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News Briefs 11-05-2017

On the next episode of The Apprentice: White House edition…

Thanks to Baby Groot.

Quote of the Day:

“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.”

˜ Plato

  1. Measles
    So these parents, thinking that the vaccine would cause their children to suffer, have in turn caused not only the suffering of their children, but the suffering of others. Good job.

    When does sense hit them and realize they had the vaccine, most likely, when they were kids and they turned out okay…apart from the current stupidity?

    And before anyone jumps on this to attack me, I am against the swine flu vaccine they pushed a few years ago. My mother was a nurse who gave out vaccines, including flu shots, to literally thousands of people a year (roughly 200 a day) and yet she didn’t believe the flu shot was good. She also gave out measles shots and has seen the effects of parents who haven’t given their kids vaccines. So I go by her since she was on the front lines.

  2. Fox Hunting in the UK
    Yes, we need to bring back fox hunting in the UK. And before anyone gets upset about this, please take time to look at it from those who live and work in the countryside.

    Foxes will try to kill anything they come across, whether it be wild rabbits, rats, birds or domestic stock such as chickens, pheasants: they will also take lambs and pet animals.

    My poultry have been decimated many times by foxes, the worst of which is the fact that they will kill or maim all the hens, but maybe only take one for food. With my lambs, foxes will leave the animal half alive whilst they eat the tender parts… I then have the job of seeing what can be saved and shooting those that cannot – not a nice job. I just wish all those protesters could join me when I have to do this; then maybe they would have a better understanding of the issues.

    I know it is raw nature but I feel I have the right to try to protect my stock. Shooting is an option but it is difficult to be around 24/7, all year around.

    Badgers are another wild species that kills but unlike foxes, cannot be harmed in anyway. Badgers have decimated the population of hedgehogs in many parts of the countryside, where they could become extinct. Sure, they eat worms but basically are large carnivores that can dig rabbits out of their burrows and kill a lamb in seconds.

    Hunting foxes with hounds is not a perfect solution by any means but it is one way of keeping their excessive population down, and if a fox is caught by the hounds, its death is very quick (unlike my lambs…)

    1. Smart as a fox
      You give very solid arguments there, Nostra. I guess my initial reaction is that the possible benefits of culling the fox population will be used as justification to bring back an elitist, cruel sport.

      1. In the milieu in which I grew
        In the milieu in which I grew up (Texas) fox hunting was anything but “elitist.” It could be viewed as cruel. No one much “rode to hound” a’horseback in East Texas. Foxes were mostly leg trapped – another now unnecessary cruelty.
        Foxes are amazingly successful predators, and if provided with lots of semi-domesticated animals to prey upon their numbers will rise accordingly. Tearing foxes apart with dogs is something that I as a teenager (who had a pack of coonhounds) would have hardly blanched at, but now as an old man with a soft heart and heading for heaven cannot abide. I have lost all yearning for such rigmarole.
        There are more humane ways to do it if it has to be done. The cage traps work well, and a swift bullet in the ear at least kills quickly and cleanly.
        I have a “pet” fox that hangs around my farmette and episodically complains about my cats who muscle in on his mouse hunting too much to suit him.
        He carries on something like the fox in this video:
        https://youtu.be/zBpZTo1dlPM

    2. Hunting vs. Protection
      I’m not against a farmer or shepherd protecting their livestock. Where I live we do have fox hunting but most of the fox population is in a protected reserve where it’s illegal to kill anything 99% of the year. I imagine foxes are now filling…or trying to fill…the niche left by lynx and wolves. Livestock is easier to kill, so they are learning to hunt the easier prey. I know you probably won’t agree Nostra, but if wolves were reintroduced (although I don’t think that this is a good time for it) they would reduce the fox population by half. Wolves can eat foxes. Of course then you would probably complain about the wolves. But by removing the wolves in the first place, foxes had no competition and no predators. Hunting with a huge amount of dogs for a fox seems like overkill to me. A few dogs maybe, but nowadays there seems no need.

      Whatever they do, you really don’t want to reduce the fox population too much. Besides reducing the rodent population, if they get reduced too much the niche gets filled by feral cats, which happens in coastal communities often (at least in the US). Where I live, people like to blame foxes for killing the rare shorebirds. It’s not the foxes, it’s the damn cats who have no predators. Not to make this political but my town is the most Republican town in New Jersey. Everyone has a gun rack in their Chevy truck 😛

        1. political
          I get it, you are trying to tell me that not only Republicans hunt. I am aware of that. The problem is where I live there are no Democrats most of the year. In the summer we are a seasonal mixed bag of folks but most of them fish.

          1. hunting and fishing
            You are aware that the fish are placed in the environment to a large degree for the entertainment of fisherpersons, right? They (the fish, not the persons) are bred someplace else, and then dumped in large numbers in the more scenic areas, so that fisherpersons can catch and eat them. I am certain that some of the fish survive all this and persist in the creeks and rivers, it is not a zero sum game.

            Hunting in America is not supported like this. Although it is in some places in Europe. In Germany, the game is fed by the folks that own and/or operate the hunting grounds (the “Förster”). But not in America, wildlife is on its own.

          2. “You are aware that the fish
            “You are aware that the fish are placed in the environment to a large degree for the entertainment of fisherpersons, right?”

            If you also mean by “entertainment’ the luxury of eating fish caught in your local supermarket, then yeah.
            http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/aquaculture/aquaculture_in_us.html

            *****************************************
            “Hunting in America is not supported like this. Although it is in some places in Europe.”
            Texas is full of high fence game farms stocked with exotics.
            http://huntexoticgame.com/

            *************************************
            http://hunting-texas.net/texas-nilgai-hunting.htm
            The Nilgai Antelope is native to countries of the Himalayan Mountains and most common in India, Pakistan and Nepal. They were first introduced to Texas in the 1920s as a zoo animal, later added to private animal collections on ranches in the 30s and 40s, but escaped and have flourished with the estimated population being between 15,000 and 18,000 animals today.
            The Nilgai Antelope, which is also nicknamed the Blue Bull, can get to be big. In their native land the bulls rarely get over 550 pounds but in Texas, where there is an abundance of food and the food takes a lot less work to get to, there have been reports of bulls well over 800 pounds. Their horns commonly grow to 8 inches. Horns 9 inches and over are considered a trophy to hunters. There have been Nilgai harvested in Texas with 11-inch horns. This would be an exceptional trophy from a really big bull.
            *********************************
            Political orientation – I am instantly reminded of a fellow who used to work on my Dad’s ranch and who was a member of a famous feral hog hunting family. They would periodically be hired to bring those scary looking hog dogs to the ranch to knock back the pestilential feral hog population, and they almost always killed the hog by hand with a long “pig-sticker” knife so as to avoid the the risk of accidentally shooting the “hold” dog, and also because it was considered de rigeur macho for real hog hunters to work that way. There are more efficient ways to deal with hogs – the big drop cage traps being widely used, but there is still a vibrant old style hog hunting culture in place.
            This family was staunchly Democrat – the whole family – true blue.

          3. Yes I am aware
            [quote=earthling]You are aware that the fish are placed in the environment to a large degree for the entertainment of fisherpersons, right? They (the fish, not the persons) are bred someplace else, and then dumped in large numbers in the more scenic areas, so that fisherpersons can catch and eat them. I am certain that some of the fish survive all this and persist in the creeks and rivers, it is not a zero sum game.[/quote]

            Except in my case it’s an ocean. So adding fish would defeat the purpose…well somewhat. We don’t have any fish stock farms where I live.

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