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CASH Courier >
2007
Fall Issue
Selected Articles from our
newsletter
The C.A.S.H. Courier
ARTICLE from the Summer 2007 Issue
Ask Uncle Joe
BY JOE MIELE
GOT A QUESTION FOR UNCLE JOE? YOU CAN E-MAIL IT TO
ASKUNCLEJOE@HOTMAIL.COM .
WOULD YOU RATHER SNAIL MAIL YOUR QUESTION? SEND IT TO: ASK UNCLE JOE,
C/O WILDLIFE WATCH, BOX 562, NEW PALTZ, NY 12561.
UNCLE JOE GETS A LOT OF MAIL SO DON’T BE OFFENDED IF HE CANNOT ANSWER YOUR QUESTION IN THE COURIER. HECK, HE’S GOTTA WORK A DAY JOB, TOO.
Letters are printed as received. They are unedited.
Dear Uncle Joe:
many men and women hunt for food and use the whole animal as much as
possible. some of the articles on your site are pure bs. man is a hunter no
matter how you cut it. what you need to do is more research and find out
what you are talking about 99% of all animals shot are clean kills that are
quick or end in a matter of minutes. a fact. it’s a fact that the time of
death from their shot took from time of hit to 10 min to bleed out and joe
from my own time of having a massive bleed their is no pain with high blood
loss ask some service men who have tended to men who have died from their
wound they say say fell cold or warm and tired and want to sleep, . your web
site is that of a child trying to justify their poor behavior. from being
from the Hudson valley i know all groups out of new paltz use the same book
called “if you can win by intelligents baffle them with bull(stuff)”
(expletive deleted to protect our readers’ sensitive eyes - UJ) the items
you use one your site show the actions of a drownding man reaching for a
straw to stay afloat.
Bill P. Washingtonville, NY
Dear Bill:
Your message to us was
replete with inaccurate statements (in addition to wretched grammar,
punctuation and syntax) so I thought I would straighten out some things for
you.
You say that man is a
hunter and that meat from a wild animal is safer than meat from animals
raised on farms, but on both counts I have to disagree with you. It is
clearly true that there are many men and women who hunt, but the image of
humans being hunters since the Stone Age is now thought to be untrue.
Robert W. Sussman, Ph.D.,
Professor of Anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St.
Louis, MO has written that humans evolved to be peaceful, cooperative and
social animals and were likely to be prey animals rather than predators. Dr.
Sussman’s book “Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators and Human Evolution,”
studies the fossil records left by Australopithecus afarensis – an ancestor
to modern humans. Australopithecus afarensis was not dentally pre-adapted to
eat meat, lacking the sharp shearing teeth necessary to retain and cut such
foods. If Australopithecus afarensis couldn’t eat meat, why would they hunt?
Dr. Sussman goes on to say: “In fact, some archaeologists and
paleontologists don’t think we had a modern, systematic method of hunting
until as recently as 60,000 years ago,” Australopithecus afarensis was using
his brain, his agility and his social skills to avoid predators at all costs
– he was not hunting.
And as for animals bleeding to death and dying quickly after becoming the
victims of a successful hunt, you know this is not true. On the website
www.tipsforhunting.com, hunters are advised to wait an hour to four-hours or
even overnight before tracking a wounded deer. If it takes ten-minutes for
an animal to bleed out, why would a hunter need to wait an hour before
beginning his search?
But thanks anyway for your
letter, no matter how full of bull(stuff) it was.
Peace,
Uncle Joe
Dear Uncle Joe:
I’ll never read your lie’s ever again I have spent over $40,000 of
my own money on wildlife this year alone. Only thing you guys do is bitch
about us hunting and trapping when we are the ones spending all the money
actually helping the wildlife. While you give all yours to attornies. From
the time I was 18 till still now I depend on deer meat to live on. People
are first animals are second!!! Its not a sport to me!!! So now you want to
take away are food to? People well dum assess in other country are starving
by the thousands but there is cows walking around them. UHUH let me see how
to cure hungry people someone please tell them shoot the cow!!! I hate you.
Gene L.,
Royal Center, IN
Dear Gene:
If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times. The great majority of
hunters do not hunt to survive. While you claim that you depend on deer meat
to live, you also admit that you’ve spent $40,000 this year “on wildlife” –
whatever that means. Gene, if you’ve got 40-grand to throw around you are
not hunting to fend off starvation. According to the US Fish and Wildlife
Service, 12.5 million hunters spent $22.7 billion in pursuit of their hobby
in 2006. Fish and Wildlife also reported that the average hunter spent
18-days hunting. By using your calculator you will find that the average
hunter spent more than $100 per day to hunt. I don’t know about you, but I
think that’s an awfully expensive hobby and something that hunters should
consider dumping if they’re truly on the verge of starvation and need to eat
deer to survive. The money is far better spent on food.
Peace,
Uncle Joe
Dear Uncle Joe:
I must disagree with your organization’s objective of abolishing
hunting. As a lifelong hunter and award-winning wildlife photographer my
hunting skills have proven to be essential to my photography career. Without
knowing how to read sign, call predators, remain still in the presence of
wildlife I would be just another guy snapping some pictures of a deer. The
eye and senses I’ve developed as a hunter have enabled me to achieve a
degree of excellence that otherwise would have forever eluded me. Because of
my hunting background my photographs have adorned the covers of numerous
books and magazines and have won awards and accolades from my peers. I still
hunt with both camera and bow and I would not have it any other way.
Regards,
James M.,
Charleston, IL
Dear James:
Please take a look at the excellent photography of Jim Robertson, an ethical
photographer. Visit
http://www.all-creatures.org/aw/index.html. As Mr. Robertson says,
“Don’t all living beings deserve our compassion and respect? I had long
heard that animals feel less threatened by someone who does not eat meat,
but I wondered how long a human could survive without consuming the flesh of
others. After six years as a vegan, I can attest to the fact that wild
animals are not as fearful of me now, and that saying no to animal protein
is healthier and easier than I ever would have imagined.”
I hope more hunters transform and learn from Jim. He is a superb example of
someone who can non-consumptively capture his appreciation of wildlife and
the natural world through photography. Sadly, that ability has so far eluded
you.
Peace,
Uncle Joe
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