Hunting for food and/or for animal husbandry is acceptable (when done humanely), but hunting just for the kill? Hell no.
Don’t go grouping all gun owners or hunters together. I know no one in competition target shooting or animal husbandry that thinks shooting a lion is acceptable. It isn’t, and it doesn’t help those of us who shoot with legitimate reasons (and there are legitimate reasons – but this lion hunt is so far removed from legitimate as to be sickening and disgusting).
Some of you will see the logic and understand, and probably find yourself in a position much like the one I’m kind of in right now.
I eat meat and I wear leather. I eat eggs too. The fact is there are many things that I encounter either knowingly or unknowingly that require an animal to be killed, or kept constrained, to enable me and you to do and have certain things.
I love animals. I’ve always had pets. Fish, cats, dogs, hamsters, rabbits, chickens, a snake and even a rescue crow.
I couldn’t bring myself to shoot one though. Even taking the decision to have one put down at the vets is unbearably tough, but I put the animal first and do what is best for it. Having a severely ill pet that is being kept alive on medication isn’t the nicest thing for an animal; It’s no way to live.
I’ve seen people at the vets with one legged cats whose backsides are prolapsed, cataract in both eyes, dribbling blood, breathing painfully and drugged up to the hilt to stay alive because the owner ‘really loves them‘. Bullshit; if you love them, then you really need to know when to let them go.
I’ve paid to have terminally ill chickens put down before; I could’ve physically done it myself, but it was a pet and I couldn’t mentally bring myself to do it. Did we eat it afterwards? Hell no! She was a pet. Even our hens that died naturally were never eaten. They had names!
My lad with our beautiful rescued hens.
It was keeping the chickens that made me question what we as a species do to other animals that we harvest for their various meats, skins, eggs, milk, shitty coffee etc. They were all rescue hens; ex-factory farm egg layers, beyond their useful lives and heading to a shredder whilst alive. We rescued many over time, and the eggs they gave us in their retirement were the best ever! Better than any top quality, top price ‘free range’ store purchased eggs. The eggs were vibrant in colour and so full of flavour. If you’ve not raised chickens and had real free range eggs, then you wouldn’t appreciate what they are like. Our girls had full freedom in the garden. They had great food, shelter, water, healthcare and love.
Even shop brought free range eggs are a con. To be ‘free range‘ each hen must have a minimum amount of room to itself.
Factory hens are so cruelly and closely packed together that they are wedged together and upon release (to be shredded)after a ‘useful life’ of about 18 months, some can hardly walk. Some even break their legs trying because they were so tightly packed their legs never developed. Sickening.
Battery hens. A few left to run around outside makes this ‘free range’…
But free range hens are okay, yeah? Well, a few are, but others egg producers bend the rules so that they can say that their hens are free range. They wedge most of their birds together in cages, but let a handful run around outside. Because a few run around outside, on average each bird at the factory farm has a lot more space – enough to legally say they are free range hens. Yeah, free range can be just as bad as non-free range, but at least you pay more and think you’re doing the right thing.
This is who your egg came from.
It’s the same with sheep, cows, pigs etc. There are some very good farms out there that really look after their livestock, and despatch them humanely, but a greater number of animal produce suppliers just do enough to be able to operate legally.
A nice bit of bacon?
I’m against hunting for fun. Killing something just because it is rare, or its a challenge, or just because you can, is not something I appreciate in the slightest. I’ll eat, wear, use animal products, but I detest those that hunt for fun.
Some people go to far with animal rights though. Some people don’t fully appreciate animal husbandry and the good it does for the animal population.
Foxes. Yes, they can do all sorts of damage, and sometimes need humane culling. Ripping them apart with dogs after baiting and chasing them on horseback is not humane.
Badgers, rabbits, rats, pigeons, crows, deer etc. They can cause all sorts of problems to livestock and agriculture. By letting their numbers get out of hand you can end up with a lot of sick animals with insufficient food sources for them to live, and the larger numbers cause detriment to the environment and other animals. By careful land and animal management the balance can be kept. Only an idiot cannot see this.
In certain countries animals are hunted and the meat & byproducts are put to use. The animals hunted are generally carefully selected from older animals that are no longer breeding, and injured, weaker animals. The stronger, breeding animals keep a herd healthy, and good genetic material is passed on, and the herd can grow.
