Sport hunting
May. 11th, 2006 10:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beautifulduckweedGrizzly-polar bear hybrid discovered.
Interesting news. The fact that they produce fertile offspring is a pretty good indicator that they're not different species, and that any differences between the two bears is largely due to type--unless my understanding of the way biology works is wrong. Which is possible. Because the last biology class I took was in 1996.
But that's not what caught my attention. What caught my attention was HOW the bear had been discovered.
A sport hunter had shot it.
Here's a snippet from the news article:
Does anyone else feel nauseated by the fact that not only did this person kill for fun, but paid $50,000 for the privilege?
In a world full of obscenities, this seems especially obscene to me. How this person spends his money is his business, to be sure, but the fact that he chooses to spend it on killing something--something he plans to use purely for display purposes--strikes me as, well, immoral.
At the risk of sounding like a callous bitch, I'll admit that as a whole, I have a hard time feeling sad when I hear about people who have been killed and/or eaten by wild animals; it's hard for me not to view it as a sort of act of karmic balance. Hey, at least I'm not being hypocritical, because in the highly unlikely event that I'm killed by an animal, I'd like to request that the animal not be sought out and harmed or killed solely on my behalf, unless the animal is found to be rabid or otherwise ill.
Not that this sort of wish can have any sort of legal weight.
Back to polar bears. Here's a depressing tidbit: they're drowning. Because of global warming.
Reading these sorts of things makes me want to yell, and then cry, and then kick something.
Wow, do I sound like some kind of half-baked hippie dipshit or what? Buh.
Interesting news. The fact that they produce fertile offspring is a pretty good indicator that they're not different species, and that any differences between the two bears is largely due to type--unless my understanding of the way biology works is wrong. Which is possible. Because the last biology class I took was in 1996.
But that's not what caught my attention. What caught my attention was HOW the bear had been discovered.
A sport hunter had shot it.
Here's a snippet from the news article:
The DNA results were good news for Martell, who had paid $50,000 for guides and a permit to hunt polar bear. Before the tests came back, the 65-year-old hunter was facing the possibility of a $1,000 fine and up to a year in jail for shooting a bear for which he had no permit — as well as the disappointment of an expensive hunting trip with no trophy.
Does anyone else feel nauseated by the fact that not only did this person kill for fun, but paid $50,000 for the privilege?
In a world full of obscenities, this seems especially obscene to me. How this person spends his money is his business, to be sure, but the fact that he chooses to spend it on killing something--something he plans to use purely for display purposes--strikes me as, well, immoral.
At the risk of sounding like a callous bitch, I'll admit that as a whole, I have a hard time feeling sad when I hear about people who have been killed and/or eaten by wild animals; it's hard for me not to view it as a sort of act of karmic balance. Hey, at least I'm not being hypocritical, because in the highly unlikely event that I'm killed by an animal, I'd like to request that the animal not be sought out and harmed or killed solely on my behalf, unless the animal is found to be rabid or otherwise ill.
Not that this sort of wish can have any sort of legal weight.
Back to polar bears. Here's a depressing tidbit: they're drowning. Because of global warming.
Reading these sorts of things makes me want to yell, and then cry, and then kick something.
Wow, do I sound like some kind of half-baked hippie dipshit or what? Buh.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-12 01:28 pm (UTC)As a biologist, I feel a pang of sadness that something so awesome had to die so needlessly. Can't the guy play chess or something?