 70 of the 417 killed that day. In the afternoon, having hardly raised a bead of sweat, the good ole boys slaughtered dozens, perhaps hundreds, of equally tame mallards that had been hand-raised and shoved in front of waiting shotguns for the massacre. No one kept score, but by the time Cheney flew out of the area, the mallards were plucked and vacuum-packed, according to the Post-Gazette, ready for flight aboard the taxpayer-funded Air Force 2. The pheasants the hunting party didn’t keep, according to the Dallas (Texas) Morning News, were donated to a local food bank. However, no one involved indicated which food bank, nor did they acknowledge that preparing pheasant is cumbersome, and that such a donation, if it did occur, was probably more of a public relations ploy or a tax-deduction to justify their killing orgy than community service. Nor does any “donation” alleviate the reality that people in these non-challenging fenced-in grounds kill because they like the excitement of killing a live animal, often mixed with the sheer joy of watching their prey die. After awhile, the animals are seen only as things to be blasted, essentially living clay pigeons; it is an attitude that true sportsmen abhor.

The owners of the country club didn’t say how much, if anything, the Cheney Pot-Shot Safari paid, but others who go to the exclusive country club/canned preserve pay for each bird or duck killed. It’s in the financial interest of the owners to make sure there’s easy prey.

[jody]

28. You should read replies to your thread more closely. The context was the

hunt in Texas on which Cheney shot Whittington.

I know that Cheney shot birds on other canned hunts but I asked was the hunt on which he shot Whittington a canned hunt.

[flvegan]

30. "I know that Cheney shot birds on other canned hunts"

Yeah, get at it...nice. Thanks!

[AtomicKitten]

31. that was all over the news when the incident occurred

That's what these boys consider "hunting," and there was much discussion of it at the time of the incident you reference. I'd advise you to pay attention, but from what you've posted I don't believe that would augment your POV. I don't understand how anyone could find the practice of the so-called canned hunt anything short of disgusting. And, yes, so is the current practice of slaughter in factory farming.

[jody]

32. I recognize that most of the Democrats I know that hunt accept hunting

game raised specifically to be hunted. That's a fact that Democratic candidates must consider.

Obviously you and I differ on that point but I hope we agree on other issues.

Have a peaceful evening.

[AtomicKitten]

33. I don't condemn you for your opinion.

I was born and raised in the bluest of blue states, but I'm aware of a different world where this is accepted as the norm. Please don't misunderstand my horror as being directed at you personally. :)

[flvegan]

12. Okay...

How many "hunters" do you know specifically that support or take part in canned hunts?

You've mixed your terms, friend. It's gonna bite you, too.

Oh, and again...you're wrong. Rinse all you want, but it repeats.

[jody]

17. Several thousand from close friends to acquaintances. Don't ask for

proof because I will not provide you a list of their names but I did answer your question.

[flvegan]

20. So you know "several thousand" folks that participate in canned hunts?

I don't want proof. I want a detox from even talking to you.

[jody]

22. My how you lose track of your own question. You asked about "support or

take part in canned hunts".

I answered your question.

Now how many hunters do you personally know as friends or acquaintances that DO NOT "support or take part in canned hunts"?

[flvegan]

27. My question:

How many "hunters" do you know specifically that support or take part in canned hunts?

You answered "several thousand" right? Tell me where I've gone astray?

I'll even LINK to your post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2816439&mesg_id=2816595

Bring it.

[AZBlue]

3. I think I'm going to be sick.

What kind of psycho engages in this?? Who finds slaughter amusing and entertaining??


More from the Humane Society of the US:

Summary of The HSUS's Objections to Canned Hunts:

• Canned hunts are cruel and brutal activities.
  
• Canned hunts occur in a confined area from which the animal has absolutely no chance of escape.
  
• Not only are animal used in canned hunts physically controlled by barriers or fences, they have also been psychologically conditioned to behave as a target by life in captivity.
  
• Canned hunts provide private breeders, animal dealers, and disreputable zoos with a dumping ground for surplus animals and a financial justification for breeding. They exacerbate the problem of overbreeding of captive exotic animals.

[bbinacan]

4. I have no desire to hunt

but I'm not opposed to it. I think a hunter should eat what he kills and not hunt for the kill. These canned hunts are outrageous and should be done away with.

[AndyTiedye]

5. Now if We Could Get Scalia, Thomas, and Alito to Dress Up Like Quail

http://www.toonedin.com/cheney.html

[LeftyMom]

6. Is there no end to these people's depravity?

Vile. :puke:

[AndyTiedye]

15. Come On, Tiger…

…it's just a piece of cheap clothesline. You can do it! Be Free!

See, they can't hit a moving target, especially after drinking so much :beer::beer::beer:
Oh, look! They're shooting each other!

Guns empty? Good! DINNER TIME!