Went for a drive today

Cote b: Nothing in nature gets wasted - your view on shooting an animals is a bit skewed. If a guy hits a coyote (or any animal) with his car that animal just ends up being eaten by everything else around it. I am sure when you harvest a deer that when you field dress it you aren't taking all the intestines/guts with you - that stuff still gets eaten up from birds, coyotes, etc.
In regards to your view about shooting animals for the sake of shooting pest animals - it is preferable to shoot pest animals and really should be encouraged. Because if shooters don't take these animals out, the local farmers/ranchers end up using poisons (esp on gophers). That stuff is just bad for the environment (predators will eat the poisoned gophers and it goes on up the food chain). You're not wasting an animal if you shoot it - there is always something there to clean it up; it helps the locals in controlling these populations. If numbers get too low the animals will go on a protected list. I have seen, as an example, crows go on and off hunting lists in provincial hunting regs.
 
Amusing thread. Especially the pigeon pie! I don't know if people realize how much pigeon's have been eaten in the past. Anyone remember passenger pigeons? They used to rival african locusts in swarm size. Most numerous animal in north america. Went extinct in only a couple of decades due to over hunting for food. Talking billions. Couple of muskrats dont seem so bad now eh? But really, even if it is a pest, its life isnt without purpose. Everything relies on another for one thing or the other.
Except liberals. They serve no purpose.
 
I was told that gophers will canabalize their own. A deer's gut pile is generally gone by the next morning. Takes a while for a bear to disappear though but by the following year there is rarely a sign. Nature has a way of looking after their own. However, we should be cautious about who we pi$$ off as stories have a way of being twisted in the wind and turning into outright lies which in many cases does not aid our cause(s).
 
cote_b: You make some good points and argue and articulate yourself pretty well. Good for you for standing your ground in the face of some pretty aggressive attacks on your position. Accusing a fellow of being something as disgusting and distasteful as a Liberal or calling him a mama’s boy because he is opposed to, what is in his mind, the pointless killing of Canadian wildlife is ridicules.

As to the debate, it’s a fruitless one as no ones mind is going to changed.

I have shot lots (and I mean lots) of animals in the past for “entertainment” or whatever. I am in no position to pass judgment on those who now choose to do the same but I choose not to anymore. I now only kill animals that are a direct pest or that I am going to eat. I regret now killing so many animals pointlessly but it does not keep me up at night by any means.

My 2 cents.


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After thinking about it a little. I WOULD go to a farm (if I lived in Man or Sask) and shoot gophers given the chance. They are a legitimate problem and shooting them is fun as hell.

I would NOT go for a drive and shoot every animal that I was legally allowed to just because it dared to breathe the same air as me.

Big difference? I'm not too sure. Am I a hypocrite? It's more than possible.
 
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Bronco Boy said:
EDIT:

After thinking about it a little. I WOULD go to a farm (if I lived in Man or Sask) and shoot gophers given the chance. They are a legitimate problem and shooting them is fun as hell.
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You had to give it some thought? :D I'd call them "targets of opportunity", and just get on with it...;)

I'm not being callous, though - you make a well-reasoned argument, and you've obviously given the matter due thought. :)
 
Interesting read, but I ask you (everyone) this.....

Does it have to be YOUR pest in order to be a pest? Does it have to be THAT gopher that made the hole that broke your horses leg to be shot? Or THAT pigeon that ate YOUR grain in order to be shot?

Pests are pests because there are too many of them. So many that they cause issues for the majority. I dont care if its a gopher on a farmers land or a gopher in the middle of a forest, that ####er is fair game. I dont care if its a pigeon ####ting on my house/car or a pigeon ####ting in the lake, they are flying rats and I will shoot it if legally allowed to do so.

There are thousands of people whose "ethical opinion" is nobody should have guns except law enforcement too, but obviously we all disagree. Who are they to preach to me or you? And who are you to preach to those of us who shoot pests for sport legally?

You dont like it, dont do it. But stop the preaching unless a law is being broken or someones safety compromised.

Thats my $0.02.
 
cote_b said:
Sure, but that is pest control, not hunting. That is acceptable since there is a problem, but going looking for so called varmits out in the country just to kill them is uncalled for. Muskrats or any other animals arent causing you grief or problems when you have to drive into the country and look for them. If they are causing you a problem on your property or friends property or whatever, take care of it, but dont go looking for them out in the woods just to kill them.
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x2, agreed!!


my uncle and father said the same thing, they where once yougings in the bush hunting large game but shot anything and everything in sight... sooner then later there was no wildlife left!

don't shoot an animal because it makes a good target, shoot it because it can provide you with edible meat or because it is an actual pest!
 
To Ethical

KDX said:
I had to go to a place this afternoon and took my Sako Quad with me (22LR) on the back roads. I ended up shooting three pigeons, two muskrats and a magpie. I like shooting that rifle and it's an excellent truck gun.
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Its amazing how many PETA bambiists are on this site. We never see them in the bush, I guess they are afraid we'd use them as plinking targets (not worth eating).
Personally I think you should have cut the heads of the pigeons muskrats and magpie and mounted them on the wall -
Would look GREAT along with the deer and mooseheads ! Especially beside the JACK-A-LOPE !
 
They bore holes in the sides of dugouts and creeks, which undermines and weakens the banks. This allows the sides to erode and fall into the water, which makes for a large shallow mucky area that cattle can become trapped in.

