Elk "Calf Production" Down? Kill More Elk!
Published September 29, 2009 @ 07:17AM PT
Welcome to the latest episode of Hunting and Wildlife "Management" Logic! (See WTF? 101 here, and try using a browser other than IE if the long comment thread is making it difficult to open the page.) Today we head to South Dakota's Custer State Park, where elk numbers are dropping rapidly; the elk are giving birth to only half as many calves as usual.
The "management goal" is 750 elk, yet there are only around 450 of the animals left. But don't worry, hunters: the state of South Dakota still absolutely encourages you to go out there and get yourself a permit and a "trophy" kill; there are still bulls out there just waiting to be killed, and all the state asks is that you quickly stick a needle in the dying animal and get a blood sample after you shoot him.
I know it will be inconvenient to have to delay your whooping and hollering and self-congratulations for gunning down a large, beautiful animal to get the sample, but you see, it's for the greater good. The sooner biologists can figure out why the calf numbers are down, the better for you -- I mean whom are you going to gun down in future years if not enough calves are being born? This year's babies are a future year's wall adornment, right?
But hey, don't think of them as babies. The state of South Dakota and your Rapid City newspaper sure don't. They're a "crop"! And they don't even go through the process of birth or have mothers apparently: the process is "calf production," silly. Mothers are actually just machines, babies are just a crop, and the forest is merely a factory. And they're all here for the sole grand purpose of providing you, brave hunter with a gun, the incomparable joy of killing -- oh, I'm sorry, harvesting.
</sarcasm>
Sigh. Before ending this post, I feel compelled to point out again that this logic and perspective is not limited to hunting. That last paragraph describes exactly how we humans treat (and how agribusiness talks about) farmed animals as well. Mother cows, sows, hens, ewes, and more are treated like mere machines, their babies treated like mere commodities, and their mother-child bonds treated as if they don't exist, with all of them -- all of them -- ultimately being killed not for necessity, but for pleasure, not because we have to eat them, their children, their milk, and their eggs, but because we choose to. Whether the person is wielding* a gun or a fork, whether the animals are bull elks and elk calves or dairy cows and veal calves or mother sows and piglets, the animals' experiences of suffering and death are the same.
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Photo (of a Utah elk killed) uploaded by Flickr user Jared
*Much thanks to reader and dedicated advocate Olivia for catching that originally I wrote "yielding" where I meant "wielding." :)
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Comments (8)
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Author
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Stephanie is an independent animal rights advocate, a vegan, a tree-hugging environmentalist, and a freelance editor and writer. She lives in St. Louis with an aging corgi-lab and an adolescent rescued pit bull.
As long as the hunting is restricted to bulls, calf production should not be affected, as one bull will impregnate as many cows as he can find amenable.
There is nothing wrong with elk hunting.
Posted by Thomas Berg on 09/29/2009 @ 09:04AM PT
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So says Thomas! Ok then, everything is wonderful! Thomas said so.
Really Thomas, where do people like you get your compassion and kindness for animals. The ability to rationalize the killing of another life on this planet must take enormous mental powers, that I simply do not have now or ever will. I am burdened with this thing, you and yours are not, and that is compassion and empathy for other living beings. I must have a chemical and genetic defect that makes me feel exactly opposite to how you see things. I don't know if I will ever be cured, so that I can kill another living being and enjoy it so much that I want to cut up that being and put it on my wall and on the floor in front of my fireplace, so I can share this pride of killing with all that visit my home. I so envy you and your friends Thomas.
Posted by Paul Hester on 09/29/2009 @ 09:19AM PT
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Elk hunting is not restricted to bulls. Cows can and are killed as well, many times in front of the calves who are left to die a harsh winter with no parent. Cows can be hunted while still nursing their young, or many times are already pregnant.
The bull elks are hunted while in rutting season. Hunters kill during the rut because this is when the antlers are the largest and the necks are sometimes double the size on the bulls. They are darker in color and the antlers have lost the velvet. The meat is not as "tasty" or tender during this time (I have been told by hunters), but it is about getting the largest rack to hang on the wall. Getting the biggest prize is all that matters, which is why they hunt the bulls.
It is about control...domination...power. Why is it that hunters feel like they have to justify their sport? Is it because they KNOW there is something wrong with it, but come up with all of the excuses to try to make themselves feel better about their murderous ways?
Don't let "Thomas" get your goat (so to speak).
"He" loves the attention. The feeling of power and control. Sociopaths thrive on bullying and just the thought of getting someone angry over this subject is why this "person" keeps throwing out the little digs on AR. They throw out one sentence and then sit back and watch. Like a hook in the river waiting for a fish to bite...right "Thomas"?
Maybe the AR people should all join a hunting blog and comment over there? Wouldn't that be fun? Give a false name, no information and then try to bully the members..hmmm.
Posted by Michele McCowan on 09/29/2009 @ 02:56PM PT
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Seriousy, why would you bother to comment on this site? You know you don't belong here. No one here is going to agree with you. No one here can even remotely relate to what you are stating.
Posted by Kim Johnson on 09/29/2009 @ 04:20PM PT
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Well, if you kill all or even the majority of the bulls there will be fewer impregnations and fewer calves. Last time I checked female elk couldn't just check into a semen bank and order up an embryo. Duh. And did you all stop to think of the larger effect of large scale "harvesting" of one member of an ecosystem on the rest of the ecosystem? I'm guessing not. I'm guessing there's a lot of things you haven't stopped to consider beyond your appetite or your wall, in short, beyond you. I believe the correct term for that is selfishness, which last time I looked was the problem with this whole damned world.
Posted by Leslie Strovas on 09/29/2009 @ 05:56PM PT
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Wow, there's some head up your arse logic.
Posted by Carrie Lachapelle on 10/01/2009 @ 07:30AM PT
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I am so aggrevated right now, I could just scream!
"But hey, don't think of them as babies. The state of South Dakota and your Rapid City newspaper sure don't. They're a "crop"! And they don't even go through the process of birth or have mothers apparently: the process is "calf production," silly. Mothers are actually just machines, babies are just a crop, and the forest is merely a factory. And they're all here for the sole grand purpose of providing you, brave hunter with a gun, the incomparable joy of killing -- oh, I'm sorry, harvesting."
This is just pure ignorance at it's best!
Way to go humans for once again showing your ever-growing compassion for animals.
Posted by Kathy Jackson on 09/29/2009 @ 09:12AM PT
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Whether an animal or a human is gunned down or hung upside down, the mentality that causes these actions is the same. It is marked by tribalism (the false belief that the world is comprised of insiders and outsiders, and that one's tribe or race or species or gender or religion or nation is superior to all the others); a backwards tendency to be "safe" by following the crowd, culture and convention instead of thinking independently; a witting or unwitting refusal to listen to one's conscience, one's "child-heart."
It's a wonder that individuals and societies advance morally at all, given the inertia seems to hold us back, stall our growth. That we DO eventually overcome this inertia proves, to me, that good really does outweigh and overpower "evil."
I love that we can use what's "out" there in the way of modern technology (this website, for example) to inform ourselves of what needs fixing, then call upon what's "in" here (in our brave hearts and intelligent minds) to go out and fight the foe.
To me, it's not people who are the enemy. Rather, it's the common assertion that human beings are naturally self-centered that we are standing up to, and defeating.
Thanks, Stephanie, for pointing out the facts that are glossed over by euphemisms. No one can change for the better until he faces up to his own self-deceit (in which euphemisms entrap him) and becomes honest with himself.
Posted by Olivia White on 09/29/2009 @ 10:16AM PT
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