What Did They Do To You?

Please watch this, regardless of your political feelings about Sarah Palin, or anything political. I am personally 10000% against shooting wild animals from snowmobiles and low flying aircraft with high-powered rifles. This is very strong material to watch! (URL is at the end of this blog.)

No matter WHAT your feelings about POLITICS, would you please just watch the video!? One guy, I think his name is Maguire, IS a hunter, but not a slaughterer. LISTEN FULLY to what is being said. If you care to, later -- and we all should do this - call, question, verify. I did.

It is important to know that some of the hunting of the wild wolves in Alaska is being done in "secret". It is legal. In Montana or Wyoming, the killing of wolves was again banned after a short few weeks when so-called "hunters" on snowmobiles with high-powered weapons just rode off shooting them. Rarely is the shot a clean one. The animal languishes.

If you want to hunt, then get your ass on the ground with a knife or a bow and arrow or a regular rifle and even the playing field. In any case, the wolf, like lions and tigers and bears (oh my!) go for the WEAKEST in any herd, not the strongest. Wolves are not murderers, they are predators of other animals - again the weakest, the slowest.

This video is painful to watch. I AM going to invstigate to assure if Sarah Palin does, in fact, support and/or engage in this herself. It is a total disrespect for life...life that needs dominion over it, not the wholesale slaughter of it.
I am so upset by this, that I wish I had power to overcome this evil. How can any human just shoot the animal over and over and over. How can you call that kind of slaughter -- HUNTING? HUNTING?????

The control of predatory animals can be accomplished by sterilizing a percentage of them. Why not do that?

So, if one respects life at its every stage, then it must be respected --- period. Of course there can be sportsmanship. Hunting deer keeps the herds stronger and helps avoid an over populating of weak animals. And hunting is LIMITED. Limited season, limited kills, limited method. I think the term "dumb animals" is best applied to the two-legged neanderthals pursuing God's creatures like the duckshoots in a cheap carnival.

We are mandated to not cause unnecessary suffering -- not of people, not of animals. We are supposed to be greater than that...

I need to close with something that may not matter to my agnostic friends, but I think they can appreciate it nonetheless:

...Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures: cattle, creeping things, and wild animals of all kinds." And so it happened: God made all kinds of wild animals, all kinds of cattle, and all kinds of creeping things of the earth. God saw how good it was. Then God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and the cattle, and over all the wild animals and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.
God created man in His image; in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them saying: "Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth." God also said: "See, I give you every seed-bearing plant all over the earth and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit on it to be your food; and to all the animals of the land, all the birds of the air, and all the living creatures that crawl on the ground, I give all the green plants for food." And so it happened. God looked at everything He had made, and He found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed--the sixth day.
Genesis 1: vs 24-31


I believe that in HIS image does not involve the slaughter of life in its own domain, in the fullness of its life, in its awesome beauty.

This is no longer about Alaskan statehood or who said what to whom when and how often. It is about each caring human, taking seriously that we are made in HIS IMAGE and to act to right the wrongs. One by one, we can change the face of the world. Move one grain of sand and you have already achieved that. Now, what would it take to stop this? A letter? A call? A forwarding of e-mail?


Now you know!

Go see this URL: gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/8/31/22337/7183
Or just google the words wolves killing Alaska That ought to do it.


More re: wolves - a hot topic apparently -

I must tell you though, I spoke to the Fish and Game guy for the state of Alaska. I called him today and we had a pretty good chat. He answered his own phone. How 'bout that?

For starters, he said that the wolf issue is very strong and that in the state people heavily debate it. HOWEVER, the film, with which he is totally familiar, was shot in northern Canada a few years ago (He said.) We've got to find a way to check this, y'know? For the record, the state allows the shooting of wolves for these reasons...There are 12000 wolves and far FAR fewer Caribou and Elk and Moose. The wolves, according to this guy, go for INDEED the slowest and the weakest, which are the babies. The caribou and elk population do not replenish as quickly as the wolves. So I replied that they absolutely should not refer to this as "hunting". He replied that they (the state of Alaska guys) DON'T call it hunting. They call it predatory animal management. I asked "But why shooting? Can you at least find a humane method to thin the packs?" He said they could go for sterilization - which I thought was a better idea - but he said that people in Alaska don't go for that either. We had a good talk, but we disagree on the issue. He said that up there they have MANY people that live off the land --- meaning their own vegetables and hunted meat, which is caribou and elk mostly. I told him that I understood that but that in any case, why would they have to kill that many wolves in such a callous, inhumane way? Besides I think that one caribou or one elk would last damn near a whole winter... at most two. So maybe they shouldn't be allowed to hunt and eat the animals that don't regenerate so quickly. I went so far as to say, "Are you talking about the same people who think they NEED to slaughter whales? Come ON." He understood. But he mentioned the thing about "their culture". To this I replied that there are groups of people in the world whose culture centers on cannibalism. Are we supposed to preserve that as well? I added that not ALL culture is good culture." He actually understood quite well
The only problem WE have now is that the film may well NOT be of Alaska, but rather Canada. I still say they should show the jerk's face from the photo (in the film) wherever he was, whenever it was.
But I was polite and Mr. Fish and Game was a fantastic guy. I would say he himself is not a big fan of the wolf shooting thing. So now I want to research the film. Personally, whenever the Internet presents something that isn't true, then it weakens an argument for a cause. We look like liars then. I can't believe that we can put guys on the moon but can't find a better way to thin the packs, or the herds, or whatever we're thinning out?

