to avoid getting snared, best keep away from these establishments

steer clear of bon jovi concerts as well

The whole story (including the comments above, ha) is sad.

Cardinals thrive in a suburban environment. The combination of open ground and trees is perfect for them. Obviously possum do quite well t/here, too. I haven't had any coffee yet so can't quite turn this into a coherent post, but it has something to do with learning to live with how we change the world to "suit" us and understanding our impact. Not that I want a cougar in my backyard while my 4yo is out there.

For example, squirrel cop.

I take offense to the comment about hunters taking 100 million animals purely for sporting purposes. The vast majority of hunters in N. America do it within legal limits and keep the meat. I don't see how a story about a cougar in the chicago burbs has anything to do with the blackmarket trade around illegal poaching that is common in Africa and S. America.

All my experiences hunting have been very educational. Although I'm not an avid hunter, it's something that I belive everyone should experience at least once in their life. It's a humbling experience that truly connects you to the natural world.

I've also found hunters to be some of the most passionate conservationists. For example, duck hunters do huge amounts of work to preserve and restore wetlands.

Aqua, my point wans't to draw a parallel between poachers and cops, but to show that if it isn't some strange hunter getting-off on blowing away the cougar, then it's going to be some cop in an alley because the cougar either fled hunters or was displaced by development. But, please do take the opportunity to defend hunters....discourse invited. I personally think there should be an open season on hunters if they really want to be fair.

duck hunters can do more and stop using lead shot. but the roots of the environmental movement go back to teddy roosevelt and john muir. one hunted and one didn't, but both helped place a value on leaving nature alone.

and i thought the coyote was a long way from home...

What about paintball hunting?
If you hit you hit, why is the death of the animal necessary...we don't need wild meat anymore? (even if our cows are mad)

I didn't know that waterfowl hunters were still able to use lead shot at all in the United States. Ducks Unlimited probably does as much as any other group to protect wetlands - call it the TR model.

I think that if you are not willing to kill an animal then you shouldn't be eating meat. Not that everyone should hunt, but everyone should have a deeper understanding of meat coming from animals and not supermarkets.

As for paintball hunting- if you're not going to eat it, leave it alone!

Lee Wulff’s 1939 admonition that “a sport fish is too valuable to be caught only once” led to the modern practice of "catch and release". While even that practice is controversial in some quarters, it clearly has preserved the sports fishing industry and allowed it to prosper. You don't have to kill an animal to enjoy all the benefits of nature and the hunt.

paintball hunting?!?

are you serious? ever been shot in the ass w/ a paintball gun?

I like that vision of 'hunters' shooting a bear in the butt with paintballs and then getting eaten! very apropos and deliciously ironic. We should ban the use of bullets, since we all know that guns don't kill.

its great having friends who are hunters. there is no meat healthier for you than pure, wild and completely vegan venison, elk, and antilope. besides, eating wild animals is far, far more humane than eating the retarded cows that don't even have a chance to escape. mmmm. meat.

...then all people should be able to hunt for food, it should not be a pastime reserved only for the uneducated / napoleonic. How long would the animal Kingdom last if ALL people felt the same way as you LeBossman?
I agree 100 years ago it was a way of life...but today?

There was an article in Nat Geo a while back about how hunters, at least in the U.S., have been at the forefront of protecting wildlands, preserving species and protecting the environment. Hunting in moderation is a very good thing.

when i saw the first post with the word COUGAR, i thought this was going to be about Mariah Carey, Madonna or Demi Moore on the prowl for "boys"....

Not this cougar:
Cougarology

Poczatek - Most of the hunters I know aren't uneducated or Napoleonic. And seriously, I think I find it more tragic to find a bunch of deer lying dead by the side of the road, having been killed by cars, than knowing someone went out and hunted one for their dinner. Even more sad... having the deer population rise to such a high rate that there isn't enough food to sustain the herd and they all end up starving.

<vegan rant> ^ maybe people should have stopped expanding into the deer's habitat when it first became an issue, rather than killing them to make up for their own greed. </vegan rant>

I agree with you 100% Pixelwhore, unfortunately I don't know how to fix the clusterfuck (I think that's my new word) we've made in regards their lost habitat.

we should do this - Free Range Humans

definitely.

that is the funniest shit

My dad has a 5 section ranch in south TX. Every year the wild boars and deer have to thinned out to maintain healthy population levels. And its not from expanding into the habitat. The closest city with a population >1500 is nearly 100 miles away. I guess we could let them over populate, over-graze, and then starve to death. That would be so much nicer than thinning out the older animals so the younger ones have a better chance to survive. Heaven forbid we do something to try to help the animals thrive.

Also, in all parts of TX the rabbit and hare populations are so out of hand there is no closed season. This is the one area where the shitheads really come out to play. Literally. Year-round open season on rabbits facilitates "spotlighting". As much fun as it may be, its a stupid thing that 16 year-olds do that helps give hunters a bad name. *Although they don't do half the damage that crazed postal workers do.

