Come taste my scimitar-horned oryx, By Mark Morford

[madokie]

There are many things I don't understand. Star Wars Lego fetishism. Justin Bieber perfume. Dancing squid lunches in Japan. Quantum entanglement. Utah.

By extension, there exist innumerable subcultures and little eccentric freakshow cultworlds scattered about the American landscape around which my mind simply cannot gain traction, about which my emotional wiring and better reasoning slam into a wall of OMG WTF as my heart slips into a dark pit of you've got to be effing kidding me.

For example. Behold this fine piece of spam email I just received, sent by something called Safari Club International. Instantly did my expert journalistic eye deduce, from its alarmist wording, macho "weathered" fonts and multiple exclamation points that the group deals in those charming, "exclusive" Texas hunting clubs for rich white hunters and the high-powered rifles who love them.

How I got on their mailing list, I may never know. Isn't life grand?

(Full URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/07/27/notes072711.DTL&nl=fix)

[pipoman]

1. Game farm hunting is distasteful to most

hunters. Not from a position of humane practices, it is no less humane than any other slaughter of animals, 100's of thousands daily. But from a sport standpoint. It is like the Globe Trotters playing Jr. High basketball teams, or pro baseball players using a tee. Of coarse not everyone agrees that hunting is a sport, that is a different discussion. I have hunted off and on since my childhood, and the shooting of cattle in a pasture isn't hunting. That said, if a rancher wants to raise animals on his/her ranch, and wealthy Cheneyites want to pay thousands to humanely shoot these animals, that seems like choices of freedom choose by the lazy wealthy 'hunter' and the greedy rancher. I don't really believe it should be prohibited, it keeps these lazy wealthy guys in the US where they will be controlled rather than going to Africa and shooting at dwindling species in the wild.

[madokie]

2. We have a 'gentlemans' hunting club near here

It borders on my brothers property and he's had to post signs etc to keep some of them off his land. The last thing he wants is to have his hills and valleys all rutted up with atv's and 4 wheelers. In many cases a rut turns into a gully after a few big rains.

Gentlemans is how the owner refers to his game.

I hunted as a kid to survive but no longer do I even own a gun. If I was to go hunting today it would be to hunt with a camera. In my 63 years I've seen too many instances where an animal showed some intelligence so I'm against most hunting as its done today. I guess you could say I'm a softy anymore.