Ask Uncle Joe – Fall 2011
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