Additionally other animals benefit from mans help. For a simplistic example; If deer numbers build up, they’ll eat too much vegetation and will be left hungry. Other animals, such as rabbits that depend on the vegetation will also become hungry and Ill, and often leave an area in search of food, never to return. The deer and rabbits that don’t leave get weak, ill and die or spread illness. Weak deer and rabbits make easy prey for wolves. Easy prey means the wolf populations increase due to an abundance of food.
If too many wolves are allowed to build up, then they’ll eat all the remaining rabbits and deer. You’re left with starving, ill wolves and no deer or rabbits and a decimated environment.
By carefully controlling the number of deer, rabbits and wolves you can actually increase each population and keep it healthy. Yes, hunting can enlarge the population and have them stronger and healthier.
Google the Yellowstone Wolves and you’ll see what an impact animal management can have. A couple of wolves reintroduced new animals and vegetation to the park, and even changed the flow of a river. Whole new species of fish, birds and forest animals came back. Plants that had died out in the area cane back – even down to lichen, insects, bacteria… All from careful animal management.
To recap: I love animals, I hate people hunting them for no good reason, and do not see it as a sport. If a cull is needed, then do it efficiently and humanely, and above a lot of this, don’t be that arsehole who is against any type of hunting if you haven’t bothered to research and understand the good that animal management can do when done correctly.
Back to my something new.
I do like my meat, milk, leather shoes, eggs etc, but I’m not thrilled at how the animals are treated.
So I’m taking up hunting on controlled land.
Hear me out.
I’m a good shot. A very good shot. Over 12 years of top division competition target shooting. I know I can take an animal out cleanly. One minute it’ll be minding it’s happy own business in the huge open fields and woodland , and that’ll be the last thing it’ll ever know. HOW CRUEL!!!!
My shooting a rabbit does two main things though: It keeps the number of rabbits down and reduces the burrows in the farmer’s cow field, which in turn means less cows being shot due to serious injuries from getting caught out by deep holes. It also means food for me and my family, as the rabbit will not be wasted.
I’m sorry, but Mrs Feathers the factory chicken had 18 months of hell before being thrown in shredder just so you could have some poor quality egg in your shop brought salad. At least the bunny I shoot will have had a life of freedom, sunshine, good food and free of suffering. Who’s worse? The people buying factory meat from a store, or me?
When we move I plan to hunt larger game in an area that uses hunting to increase the entire animal population by proper husbandry. I plan to only shoot what is sustainable, better for the future population of that animal species and other affected species, and only what I need and can use. I wish to avoid buying factory farmed meat and produce where possible.
MMmmmmmeat.
The difficulty for me is the killing. Yes, I know my shot will be true and clean, and I know it is better than buying from a store, but I’m face to face with my fluffy dinner; I’m not distanced from it like the anti-hunt people who buy their tortured slabs of meat in polystyrene trays, covered with clingfilm.
I’ll pull the trigger. I’ll take responsibility for that life. I’ll prepare and eat the meat and I’ll appreciate it all the more for knowing that I’ve not added to the supermarket demand for factory farmed animals.
So if you ask ‘how can you shoot a poor fluffy bunny?!?‘, I’ll ask ‘how can you buy inhumane factory farmed animal produce?‘
You buy from this, with unsold animals being thrown in to landfill – some still alive:
Once wrapped up and put on a supermarket shelf you’ll feel much better.
If you don’t see it, it makes it okay. Yeah?
But disagree with this – Free roaming rabbit – only shooting what you need:
Terrible. Fancy cleanly shooting a rabbit that’s lived in freedom and happiness.
So inhumane! You’d rather eat factory farmed, mechanically reclaimed meat…?
It is a catch 22 for me. I love animals and nature, and even though I’ve done my research & seen it for my own eyes, hunting for their greater good still doesn’t make it seem right; Even though it’s clearly working in certain countries, and is a damned lot better than force fed, cramped, mistreated factory animal produce.
At the time of writing this I’ve still to shoot my first rabbit, but rest assured! I have a well skilled country friend who is taking me through the humane hunting and despatch skills required to go with my already precise rifle work. I’m not half arsing this – I owe my doing it right to the rabbit.
Hello, is that Mr Black?
If you say so. I am from Habitat Lifestyle & I’d like a minute to talk to you and ask some questions please.
Sure. A minute. Is your address 123 Fir Drive?
You tell me… And is your phone number 0123 456789?
You called me… Okay, thank you.
No problem. My pleasure. Please can you tell me, is your age group between 45 and 55?
Well, first can you verify who you are? Excuse me?
