Aoife
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2010
- Messages
- 1,779
Re: Who Can Explain the Attitude Toward Dogs in the U.S. Sou
I'm not touching the whole dogs in the South thing, since I have no particular insight on it, but the mental image of running around after herds of deer trying to introduce them to the wonders of contraception is disturbing to me.
On a serious note, we used to live in a state where deer/car collisions were a serious problem. We knew quite a few people who ended up hospitalized after Bambi joined them in the front seat of their cars via the windshield, and had more than a few close calls ourselves. This was not far out in the country, it was a fairly populated area where wolves (even if that were practical) would be an ongoing threat to livestock. It is also a part of the country where controlling the deer population by way of birth control would drain money from other, desperately underfunded areas (like schools), especially when controlled culls were cheaper, and the meat could be put to good use feeding people.
I'm not a hunter, but after living in several states in the upper Midwest, I understand the practical aspects of hunting in ways I never did when I lived in other parts of the U.S.
TheBigT|1301779291|2886134 said:Ah, well. Perhaps we should reintroduce wolves and natural predators into the places that suffer from deer overpopulation. Or, sterilize some deer so there are fewer of them to hunt.
http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2011/02/maryland_humane_deer_management_sterilization_021510.html
Hmm, but wait. Maybe I don't have a problem with hunting so much as I think it's creepy that people would kill innocent animals (and enjoy it?) for sport. And then hang their heads on the wall. Yeah, that's more my issue.
I'm not touching the whole dogs in the South thing, since I have no particular insight on it, but the mental image of running around after herds of deer trying to introduce them to the wonders of contraception is disturbing to me.
On a serious note, we used to live in a state where deer/car collisions were a serious problem. We knew quite a few people who ended up hospitalized after Bambi joined them in the front seat of their cars via the windshield, and had more than a few close calls ourselves. This was not far out in the country, it was a fairly populated area where wolves (even if that were practical) would be an ongoing threat to livestock. It is also a part of the country where controlling the deer population by way of birth control would drain money from other, desperately underfunded areas (like schools), especially when controlled culls were cheaper, and the meat could be put to good use feeding people.
I'm not a hunter, but after living in several states in the upper Midwest, I understand the practical aspects of hunting in ways I never did when I lived in other parts of the U.S.