I've killed plenty of critters up close and personal. That's not the point. I do NOT take pot shots at animals. I've NEVER had even one get away wounded. My concern is that an animal or bird be killed quickly, minimizing it's suffering. I know squirrels are cute. They have 2 breeding periods a year, have big litters and there's just too many in some places. Too many times I've had them take my fruit just as it ripens. They get all the nuts most years. There's just too many of them. I should get to have some of the food I grow too, dangit. And the squirrels' natural enemies are not abundant enough to do the job. People used to eat squirrels which kept the numbers down too. THAT doesn't happen anymore either. We're over-run with them. I pretty much leave them alone when they're NOT attacking my fruit. Humans are the dominant species on Earth, and I get a say in what goes on on MY PROPERTY.
ooooo thought you said you didn't want to kill up close. Are you saying shooting an animal from a distance never fails? Never leaves animals injured and suffering? Trapped and killed, it doesn't run off to suffer agonising wounds. They don't know that. They don't know it's your fruit. They don't know you grew it. They see food and they are hungry. But your rights are superior and you don't care about anything else's rights. You don't have to kill animals to survive, but you choose to and you like to. Where are man's natural enemies? Because s/he is overrunning everything with no respect for continuation of the other species. People still eat squirrels, apparently. Maybe you should stop eating fruit and just eat squirrels. Pretty much? That is really the bottom line. Arrogant dominance. There is no need to kill anything. There is no need for you to grow food.
If Trinnity were the true patriot she claims to be, she would take herself into a store and buy her fruit. Her country's economy needs her help. Having bought her fruit, she can sit back and enjoy watching the squirrels. Or possibly the squirrel (if you don't put out food for them and entice them in, they don't appear in hordes).
I don't recall saying that. It depends on the situation. I've killed plenty of snakes with a hoe. You can't kill a deer up that close because you can't GET that close. We eat A LOT of deer. I am saying I have never wounded an animal or had one get away. If I'm not sure of my shot I don't take it. I've been lucky. I've been careful. I don't like to see them suffer either. Oh, well, too bad. It is my fruit and I did grow it. They get plenty and sometimes I get some of them. The crows stopped eating up my cherries when I shot one and left him hanging in the cherry tree. That's what it took to drive them off. They're sneaky and persistent, but not stupid. I am superior to animals. They have no rights. That's a human convention. I eat most of what I kill (not poisonous snakes, foxes, groundhogs, crows). We eat a lot of deer. Man's natural enemies are man, bears, sharks, large cats, etc. Maybe you should mind your own business and NOT tell me how to live MY life. How dare you??? You're NOT my keeper, or my boss, and you don't feed me or pay my bills. What? I'm to buy everything in a store? Where does that stuff come from???
I sympathize with your squirrel problem and I am not going to tell you that you are an evil person. I have had critter problems myself. I just don't think shooting them is going to be effective in the long run. You might look into a control such as castor oil to spray on your plants to keep the critters from eating them. I used to get rabbits eating my stuff in my vegetable garden. I put a garden sprayer in my bathroom and urinated in it. I then srayed an unbroken line around the garden (not on the plants) and the rabbits refused to cross it. I did have to do it again after every rain. If you could spray your trees with something that smelled bad to the little critters.
As an American, you must admire the initiative there. Capitalist parasiteism at its finest, he's even wearing a mask. (runs for it...)
I do but I'm too lazy, ooops I meant busy, to reread the whole thread to quote it, so you can have the point. Yes, I remember living in US I had to be manhandled into a car and driven away when they came to stalk the deer which used to come down behind the house in the morning. Feckers. Some rubbish about them eating crops or such. And snakes were treated much as people here treat spiders. Then there was the Speedie party. Where someone hit a deer in a pickup truck, stored it until it was ready to eat and then had us all over for a barbie. They asked me to spear the speedies (Upstate NY term for diced meat on a skewer) and I couldn't, because it made me sick to think of the deer. I steeled myself and did it though. When we ate it, it was really delicious What kind of a world is that? Where women, mothers and just normal women, have to be able to shoot animals? You are really still living in the middle ages there, aren't you. It's competitive then? Except when you lose, a crow eats a cherry. But when they lose, you kill them. They lose everything. That's not a fair bet. They're hungry and trying to survive. They can't go down to Tesco and buy food for their young. I don't see how. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfh4Mhp-a6U&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfh4Mhp-a6U&feature=related[/ame] That can't be argued with. If a person thinks that way, there is no common ground. Every living thing has the right to live and taking life unnecessarily is unacceptable, IMO. Maybe if you don't want to read the opinion of others, don't post in a debate thread on a political debate forum? I am is a person posting opinion on a forum. If you don't want a response, don't post on it. I'm not a squirrel. I have rights. I realise I'm not a US citizen and therefore in the opinion of a poster with your views I probably do not merit even nearly equal rights with one who is US. But you still can't get silence me in the way you can silence a squirrel. It's a cultural difference. But if you buy your produce, it will help your country. Why are you growing yours?
