tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436838512938962987.post4501082181866086784..comments2024-03-29T07:00:20.685-04:00Comments on Good Green Witch: Meat Monologues Part 2: I'll Show Ya SufferingRhonnyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12519541867341575332noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436838512938962987.post-73375420920030664942011-06-10T12:23:39.225-04:002011-06-10T12:23:39.225-04:00More vegan perspective, I know you love it! But a...More vegan perspective, I know you love it! But allow me to put by Biologist hat on here for a minute. <br /><br />While I was studying for my biology degree, I shadowed under a professor who was researching biological diversity and sustainable hunting in nature reserves in Pennsylvania. His conclusion based on the data was that current hunting methods (deer specifically) were unsustainable and actually worsening the problem of low diversity and environmental damage. <br /><br />The problem is that hunting is an industry, not a controlled biologically based technique. In Pennsylvania, they actually farm deer, because the wild population has been so selected for small unimpressive deer by human over hunting that no one wants to kill them. The wild population is also much more inbred and weak, because all of the strong trophy bucks are killed. <br /><br />However, because so many deer are killed, there is more food for the survivors in the spring, and higher numbers of the remaining does produce twins and even triplets, creating a population explosion. The result is a hugely oscillating weak disease ridden population of deer which decimates the environment in the summer, and all but starves to death in the winter, forcing the game wardens to farm even more deer for hunters.<br /><br />When the professor attempted to introduce his recommendations to kill only weak small does and leave bucks alone so there would be less breeding, the stronger ones would be left to breed, and there would be more deer left to compete with the weaker ones for food, creating a more stable population that the environment could adapt to, he was ignored by the local wardens. In fact, he received some death threats from local hunters for daring to mess with their sport. It would have called for them to kill less deer, and no trophy bucks at all. They didn't like that.<br /><br />In short, I don't think hunting itself is bad, but it has clearly become a corrupt industry that does not have the environment or the public interest in mind at all.Emihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06112546044808723671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436838512938962987.post-40761532134210742542011-05-31T13:45:01.934-04:002011-05-31T13:45:01.934-04:00I disagree with hunting with dogs for fun or fox h...I disagree with hunting with dogs for fun or fox hunting. But I don't see anything wrong with game hunting. It is certainly less cruel than keeping animals in a cage, then slaughtering them en mass. I buy a lot of game from a local butcher who shoots the animals themselves and the game he doesn't shoot himself (due to demand), he buys it from a guy who shoots locally. The animals are in their natural habitat and then just die quickly. Plus, it's bloody delicious!!<br />I would love to have a go myself, but I don't think I could shoot a deer.ElizabethR1533https://www.blogger.com/profile/01006378624986983074noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436838512938962987.post-33099447772322418102011-05-30T23:02:31.544-04:002011-05-30T23:02:31.544-04:00This made me laugh--I actually just day before yes...This made me laugh--I actually just day before yesterday was FINALLY able to give up on my omnivorous guilt hopefully once and for all, when I read that certain insects (braconid wasps, I think) reproduce by injecting their eggs into a LIVE caterpillar, where the babies hatch and eat the thing from the inside out (I did mention ALIVE, right?) over several weeks, at which time they hatch and leave it a dead husk. <br /><br />If that's what happens in nature, I don't think I need to feel too awful about organic eggs or hamburger from an ethically raised cow.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7436838512938962987.post-54969069210833990592011-05-30T17:43:27.439-04:002011-05-30T17:43:27.439-04:00My point exactly!!! If we were to all go vegan tom...My point exactly!!! If we were to all go vegan tomorrow, we'd be competing with animals for food.Johnny Damhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12718782480023175422noreply@blogger.com