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Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

newyorker.com

11–20 of 136 posts

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#11
Fogg spears two hundred creatures, in two trips, before returning to his boat... (Fogg has posted his video on YouTube, and it has been watched more than a million times.)

It's very disappointing that they don't link directly to this video[1], unlike the New York Times which always links directly to their sources and references. It seems like the New York Times is the only mainstream news site that's not absolutely terrified of letting their readers go to another website.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnAbtkMdCoI

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#12
post #8

you haven’t had fun on this planet until you've gone hunting for invasive hogs in florida or texas. stars, night observation devices, suppressed semiautomatic rifles. regardless of your stance on guns or killing things almost as smart as humans, you should give this fun and useful activity a try sometime. you’ll learn some skills and make solid friends along the way.

It sounds like a great way to earn the company of fellow psychopaths.

The ecological need is easy to understand, but turning it into a "sport" tells you a lot about the caliber of people we're living with. The people engaging in this activity are worse than poachers; at least poachers kill to earn a living.

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#13
This makes me immediately think about the Cobra effect anecdote (or fable?). Basically, the Indian gov't tried to control the snake population by offering a bounty, and people started breeding snakes and killing them for bounty money.

Better writeup here: https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/systems-thinking-and-the-cobra-e...

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#15
post #8

you haven’t had fun on this planet until you've gone hunting for invasive hogs in florida or texas. stars, night observation devices, suppressed semiautomatic rifles. regardless of your stance on guns or killing things almost as smart as humans, you should give this fun and useful activity a try sometime. you’ll learn some skills and make solid friends along the way.

It sounds like a great way to earn the company of fellow psychopaths. The ecological need is easy to understand, but turning it into a "sport" tells you a lot about the caliber of people we're living with. The people engaging in this activity are worse than poachers; at least poachers kill to earn a living.

Worse how? Because they're enjoying something that needs to be done? These hogs would be more than happy to kill and eat you if they could. They regularly break into back yards and kill pets. If an animal is happy to pop slats off a fence and disembowel my cousin's dog I'm happy to put a bullet in it.

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#16
post #8

you haven’t had fun on this planet until you've gone hunting for invasive hogs in florida or texas. stars, night observation devices, suppressed semiautomatic rifles. regardless of your stance on guns or killing things almost as smart as humans, you should give this fun and useful activity a try sometime. you’ll learn some skills and make solid friends along the way.

It sounds like a great way to earn the company of fellow psychopaths. The ecological need is easy to understand, but turning it into a "sport" tells you a lot about the caliber of people we're living with. The people engaging in this activity are worse than poachers; at least poachers kill to earn a living.

> The people engaging in this activity are worse than poachers

Sausage is yummy, and pigs do ecological damage.

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#19
post #8

you haven’t had fun on this planet until you've gone hunting for invasive hogs in florida or texas. stars, night observation devices, suppressed semiautomatic rifles. regardless of your stance on guns or killing things almost as smart as humans, you should give this fun and useful activity a try sometime. you’ll learn some skills and make solid friends along the way.

It sounds like a great way to earn the company of fellow psychopaths. The ecological need is easy to understand, but turning it into a "sport" tells you a lot about the caliber of people we're living with. The people engaging in this activity are worse than poachers; at least poachers kill to earn a living.

If you don't enjoy undoing environmental damage, you're a psychopath!

If you enjoy undoing environmental damage, you're a psychopath!

Re: Killing invasive species is now a competitive sport

#20

By any definition humans are an invasive species. Unfortunately killing our fellow humans has been a competitive sport from time immemorial.

Misanthropy disguised as concern for the environment does not contribute to the discussion.

Edit: Given your username, I’d expect more faith in humanity, not less.

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