I’m about to answer personal questions, so I’d like to verify who you are. I’m from Habitat Lifestyles…
Yes, but I need to know who YOU are… I… Me… (now confused) I… I’m Daniel…
Okay Daniel. Hi. Hello…
What’s your mother’s maiden name? My mother’s…
…maiden name. Yes. Why do you need to know?
I need to verify who you are. Please tell me so I can check on my computer. It won’t take a moment. I can’t give you…
Sure, it’s just for verification. I need to check your details… You can check that..?
I have my computer system waiting… Estelle Limehouse… (now really unsure).
And the name of your first pet? I’m from Habitat Lifestyles…
Yes, and I just need your first pet’s name… You understand? I’m just calling from Habitat Lifestyles…
I know you say that, but I need to verify it. I mean I could be calling you from the Moon! You’re on the MOON?!?
Of course not. You asked my address earlier. That would be silly Daniel, wouldn’t it? I, erm… Yes?
Ha! The Moon! Imagine that! Can I ask my questions now?
Well, not really… You’ve been over a minute already.
You’d probably buy something that has that promise. It sounds really good!
Put into real life though, it’s pretty crap.
A car has around 30,000 parts.
If each part was only 99% good, then you are looking at 900 parts failing out of those 30,000 parts.
Put it another way…
A large airliner, such as an A380 Airbus has around 3 million parts.
That 99% good is terrible as it allows 30,000 parts to fail.
That’s every part of a car failing. Not just a switch, but the spring, washer, fulcrum, each electrical connector, the plastic button itself, the bulb, every part of that switch would fail.
Literally everything on the car failing. Each wheel nut, every tyre, every single component on the stereo, even the cup holder and each section of upholstery… A bit like a British car from the 1970’s.
Would you feel okay flying in an aircraft that boasts it’s parts are 99% fail free? ‘Only 30,000 parts likely to fail!!!’
Even 99.9% fail free still allows for 3,000 parts going wrong in that aircraft. Still not great.
500,000 open heart surgeries are carried out a year. That’s not all heart operations – that’s just full cut open and hands in wet work. 99% success would accept 5000 of those to die.
International air transport saw 3 billion people flying around this year. Just standard passenger flights – not including any other flights.
3,000,000,000 people a year. If 99% of those people survived their flights, that would accept 30 million deaths per year… 99.9% survival would accept just 3 million deaths a year, so that’s okay…?
2014 has been a terrible year in civil aviation. Due to several airliner losses (including shoot downs/missing), 761 lives were lost. Usually this number is much lower. In 2013 it was just 265 lives lost out of around 3,000,000,000 that flew commercially.
That’s more than 99.99999% surviving their flights – and we’re still driving that number
down because even one loss is not acceptable.
That’s why automotive, aviation and medicine etc. work to much, much higher quality standards than a terrible low target of just 99%.
I’ve noticed that many ‘social media’ comments are now being made with photos and memes rather than comments.
I’ve also noticed (because I’m not totally blind or stupid) that the number of hoax phishing and total bullshit posts are also on the increase.
From climate change deniers, people seeing Jesus in the wings of a moth or claiming this new diet is the only diet for you, or the stupid ‘YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED WHEN *insert AMAZING claim here*, to contrail conspiracists and people who believe the Daily Mail…
I have the photo comment that you can use to respond to it all. Feel free to use it!
I do charity stuff. To be honest I don’t have lots of spare change so I go and do things & collect sponsorship. I donate me to help raise money – and yes, I do sponsor people in their endeavours too. I put a percentage of sale profit into charity on auction sites. I always sign that tax waiver for organisations/museums so they get a bit more back.
It’s been over a year & I still have a broken ‘fund raisers leg’ for my efforts – and I’d do it again.
I do it for charities close to my heart.
Here goes…
I like big BUT(ts)
Too many charity posts are appearing on the ‘social media’ sites.
It’s like the boy who cried wolf… I’m starting to just flick past them. They’re self defeating.
Game invite, game invite, food photo, charity, charity, game invite, charity, selfie, charity, charity, charity.
I just saw a bike ride from London to Paris in aid of Alzheimer’s Research, and rather than think ‘I should donate’, my charity numbed mind just thought ‘I hope they use GPS Tracking’.
These ice bucket challenges are kind of bullying too. People are doing them not because they want to raise the cash, but because the peer pressure is so fucking high. It is internet bullying wrapped up in ribbons – and everyone tries to out do each other.
I’m off to donate to an Alzheimer’s charity to make up for that.
What annoys me are people complaining that Macmillan have ‘hijacked’ the ice bucket challenge. You’ll find some people did the challenge for Macmillan because they have more of a connection in their life with cancer than ALS, and other people followed that idea.