And even MORE --
This came from a good friend who knows a LOT about this stuff:
Friend: I couldn't watch the film to it's conclusion because after the first wolf was shot my heart was breaking, so I didn't see credits at the end. If it was shot in Canada, the message still applies to Alaska where Sara Palin hunts.

Me: What i am hoping to do is track down the hunter on the film who discusses how to hunt, etc. Some herds absolutely do need to be thinned or the rest of the ecology and balance of animals becomes very stressed and out of balance. (Deer is a prime example) I'm certain wolves too. It is simply awful to see it done like this instead of, let's say, by sterilizing one part of that animal population.

Friend: You asked all the right questions, like why are PEOPLE hunting caribou, elk and moose if their herds are too thin?

Me: They reply that it is the "culture" of the people and that just pisses me off. Like I said, "if the culture is cannibalism, who's first in the pot just so the 'culture' can be 'preserved'."

Friend: I'm with you on the whale statement, too. I have a deep respect for warriors on the side of right and justice and a deep disdain for bullies.
Me: Yes Yes Yes But like anything. When we open ourselves to LEARNING, we might make great change and contribute to a great epiphany.

I DO know more than a little about Chicago politics, however, and Barack Obama is an ass. Period. He's been in bed with more strangers than Heidi Fleiss.


Friend: I understand why the middle class I grew up in leaves us longing for it's value. We had enough money for security and not so much that greed overwhelmed our souls. We had love. I want respect for thy neighbors back. I want Jesus back; I feel like the politicians stole Him from me. I want our laws to support the good Samaritan who kicks ass to protect someone from a bully or a predator. I want women to allow men to keep at least one of their balls. I want men to grow at least one back. I want kindness to be an asset in a human being. Most of all, I want people to visit their hearts more often, like you do which is the reason I like to stay in touch.

Me: This statement you wrote is phenomenal. I think you could be great in chick lit. I don't think anybody stole anything. I think all of us, dems, republicans, liberals, conservatives, et.al, became rather complacent. We believed we no longer had real power. We GAVE it all away...nobody took it. That is our shame. As for the men, happy wishing. I know a few men like the ones of which you speak. One of them, from what I know of you, was your dad and the other was my own. The real men are just so far and few between, or they are the stuff of myth and legend. As for Jesus - Well, I am thankful that no one could EVER steal Him from me. He is the reason I can visit my heart. I try to keep a place there for Him...just as you do.

And now--finally--it's the windup, the pitch, and..

I am, indeed, a tough cookie...I even understand much of the so-called Mafia mentality. In that world, when a guy gets whacked, he knows WHY he's getting whacked. He is not a choir boy or a good citizen. He is someone who double-crossed, stole from the hand feeding him, betraying -- a number of things.

In any event, the mafia wiseguys do NOT do 'drivebys' to kill innocent family members, they don't hurt any other than the guy they've got the beef with. These are people with intellect and free will who have CHOSEN a path and they walk their talk. My sympathy in their regard is minimal, although to whack a guy is pretty much IT, the POINT is that it IS in fact NOT PERSONAL. It is as both whackER and the whackEE know full well, STRICTLY BUSINESS.

The slaughter of the animals reveals something about some persons' natures that should be harnessed and removed and they should be jailed for it.

In the film there is a photo of a guy holding a dead wolf. He is outside of his plane and he is smiling with his high-powered rifle. HE IS A JERK! His face is blocked intentionally so that you cannot identify him. Hey, he seems pretty proud to me. I think they should show his face so we can ALL SEE WHAT KIND OF NO COJONES guy he truly is! I am even going to try to figure out what I've gotta do to get the website to SHOW HIS FACE!!! I can see that he's smiling in the pic.
There, that's my rant!!!

Artwork courtesy Phatpuppy Creations