These areas also make for fantastic mosquito breeding/larvae grounds...West Nile virus anyone?

oneskilledshooter said:
Could someone please explain how a muskrat is a pest?
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chris88cl said:
There are thousands of people whose "ethical opinion" is nobody should have guns except law enforcement too, but obviously we all disagree.
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First, ask yourself why officers need firearms - and then ask yourself why we don't. :mad:

By the way, ethics is simple in this case - you just have to determine what's a pest, and what isn't....;)
 
Wow lots of people terrified of West Nile. Flu kills 10,000 people a year. How many have died from West Nile this year?

I think Deet is more a threat to your safety.
 
Farmer Harv said:
They bore holes in the sides of dugouts and creeks, which undermines and weakens the banks. This allows the sides to erode and fall into the water, which makes for a large shallow mucky area that cattle can become trapped in.

These areas also make for fantastic mosquito breeding/larvae grounds...West Nile virus anyone?
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Thanks for the insight farmer harv. I learned something new today! (honestly, I am not here to be a smart ass, that is interesting). I can see how those muskrat could cause trouble on a farm. I wonder how they could be considered a pest out where KDX was.
 
What I'm seeing a lot of here is naivete in regard to others lifestyle.

One person posts that they shot x y and z animals.

Another is horrified by that, because in their area, it's a treat to see the animals at all.

The big difference is geography here. In the first persons area, you see more of certain animals than people, whereas in anothers you may see one a year.

Seems a lot of the conflicts in the gun community (and our world in general) come from lack of perspective and empathy. Personally, I wouldn't kill an animal for amusement. I would however kill one that's destroying something of mine (IE I don't have a problem with a squirrel living in our outhouse, but when you find he has chewed a hole strait through your cedar roof, the insulation, the inside wall, the back of your cabinet, and then the side of the peanut butter container, he has to die.)
 
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Ethical hunting...what an oxymoron. And what's even sillier is hunters who worry about being...ethical while hunting.

You are at the top of the food chain. You make a decision to go out, take an animal's life, eat it's flesh and turn its skin into a hat. You think you're ethical now because you took its life at a certain time of the year with a certain grain bullet? You're not ethical, you're a predator, just as nature intended you.

Can you imagine a bunch of lions sitting around on the Serengeti plains and worrying about what would be the most humane and ethical way to kill a couple of zebras?

I get such a chuckle out of people who are tormented by some sort of liberal imposed guilt for hunting and as a recourse they decide to start imposing some restrictions on their activities, which make no real difference in the end result (dead is dead), just so they can sleep better at night.

The only reason there should be restrictions on hunting and fishing is preservation of habitat and resources, not some morality BS.

I hunt, shoot animals for whatever reason I see fit, fish and poop in the woods. I am at the top of the food chain and I am going to enjoy the ride.

If you can't deal with the guilt, stop hunting, shooting and fishing.
 
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I lived in orchard country for a good part of my younger life, and there Crows and Starlings were considered to be pests who caused a lot of damage to fruit that was ripening on trees. We shot those birds on sight, wherever we saw them. Their numbers were high, and reducing the numbers was the important thing. AAMOF, the fruitgrowers association paid a bounty on Starlings for a number of years. 10 cents for a pair of legs. I made decent pocet change shooting starlings for 3 or 4 years as a youth, when ammo was worth 1 cent a shot. Regards, Eagleye.
 
I personally know two people from around here that have suffered through a bout of West Nile for weeks/months, and I can assure you they don't hold the same opinion that you do about the severity or significance of it even if they didn't happen to become a nice statistic by dying.

Being aware of a problem and making an effort to mitigate its effects is not being "terrified", it's pragmatic.



Newspeak said:
Wow lots of people terrified of West Nile. Flu kills 10,000 people a year. How many have died from West Nile this year?

I think Deet is more a threat to your safety.
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cote_b said:
Im sorry, but this type of thing really gets to me. I am all for hunting, but driving out into the country to kill some animals and let them go to waste is disgraceful. If you have no use for the meat or any other part of it or if these varmints arent causing a problem, then leave the damn things alone. If you need target practice, shoot some groups on paper. Its conduct like this that have the anti hunting bunch saying all us hunters do this and thats what hunting is all about.
Where I live, its a real treat to see a muskrat swimming up a creek and an especially rare sight to see a Magpie, if ever at all. To kill them for no particlar reason is uncalled for.
Same goes for gophers out west. When I hear stories on here of people killing 600 of them in a few days, it really pisses me off. That is not simply taking care of a few problem ones, it is an outright slaughter of them, just for "Target Practice". In a few years from now, these people will be wondering were they all went when they have to resort to paper targets for target shooting.

I know Im going to take flack for my point of view, so go ahead.
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Wow, are you ever misinformed, sonny. There won't be a shortage of gophers any time soon, they breed like rats which is actually a close cousin... people have been shooting gophers and magpies in western canada since white men brought guns here and it's not hurt their population one iota.

And just for your info, magpies and gophers are legally considered vermin out here. Cultural acceptability of varmint shooting is regional, and i wouldn't expect an eastern boy to understand that, but i would expect him to mind his manners and respect differences.

Now muscrats are a different story. They are a fur bearing animal and protected most places I know of. In AB you need a trapping license to hunt them.
 
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