LOL, I like to hunt. I'm good at it. My hubby and sons hunt a lot more than I do. A crow eats a cherry...ROFL. I have one cherry tree and a dozen or so crows were eating ALL the cherries. Life ain't fair. If it were, they wouldn't be eating MY cherries. There's plenty of food around. They're what's called "varmints". Look it up. I realize that. I like you, and it's okay for you to disagree Viv. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfh4Mhp-a6U&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfh4Mhp-a6U&feature=related[/ame]That's a prairie dog, not a squirrel. ^^^ The animal world does not function within a structure of "rights". By all means, respond. I'm just sayin' you're trying to condemn me for how I live my life and shame me into living it the way you want, including NOT growing any of my own food. You're wasting your time. I would NEVER try to limit YOUR rights OR silence you. That's the liberal tactic of "shut up". I help my country. I pay taxes. I don't litter. I grow some of my own food to save money, have fresh food, and because I CAN.
Some people are independent. Some people choose to grow their own fruits and vegetables and hunt for food. They don't have a "somebody please take care of me" attitude. Maybe they prefer natural food over food that's full of additives or sprayed down with pesticides.
...or surrounded by the bodies of dead squirrels. The basic premise is not difficult. Remember when you had to play a team sport for the first time? Everyone ran toward the ball and then the guy with the ball, had no one to pass it to...the end. It's that way. Some people need to grow and harvest fruit and then others can have fruit without having to. This releases the rest to accomplish other activities. Division of labour (is not my idea) makes man more effective, not less. But Cons are stuck on shoot it shoot it, kill everything that isn't part of your own pack and if you don't, you are excess to requirements and must be shot. Amazed they have lasted this long with that regressive mentality. "take care of me" attitude (rolls eyes to ceiling)
I agree with most of what you've said, Viv, but I think this is pushing it. Are you seriously suggesting that gardeners are a detriment to their country and to society at large???
Surely they expect you to be home behaving like a Con(ned) wife, cooking crows and squirrels while they are out enjoying life. If you put food out there for them, what do you expect them to do? Cause and effect. It's not rocket science. I know that. I'm surprised there are any left alive for you to know that. You are superior to animals. You function within a structure of rights. It's not superiority which makes you better than animals. What you do with the power we happen to have, is what makes us "better"...we strive to be better. Tempting in and then killing defenceless fruit thieves is abuse of power and ability. No, I'm giving a different perspective. The thread is not about you. I think you're listening. Excuse my cynical raise of eyebrow.
Don't be silly. I am just kidding big Treeny (this is the fun forum) But it is true, regarding the economy, isn't it. A real patriot should really consider purchasing, rather than home grown, in order to boost the economy.
Why the hell does it even matter? It has nothing to do with getting one's hands dirty, but rather that it is a more practical way of doing so. I do not think Trinnity is going to try to pawn off responsibility for and I am sure she is quite aware of what she is doing. The kind where women are free to do as they please. I would think you would be all about that. You know, instead of playing the role of the weak and feeble woman that men dream of. I can think of a lot of living things that do not deserve to live and taking one of those lives is sometimes completely necessary.
Ah, I see. Well like I said, I think that's pushing it a bit. I suppose in terms of hard numbers, buying (crappy) supermarket fruit boosts the economy by some small margin. Not sure I'd call it patriotic though, lol.
Some people don't like eating inferior foods that are packed with preservatives and chemicals. If you enjoy going out and buying meat from animals that are pumped full of steroids and hormones, or fruit grown with chemical fertilizers and synthetic pesticides, more power to you. Personally, I won't sacrifice my health just to help companies that make a fortune employing cheap immigrant labor.
Not just chemical, either. There was recently a report on local tv here in SoCal about Mexican farmers using their own feces as fertilizer for crops being shipped to the US. I only buy from local, "mom and pop" farmers anymore.
How is it practical to plant a food source and then try to kill off the entire squirrel population? It can't be done, you know. The grey squirrel multiplies at a ferocious rate, as the UK red squirrel protection society would tell you, if they were here. You're making as much sense as usual there (i.e. none). Last time, did you not call me a feminazi? In fact, is that not your usual comment? But now I'm a weak and feeble woman. I think I could take you if it came to it, tbh. If you are actually in the military, that is quite a worrying approach.
Farmers use anything as fertiliser for sure. I recently was on a farm where they have a dog/cat kennels which is really busy. They clear it out continually and put the feces into the fertiliser.
That is dangerous...spreads disease. It is not like well composted chicken or cow manure. Most "mom and pop" farmers here buy their produce from Chandler Moutain...big commercial produce farms. The tomatoes are real good though...I have raised two hogs on them.
Viv, you know I luv ya. I really do. Darlin', please don't be myopic. I don't kill birds, rabbits, possum, etc. I kill crows, squirrels, deer, snakes, groundhogs, and foxes. All are either destructive or food stealing varmints OR food. Did you know that foxes have two litters per year of about a dozen? They eat peoples' chickens, and they're a menace to the baby wild turkeys. They'll kill and eat anything they can; they're not picky. Why do you want to imply conservatives and myself kill everything in site? That's just not true. Are you being obtuse or just ignorant? We shoot about 3 buck deer every year. We have most of the meat ground into burger. It feeds our families and we have some beautiful trophies on the wall. I won't apologize to you or anyone for it. <hugs>
I said it is more practical to kill at a distance. They are not mutually exclusive. Feminazis are weak and feeble women. Maybe. Maybe not. I doubt it, but who cares? I do not think I would take too kindly to you pulling at my hair and trying to scratch me. I am actually in the military and there are some people that do not deserve to live. You might be anti-death penalty. To each their own...