Saturday 28 November 2009

Newbie Professional Hunter: Down Under



I wasn't going to post anything today but I just read this story about a journey into the australian outback, culling kangaroos. It's brilliant. Probably not that much to lift your sprits in the weekends papers, so you might as well read it.



Enjoy your weekend
SBW

11 comments:

Keith said...

That is very desolate country there. Okay for a while when there is money to be made, but no way I would live there.
Le Loup.
New England, Australia.

r. hurd said...

Never even thought about culling kangaroos. Amazing the kinds of problems that are very similar to our own across the drink. Have a good one!

r.

Keith said...

Quote r.hurd: Never even thought about culling kangaroos. Amazing the kinds of problems that are very similar to our own across the drink. Have a good one!

Think of Kangaroos as our deer. In many places they were just shot for sport and pet meat. Now Kangaroo meat is sold in the supermarkets! Farmers can shoot roos if they say they have too many and they are damaging the crops, but they have to tag them and leave them there to rot! They are not legally allowed to use the meat!
The problem here though, apart from the obvious waste, is that roos move about with the seasons and water availability. If suddenly a farmer thinks there are too many roos and he/she culls them, then that might have been the only mob for miles around.
Le Loup.

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

Left to ROT!!! That's outrageous, with all the pain Aussie farmers have faced during the drought I would thought the government would make every resource available to them. Including food and hides.

SBW

Keith said...

Perhaps the idea is not to encourage people to hunt indisciminately for hides and meat. But the thing is most farmers could not be bothered to hunt for hides anyway, and far less roos would be shot just for home food.
Yuo have to have a special license to hunt professionally, so maybe this is to stop pet meat shootong without a license.
As someone who only hunts for food or culling ferral cats and dogs this is hard to take. Basically I am not legally allowed to hunt for table meat, but I can get a permit to hunt a few hundred roos and leave them to rot.
The number I would shoot in any given year would be very few if I were hunting for meat.
Regards, Le Loup.

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

LL

Madness! doesn't leaving them to rot create an abundance of food for Dingos? I would have thought a huge Dingo population would be a menace to cattle farming?

Thanks for adding to my (our) education
SBW

Anonymous said...

Just what I needed, a nice story of a warm adventure! We're in the midst of a cold spell here. No need for dreaming of a white Christmas -- have a good one!

Your friend,

HDR

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

HDR

if you're calling it a cold spell it must be brass monkeys

Cool Yule
SBW

Keith said...

Did you know that "brass monkey" was the name of the item that held the cannon balls on an 18th century ship? Hence freezing the balls off a brass monkey.
Le loup.

The Suburban Bushwacker said...

LL
yes triangular I believe, but is it a historical fact? I thought it may be an myth?
SBW

Keith said...

One famous Responsa dating back in the 18th century, Rabbi Ezekiel Landau, the Chief Rabbi of Prague, was asked whether hunting with a rifle was permitted or not. In his reply, Landau notes that the only hunters mentioned in the Tanakh are Nimrod and Esau—neither of whom happened to be Israelites. Hunting was never a common occupation among our people. Hunting for sport engenders cruelty within the human breast. In short, hunting for sport or for adventure, is certainly forbidden; however, if it is for other constructive reasons (e.g., clothing etc.,) it is then permitted. It goes without saying that if an animal poses a serious public health danger, e.g., a rabid dog, hunting such an animal is indeed necessary. Beyond that, Landau notes that anyone who recklessly exposes himself to danger violates the biblical precept of not endangering one’s health.[3]
http://rabbimichaelsamuel.com/tag/heinrich-heines-wisdom-on-hunting/
Le Loup.