As far as the other animals go, basically you have a period that could be anywhere from one week (for white-tailed deer on the Edwards Plateau) to several months for other animals. Even then you have a bag limit. And even then, there's no guarantee that you'll even get a single kill. And there's just as many people here in TX that are appalled by hunting as there are in other parts of the US. We have some of the best hunting, and I guess that's how we got the whole gun-rack thing associated with us.

And finally, in this part of the country, hunting is typically a rich-man's sport. Most of the hunters I know are doctors, lawyers, bankers, business owners, and other white-collar middle to upper-class people including several architects.

Well, </rant> I suppose.

LOL!!!!!

so when do we start thinning out human population levels to "maintain healthy population levels?"

i just want to know, so i can stock up on 30=30 shells or 30-06...whatever keells em good!

That kid is 20 feet behind that hog.

Beta, go with a .50 cal. Go big or go home.

don't eat meat, no need to hunt or kill


if you want to hunt, take a Rambo knife and go after that boar. Do that, and I'll have respect for the "sport"

Apu advises the following for hunting in urban areas:



The M4 is the compact version of the M16, which makes it more practical for use in urban hunting. Note the grenade launcher, this is very useful for taking out prey in masse.



the last word in urban hunting with its state-of-the-art integrated silencer means you can bag multiple kills without anyone seeing you coming. The subsonic 9mm round however does dampen stopping power and may not be that effective against crack/base/meth heads.



The last word in stopping power, the .50 caliber round will render material targets useless lumps of metal in one shot, and will render human targets bloody pulp. It shoots through schools. Note however it is extremely bulky, loud, and is more practical in suburban/rural environs.

I've always liked H&K guns (middle).

!!!!!! note they are the same price per kilo...

rfuller- you need some wolves/pumas/bobcats/grizzly bears or other top predators on your dad's ranch. Studies in yellowstone show great systemic ecological benefits for introduction of non-human predators in areas with overpopulation of grazers. The wolves have kept the elk moving, which makes em healthier and allows vegetation to regenerate. Also makes hunting humans more challenging since you can't predict where the prey will be.

My gf has been vegetarian for about half of her life, but this year she got a gun license and took a hunter training course because she's going to be spending the next couple of months doing research in the wild.

She told me that she now understands hunting, although she chooses not to kill animals. I've had the chance to look at some local hunting magazines and they're focused entirely on safety and environmental protection. Yes, killing still happens...... but as was noted above, if you're not willing to kill an animal, you shouldn't be eating meat! There's nothing humane about factory farming. Hunters are lucky if they bring one animal home after a day out in the woods.

I have a friend who started homesteading a few years ago. She raises chickens for eggs and meat, and she and her husband do all the 'processing' themselves. If anybody wants to see what that looks like up-close with pictures and commentary, I'd be happy to give you her website address.

Poczatek no offense but i don't think i have to be a hunter to say that there isn't any comparison between the image you've shown, which is the result of illegal poaching of an extremely endangered species, and shooting a whitetailed deer. most of my opinions have been addressed above in other posts. i have no idea where the mountain lion came from, but i assume it is not do to habitat incursion, as it was found in roscoe village. if it were found in valpo or even evansville i'd say that might be the case. it is interesting, i think in as much as they suffer from the problem of habitat loss, they also become strangely used to living amongst us, and can become adapted to urban environments. that must have been one smart cat, too bad they couldn't just catch it and re-release it into the wild.

Who was it that suggested that we redeploy the military as professional hunter-gatherers for the rest of society?

I agree TK, I was happy when I heard the wolves were introduced back in to Yellowstone. It makes me sad to hear that people are trying, yet again to make hunting them legal. It dirves me crazy to hear people encouraging others to kill the predators. Meh!!!!

i had seen a while back someone had posted images of the process of slaughtering a hog. pretty graphic and kind of repulsive, but equally fascinating.

also, if you read slate, there's a pretty interesting blog there, human nature. the author has touched on hunting and the consumption of meat.

pretty interesting post yesterday on the hypocrisy and lack of logic on the banning of consumption of dog meat.

Agreed on the lack of logic re: dog meat.

BUT I have a dog, and frankly he likes to eat poop and rotting dead animals whenever he gets the chance. So I'll gladly stick with elk.

On the other hand I could see how that is completely at odds with my love of oysters (the liver of the sea!) and other scum sucking bottom dwelling shellfish.

I think I am exposed to a different kind of hunting than many of you.

as fascinating as it is to kill an animal...i find it even more fascinating to watch one animal kill another. teeht and claws ripping flesh almost make bullet wounds seem humane.

it's a competitive world that we live in and individual life (even yours) is not as sacred as we're often conditioned to think it is. thankfully i haven't been eaten alive yet.

tk, we have plenty of bobcats and coyotes. Hell, we put out feeders specifically for them. When it comes time to do the annual head count we figured out that we can charge big time Houston and Dallas lawyers 500/hr to ride along in the helicopter and shoot the boars. We don't make any profit, but it does cover most of the counting fees.