[TN-Bird] FW: Re: You don't harvest animals
- From: "Raincrow" <raincrow@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 12:18:50 -0800
I probably should just keep my 2 cents to myself, but of course I'm not that
restrained.
I think I understand where both of you are coming from, Kelly, and I agree in
part with your analogies ("hired killer" -- good one; I never thought about it
quite that way). However, I think I come down a bit more on Mr. Brooks' side.
I've done my share of hunting and fishing through the years, and still believe
these are worthwhile pasttimes (which animal has a better life? the one raised
in an Auschwitz-like factory farm or the one that lives a full, natural life in
the wild until it meets a bullet?). However, I decidedly do not like euphemisms
like "harvest" -- I look upon it as an attempt to sanitize a messy,
irreversible act in which I exert my will with complete finality over the will
and life of another creature. I do not harvest squirrels, deer, grouse, sauger,
crappie, etc., I kill them so I can take them home and eat them. I parse it
more or less this way: When I harvest peas & beans & taters, I can plant what
I've harvested and get more peas & beans & taters. When I harvest a rabbit,
it's dead forever and that's that.
I spent several years working in research laboratories where the word
"sacrifice" was used when we killed rats, rabbits, chickens, mice, etc. To me,
the word "sacrifice" has a religious/ceremonial/spiritual connotation that had
absolutely nothing to do with the killing activities I saw and participated in.
People were quite perfunctorily (and not always gently or humanely, to my
outrage) killing animals to use their body parts for research. Others' lack of
empathy for lab animals drove me away from animal-oriented research (I bravely
switched to bacteria, which I found I could kill by the billions without
compunction because they did not scream or look at me with moist, brown eyes).
Throughout our entire history, we have killed plants and animals for food,
clothing, decoration, car seat covers, shelter, religious purposes,
intoxication, etc., etc., etc. "Kill" is a perfectly apt, legitimate, and
accurate word. I think all of us who hunt, fish, collect insects, etc., should
relax and get comfortable with all the various connotations of the word or else
just put down our guns, traps, bows, etc., because there will always be people
who are not fans of killing animals through hunting, fishing, etc.
Peace out,
Liz Singley
Kingston TN
------- Original Message -------
From : luvsbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx[mailto:luvsbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent : 1/25/2009 3:59:51 PM
To : tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc :
Subject : FW: [TN-Bird] Re: You don't harvest animals
I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed Mr Brooks' argument that "we don't harvest
game". Says who (other than the Johnson City Press)? If an agency creates &
manages habitat for game animals and subsequently sets hunting seasons and bag
limits for said animals, why would the take of such animals NOT be considered a
harvest? It is not that "TWRA and other hunter groups are trying to convince
us" that it is a harvest - it IS a harvest.
Unfortunately, many in the media are "trying to convince us" that modern-day
legalized hunting is merely the evil pursuit of sadistic "killers" - therefore
they ban the word "harvest" and replace it with "kill" in all their reporting.
I find the ultimate irony in Mr Brooks' piece to be that a hunter is a "killer"
but an ornithologist is a "collector". If a hunter and an ornithologist go
afield together and each take a quail (bad example, I know) with a gun, why is
it that the hunter "killed" his with some "high-powered weapon", but the
ornithologist "collected" his with his "fowling piece"? It would seem to me
that the ornithologist who "ends up eating the remains of his specimen after
skinning it" (as is usually done; or so claimed) is as much a "killer" as he is
a "collector". Seems to be a matter of perspective.
What about those that sit at their kitchen window watching a bird feeder while
enjoying a good cheeseburger? I suppose if said birdwatcher slaughters his own
cattle and grinds it into burger he is a "killer" - but if he buys his burger
presumably the Johnson City Press refers to him as a "hired killer".
Don't be fooled into thinking the Johnson City Press selectively changes the
word "harvest" to "kill" as a matter of style. It is being changed as a matter
of prejudice.
Now, about that Harpy Eagle stew - when can we go "collecting".......
Respectfully,
Kelly Roy
Knoxville TN
-------------- Original message from jameswbrooks@xxxxxxxxxxx: --------------
> Someone used this euphemism in the discussion of what various birds taste
> like. TWRA and other hunter groups are trying to convince us that we
> "harvest" game. I think that's so mom will let dad take her 10-year-old out
> with a high-powered rifle to kill a deer, when he's really at the age when he
> should be hunting
> rabbits with a .22. ( or bank fishing, or birding with binoculars).
> As a style matter on the outdoors page of the Johnson City Press, any mention
> of "harvest" that doesn't apply to grain is changed to "kill". When the news
> department used to write the obituaries, people "died", they did not pass
> away
> or go to sleep with Jesus like they do now that obits are paid ads.
> Ornithologists who have collected specimens usually end up eating the remains
> after skinning what they have taken with their fowling piece.
> Nothing quite like a bowl of Harpy Eagle stew to go with your study skin, or
> so I've been told. With video and other technology I wonder if field
> ornithologists
> still collect specimens?
>
> Arturo Kirkconnell , author of the Cuban Field Guide, took me into the
> specimen
> room at Museo Nacional de Historia Natural in Havana to show me his
> Gundlach's
> Hawk specimen, since we didn't find a live one at Playa Larga . Appropriately
> they are all kept in cigar boxes in Havana. But the GH skin was gone, stolen.
> The Museo cannot afford security when they can only afford to pay their
> curator
> $27 a month.
>
> Sorry to wander. Part of the aging process.
>
>
>
> James Brooks
>
>
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=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society
Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
endorse the views or opinions expressed
by the members of this discussion group.
Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
------------------------------
Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
Cleveland, OH
-------------------------------
Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ARCHIVES
TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/
MAP RESOURCES
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com
_____________________________________________________________
=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
The TN-Bird Net requires you to SIGN YOUR MESSAGE with
first and last name, CITY (TOWN) and state abbreviation.
You are also required to list the COUNTY in which the birds
you report were seen. The actual DATE OF OBSERVATION should
appear in the first paragraph.
_____________________________________________________________
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
______________________________________________________________
TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society
Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
endorse the views or opinions expressed
by the members of this discussion group.
Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
------------------------------
Assistant Moderator Andy Jones
Cleveland, OH
-------------------------------
Assistant Moderator Dave Worley
Rosedale, VA
__________________________________________________________
Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
ARCHIVES
TN-Bird Net Archives at //www.freelists.org/archives/tn-bird/
MAP RESOURCES
Tenn.Counties Map at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/states/tennessee3.gif
Aerial photos to complement google maps http://local.live.com
_____________________________________________________________
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