Hell, the ice bucket/ice bath fund raiser idea was around way back when I was at school in the early 1980’s, and way before then to.
What next? You can’t sit in a bath of cold baked beans to raise money for disabled kids, because sitting in beans is only for raising money for the blind?!?
Get some perspective here: IT’S ALL FOR CHARITY.
I think Macmillan have raised 5% of what ALS have taken, so that’s £50 thousand for every £1 MILLION ALS get.
To put that sum into relative values: 5 thousand people die from ALS each year, yet over 14 MILLION die from cancer.
At the end of the day though, as I’ve said before: it is all going to charity. If people want to get bitchy about what charity gets what, then maybe they need to look at the 25,000 people who die DAILY from malnutrition.
BUT in the first world, we don’t care so much about malnutrition deaths. We care more about the causes of death closer to our own lives & hearts – and those causes are what people want to give to, and for some damned good reasons.
If my house was on fire & my family was inside, I’d be way more concerned with that than cancer or ALS. It’s what is closest to you that counts – and that doesn’t mean some people dying from AIDS, ALS, Cancer, house fires, for our freedom in conflict zones, from natural disasters, are any less or more important than the others.
So – if you want to raise money & awareness for charities, then you are a true blue died in the wool hero, and I salute you. Just don’t expect everyone to jump on your charity when they have causes closer to their own hearts.
And don’t go bitching about people stealing ideas to raise money to save the lives of *this* bunch of people instead of *this* bunch of people, because that’s fucking weak.
A man funny man with depression dies: The World and an ape go nuts in mourning.
20,000 children die of malnutrition/starvation each day and we post selfies, Instagrams of our restaurant meals or moan about the fucking weather.
For a second I was suckered in to the Williams/Ape story.
I got angry that they even made the ape sad by telling it about his death.
‘WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!? THE APE DIDN’T NEED TO KNOW!!! WHAT POSSIBLE GOOD DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!?!’
Then I wondered if they were worried that the ape might find out anyway via Twitter or a passing chimp or something, so thought it best to tell the ape straight. Avoid the awkward ‘Oook! Ooook! When were you planning on telling me this pivotal news about the loss of this dude?!? Ooook’.
But then I snapped out of it, because an ape being unnecessarily sad over the death of a show biz celebrity just isn’t news, considering everything else going on.
One person stands out in his views of how ridiculous our priorities are. His wit & social comedic commentary in his stand up acts focused on this quite a lot.
He’d be rolling his fucking eyes at all of this right now.
I imagine he’d word it a little like this:
‘… and in a world where in one continent 20,000 kids die each day from starvation, and in another continent they have kids armed with AK47’s fighting wars against each other because one side dislikes dicks in turtleneck sweaters, we find a big monkey being upset by the untimely death of an alcoholic comic is the big news story… And they think I had a problem?’
Rest in peace, funny man. May many more people discover your stand-up and realise how fucked up we really are.
Tips for dealing with sales/insurance/PPI calls etc.
Don’t hate them: ENJOY THEM!
I go for it with them I’ve had them swearing at me and slamming the phone down after 20 minutes of getting no where.
General just playing along with:
Misunderstanding what they’ve said.
THEM: ‘I’m calling regards your recent car crash…‘
ME: ‘Oh dear! I hope you are okay? We’re you hurt?‘
Repeating back what they’ve said in the form of a question:
THEM: ‘No, I’m calling regards your recent car crash…‘
ME: ‘You’re calling regards my recent car crash?‘
Bouncing back their questions:
THEM: ‘First I need some details to prove who you are.‘
ME: ‘Sounds reasonable. I’ll need some details from you for the same reason. What was your mother’s maiden name?‘
This can go on quite a while. Especially when they’ve read out the really long sales script they have to use and you then say ‘I’m sorry, it’s a bad line, can you repeat that?‘
Using the above multiple times in the same call winds them up, but just as they start to lose it, when they start getting really frustrated, you buy in to the sale and give them hope, but then say ‘I think I’ll take you up on this offer, but I do apologise, this line really is terrible, please can you call me straight back?’
They call back & you start all over again.
The last one I had started:
THEM: ‘Is that Mr. Lucas Black?‘
ME: ‘Is it?‘
THEM: ‘Are you Mr. Black?’
ME: ‘Am I?‘
THEM: ‘You are Mr. Black?‘
ME: ‘You seem pretty positive, so you’re probably right.‘
THEM: ‘So, you are Mr. Black?‘
ME: ‘Now I’m unsure. Who do you want to talk to?‘
Tip: Talk slowly and unsurely. It gives them confidence and relaxes them. They think you’ll be an easy mark.
