Guy pays to hunt Black Rhinos, gets death threats

Growing up I had a neighbor from bum**** Maine who would smoke them, I suppose a byproduct of growing up way out there.

The taste actually isn't that bad, but the smell is horrible. A lot like bluefish, its reasonably good but you can't cook or store it in your house.

 

They market US caught Asian Carp as Silverfish. The Japanese love it and of course carp is a delicacy in Germany. I've always heard the problem was that it is hard to remove the bones from carp.

 

They are bottom feeders and tend to bio-accumulate toxins rapidly to dangerous levels.

 

They make decent fertilizer, not food

 

Agreed. Like I said, leave them for the raccoons and bears. As a kid in Idaho growing up near the Snake and Bruneau rivers, we used to just chuck them in the bushes. Bow-fishing for them is pretty entertaining, too. Would use them for crayfish traps as well. We were the only people eating crayfish in the whole northwest, I suspect.

 

Back to the topic, I just read this and must point out how wrong it is.

Sport hunting has been the greatest boon to conservation in history. I cannot think of a single species that has been harmed by sport hunting. There have been many that have rebounded because of it. Ducks, sheep, turkeys, elk, deer, and quail spring immediately to mind when thinking of game populations that were endangered either nationwide or in specific areas that are now prevalent solely because of hunters and hunting organizations. In Africa, the hunter is more responsible for the salvation and re-population of the elephant than anything else ever done.

Commercial hunting destroyed the bison (guess what's starting to bring it back?) Poachers have decimated the rhino and elephant. Disease and agricultural practices almost wiped out quail and turkeys and sheep. If you want to counter these forces to save a species in sustainable numbers, turn over the management of them to somebody who is invested in the long-term survival of the species. My suspicion is that it is too late for the black rhino, but do you know what the rancher in Namibia with a Rhino is going to do? He's going to protect the damned thing if it is worth a couple of hundred thousand dollars to him.

 

I love some bison meat.

 

Ducks are more valuable than rice to the state of Arkansas

 

Animals hurt by sport hunting: Grizzlies, black bear, wolves, tigers (all subspecies), gorillas (both species), thylacines, black ****ing rhinos, etc etc etc. You are very ill-informed. Apex predators are particularly vulnerable to being hurt by hunting, as the 10 percent law guarantees the number of these animals will be much smaller than whatever their prey is and they are not adapted to absorb artificially not being a top predator (taking losses due to predation as well as competition and range/resource limits).

The mantra of "hunting helps," like so many lies, has a kernel of truth to it. People tend to only go along with the idea of protected public lands when they have something to gain from it, be it recreational hunting and fishing or natural resource extraction. But the forests of Virginia and Pennsylvania teeming with deer does not mean it is in a healthy, sustainable, or even natural state. Where are the wolves? Where are the mountain lions? Where are the bison (yes, there were bison in the east once)? All dead. But deer!


If your idea of conservation is filling up Cades Cove with deer in human-made fields, or seeing mountain goats and moose in Colorado, I'm not really interested in your idea of "conservation."

 

Wolves and mountain lions were exterminated and/or their habitat was destroyed. Bison were commercially hunted.

Bears were considered a nuisance as well.

 

And hunting does help. Deer, turkey, ducks, elk (in some parts of the country) have all been brought back due to people investing a lot of time and money to do it.

 

They were all hunted for sport. They all ARE hunted for sport. Where they have been wiped out, people bar their reintroduction because they fear it will hurt the ridiculously inflated game population.

 

It helps the species people want to help. It isn't conservation when you pick and choose to make a new custom ecosystem. It is making duck, turkey, and deer farms without fences.

 

How much money is raised by duck stamps? How many millions of dollars are made in Stuttgart during duck season?

 

non hunters certainly raise money primarily to help the "cute" species too.

 

Yep, restoring and protecting wetlands for waterfowl is creating farms without fences.

Turkeys are all over the state again.

White tail are all over the state again.

If reintroduced wildlife were to stay within one mile of where they were dropped off, I'd agree with you.

 

Where are the wolves? Let's talk some more about eradicating coyotes every time they show their faces. Conservation!

 

Eating everything in Yellowstone.

I'm conserving wildlife by getting rid of a few coyotes.

 

Eating what they are supposed to in Jellystone. Prey is supposed to have predators.

You are proving my point exactly with your second comment. You aren't interested in conservation. You are interested in a fantasy. A meat version of Candy Land.

 

Justin is certainly a predator.