The C.A.S.H. Courier Newsletter
Selected Articles from our
Fall 2011 Issue
Ask Uncle Joe
Got a question for Uncle Joe? you can email it to ask
unclejoe@hotmail.com
Would you rather snail mail your question: Send it to:
Ask Uncle Joe
PO Box 13815
Las Cruces NM 88013
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:
Are you freaking serious????? What a stupid website you have. You post an
article about a kid who was shot while his father was put the gun in a truck
and you say it’s a hunting accident??? this has nothing to do with
hunting!!!!! The gun shouldn’t have been loaded when putting it away in the
vehicle. rifles don’t just “go off” It is called being incredibley
irresponsible on the Father’s part. Ok, so by your logic children shouldn ot
play baseball or be in cars or cribs or pretty much do anything. Because
guess what you can have an accident and DIE doing anything. Hear about that
boy that got hit in the face with a baseball and died? What about the one
who was playing football? You made such a stupid and uneducated statement.
Maybe you should rethink your occupation you genius!
Martin
Yakima, WA
Dear Martin:
Hunting accidents are just one of the reasons why we oppose hunting,
though if you read the mail we field you’d think it is the only thing we
address. Yes, accidents occur when children play baseball, walk down the
street, take showers, etc., but this one occurred while a child and his
father were wrapping up a hunting trip and involved weapons used during that
hunting trip. That, Einstein, is what makes it a hunting accident. Martin,
it is thinking like yours that helps perpetuate the myth that hunting is a
safe sport. If someone is not directly shot by an arrow or a firearm, people
with limited intellectual skills do not think other injuries or deaths that
occur during hunting trips are actual hunting accidents. Someone falling
down a cliff while scouting for a hunting trip, or someone who falls and
breaks his leg while dragging a dead animal are two more examples of hunting
accidents that hunters like yourself try to deny. When you take into
consideration all the accidents that occur while hunting that are not the
result of someone shooting at an animal you get a much clearer picture of
how dangerous the sport really is.
Sincerely,
Uncle Joe
Dear Uncle Joe:
My daughter’s school has forced them to watch a sport hunting video and
it was very graphic! How do I stop this? Is it just me or this wrong? My
child is scarred!
Mary,
Marianna, FL
Dear Mary:
The best thing to do is to approach the principal of the school not only to
complain, but to insist that they allow equal time to get the message across
that hunting is unnecessary violence and always inappropriate for school-age
children. We can help you put together a presentation for the class if you’d
like to do it yourself, or we could try to arrange for one of the C.A.S.H.
staff to come to the class and give a talk. The best thing to do is to
educate yourself about the topic of sport hunting and to back up your
statements with verifiable facts. Luckily, hunting agencies themselves can
provide you with much anti-hunting information and data if you’re able to
interpret it properly. Please use the C.A.S.H. website as a resource and
contact us for more info.
Sincerely,
Uncle Joe
Dear Uncle Joe:
i don’t understand why you want to stop hunting. men are natural
predators and we have tipped the balance of wildlife so out of wack that we
need to step in and manage them so they don’t get out of control. i don’t
like the idea of killing either but with out some sort of control we would
not have farms (the animals woiuld eat them) and without farms we would have
no food. i know there are vegetarians and u r probably one of them but not
everyone wants to be one! without hunting deer and raccoons wed have no
farms and no food. how would you protect the farms if farmers could not
hunt? thank you for your answer. i have read your column before and hope you
don’t give me a wisecrack answer since I am only a kid ha ha.
Michael
Lincoln, NE
Dear Michael:
No worries – I will not give you wisecrack answers to your questions
because I can tell from our e-mails that you actually want to learn
something. Thanks for keeping an open mind! Read over the letter you sent me
– you said that humans are natural predators and then also said that you
know some people are vegetarians. If we were really natural predators, we
would not be able to be vegetarians since our bodies would not function
without meat. Next, think of the animals we know to be predators – do any of
them need to use weapons to catch their prey? The fact that we had to invent
spears and later traps, arrows and guns in order to hunt makes it clear that
we’re not natural hunters.
Farm damage is a real concern and all farmers know that a certain amount
of crop damage is unavoidable. A raccoon finding a corn field is like one of
us finding a free all-you-can-eat buffet, but farmers can make raccoons feel
unwelcome by planting rows of beans or squash between the corn rows. When
the area seems cluttered and raccoons are unable to move with ease, they are
less likely to stick around. Scarecrows actually work to chase off other
animals, but they should be the kind that move in the breeze and they should
be moved around the farm periodically. There are also many non-lethal
products that are being sold. For example, there’s a motion-activated solar
animal-repeller for only $29.99. Check out all the non-lethal products at
www.shopPicketFence.com We know how hard farmers work and we want them all
to be successful, but their success is not dependent upon intentionally
killing wildlife.
Sincerely,
Uncle Joe
Go on to
Buddy Was Deserving of a Chance to Live
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