Fed up of the same rubbish, lying political parties trying to get to the top of the shit heap?
Not wanting to vote because ‘It won’t change a thing‘ or ‘They’re all rubbish‘…?
Shocked at how UKIP etc. have seemingly done so well?
In times of hardship – not a lot of money about, not many jobs and so on, people start to blame minorities like religions, various sexualities or more likely immigrants. Hell yes, blame everyone not a core player in the country – find someone to blame! It’s human nature.
Politicians in ‘National Parties’ love times like this because they simply act on this, then build on it to win your votes. It is happening all over Europe, not just in the UK. They stir up the hatred that is already there, then they add fuel to the fire, build it up, then promise to do something about it.
Farage Balloon. The great thing is, it supplies its own hot air.
A certain alleged one-bollocked poor Austrian artist with a stunted moustache did this back in the 1930’s.He didn’t like how the old school government was running the country and figured he could do better. The thing is he needed support and votes.
The country he lived in was in a dire position with huge debts and the currency was worthless. The public did what any people would do in times like this – they became angry and started pointing blame at immigrants and minority groups. Luckily there were a lot of Jews about that nicely fitted that category, and the mono-balled Chaplin impersonator saw this.
A few rallies to fire up the nation and this nobody got over 90% of the votes.
The rest is a rather messy and bloody history.
In all fairness, the asymmetric testicled slug balancer was simply a catalyst in the right place at the right time. If it hadn’t been him, then it would have been someone else. The country was in that much trouble that something had to break.
Either way, he used the oldest trick in the book. Use a topic that the masses all support and then build it up with lies and promises until they vote you in. Once in you can just forget them and do what you wanted in the first place. Sure, you do enough of what they want, but mostly you do what you want. Pathetic voters – They’ll do anything to get rid of the immigrants, free ice cream! Guns for everyone! A new car outside of every house! Jobs for all! Just vote for me… go on… (some of these have actually been used…).
There are a few things you should know.
All politicians will tell you what you want to get a vote.
If you like what they are telling you, then it’s probably a lie.
If you and the majority of the rest of the population like what they are telling you, then it’s most certainly lies.
If the daily papers have an opinion about a party, then it is to sell papers and not necessarily the truth. Ever.
If you vote for a certain party regardless of what they stand, simply because your friends vote that way, then you are an imbecile.
If you vote for a certain party regardless of what they stand for, simply because your family has always voted that way, then you are an imbecile.
If you don’t vote because you don’t understand. FIND OUT. It is important.
If you don’t vote because you are lazy, then sort it out you waste of space.
If you don’t vote because you don’t like any of the parties, then you are actually helping other parties to win.
If you don’t vote, don’t expect anyone to listen to you moan about who gets elected. You lost that option the moment you didn’t vote.
If a shitty party win an election by one vote, and you didn’t vote, then you are as much to blame as someone who voted for them. Your vote could’ve stopped them getting in. Your lack of voting surely helped them get in.
Yeah, but they are really all crap. I hate them all. I’d rather shove live wasps up my arse and stir them with a stick to make them really angry than vote for any of the parties…
Right… Here’s pretty much how I see things at the moment. They are all crap. Some are way more crap than others.
Imagine UKIP or the BNP as a form of cancer. No one wants cancer.
Now imagine the other parties as chemotherapy. No one wants chemotherapy if they can help it. It wastes you away, it weakens you, it drains the life out of you, you look half dead and you can hardly cope with the treatment.
So… It’s cancer and death, or you take the chemotherapy and stand a good chance of coming out the other end of the ordeal with a life. Sure, you’re screwed up and may never be the same, but YOU ARE ALIVE!!!
So… when it comes to the vote, you can either do nothing, get cancer and die, OR you can have the therapy and do your damnedest to keep cancer from ruining your life, your friends life and your families life. Yes, your choice affects them too.
Following on from my previous blog entry regarding my broken leg & the new cast I have had fitted with the Exogen portal, I thought it might be educational or at least informative to show the unit in action.
The basic idea is that the unit bombards my leg with an ultrasonic pulse which excites my broken bone & promotes the healing process.
The probe has a gel ‘coupling agent’ put on it to give the ultrasound signal something to travel through between the gap between the probe & my leg. The unit then sends a preprogrammed signal to my bone for a set time. That’s it. It’s that simple (and painless).
