This is a really cool online clock that includes all manner of statistics: diseases, food production, population, etc. You can watch as they grow from the beginning of this year, week, day, or starting….now.

Worldclock

[Thanks, Dad!]

Although I am a Human, an Omnivorous animal and a Muslim but every time ritual slaughter at the time of  Eid ul Adha disturbs me and shakes me. Actually the slaughter itself doesn’t make me sick but the laughing, joking coward crowd and fun just before ritual hurts. After all I am an animal myself (biologically).

Sacrifice doesn’t mean that Islam asks Muslims to be harsh towards animals but it means that we are sacrificing one of the loved thing for most loved LORD, the only God Allah. This explains how much Muslims should love animals.

Al Shaddad Bin Aous has quoted this tradition of the Holy Prophet (P.B.U.H.) “God calls for mercy in everything, so be merciful when you kill and when you slaughter, sharpen your blade to relieve its pain”.

The animals to be slaughtered must be handled with mercy and kindness.

The animals to be slaughtered should neither be mercilessly dragged from one place to another nor their bodies be pressed or squeezed, nor should they be frightened at slaughter time by sharpening the blade of a knife or butchering other animals in front of them. Prior to slaughtering or before confirming its death, no body part of the animals shall be cut or mutilated.

Care has to be taken that the nervous system is in no way damaged, for the direct attack on the nervous coil would provide serious pain to the animal before death. If any other method is used or the animal is slaughtered with a dull blade, its meat will not become legal(halal) for consumption. The animal must be brought to the slaughtering place and laid down gently as to not bruise it. The blade must be kept hidden until the very last moment while the jugular of the animal is felt.

Professor Wilhelm Schulze of the Hannover University’s School of Veterinary Medicine in Germany, and his colleague Dr. Hazim, compared the response of the brain and heart during and immediately after ritual slaughter and slaughter with captive bolt stunning, a method widely used in many slaughterhouses.

The results of electroencephalograph (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) readings showed that Islamic ritual slaughtering caused a loss of consciousness before pain could be felt, while the captive bolt stunning caused severe pain to the animal before it lost consciousness.

1. The first 3 seconds from the time of the slaughter (in the Islamic Method) as recorded on the EEG did not show any change from the graph before slaughter, thus indicating that the animal did not feel any recognizable pain during or after the incision.

2. During the following 3 second, the EEG recorded a condition of deep sleep-unconsciousness. This is due to the large quantity of blood gushing out of the body. The sudden and profuse bleeding from the incision on the neck causes a shock resulting in a state of unconsciousness due to severe shortage of blood supply to the vital centers located in the brain.

3. After the above-mentioned 6 seconds, the EEG recorded zero level, showing no feeling of pain at all.

4. As the brain message (EEG) dropped to zero level, the heart was still pounding and the body convulsing vigorously (a reflex action of the spinal cord) driving out a maximum amount of blood from the body, thus resulting in hygienic meat for the consumers.

Dr. Temple Grandin, an expert on livestock handling facilities and a professor of animal science at Colorado State University, has witnessed ritual slaughter many times while inspecting and advising kosher slaughterhouses. She notes on her website: “When the cut is done correctly, the animal appears not to feel it. From an animal welfare standpoint, the major concern during ritual slaughter are the stressful and cruel methods of restraint (holding) that are used in some plants.”

The Islamic method indeed demands that the knife to be used for slaughtering animals must be sharp and used swiftly. The swift cut of vessels of the neck disconnects the flow of blood to the nerves in the brain responsible for pain. Thus the slaughtered animal feels no pain.

It may be mentioned in this connection that the movements and withering of the different limbs of the animal after the incision is made are not due to pain, but due to the contraction and relaxation of the muscles deficient in blood. The convulsions are due to the contraction of the muscles in response to the lack of oxygen in the brain cells.

The muscles, by these contractions, squeeze out blood from the blood vessels in the tissues to pour it into the central circulation system to be sent to the brain, but this is lost on the way (due to cutting of big vessels in the neck) and the brain cells consequently keep on sending messages to the muscles to wring out blood, until the animal dies.

Convulsions thus occur when the animal becomes unconscious. And because the slaughtered animal becomes unconscious for massive hemorrhage, it does not feel pain while bleeding.

Lastly, the Islamic method also insists that the cut should involve the windpipe (trachea), gullet (esophagus), and the two jugular veins without cutting the spinal cord. This method results in rapid gush of blood draining most of it from the animal’s body. If the spinal cord is cut, the nerve fibres to the heart might be damaged leading to cardiac arrest, thus resulting in stagnation of blood in the blood vessels. The blood must be drained completely before the head is removed from the body. As most of the blood, which acts as medium of microorganisms, is removed the meat becomes purified and also remains fresh for a longer period as compared to the meat obtained through other methods of slaughtering like gullotining or decapitation, CBPS and electric stunning.

The United States Humane Slaughter Act recognizes ritual slaughter according to Islamic and Jewish dietary guidelines is acceptable and humane.

While offering Qurbani on Eid-ul-Azha most of the Muslims unfortunately, ignore the above-mentioned humane instruction of the Apostle of God (phub) and recklessly slaughter camels and cows and lambs right in front of other animals. We not only fight shy of the holy Prophet’s unique instruction but also very easily forget that the animals feel and suffer stress  in the same way as the humans do.

Thanks to :

National University of Singapore

Wikipedia.com

Halaljournal.com

Aaaaah ils refont parler d’eux les Bloody, avec leur “nouvelle” (la blague) track et leur nouvel EP (?), “Christmas Vendetta … Spares Of Romborama” (qui sort le 8 décembre). Pour ceux qui n’aurait pas remarqué, “Warp 1.9″ + “Warp 7.7″ = 1977, la date de naissance de Bob Rifo, son tatouage sur le torse. Et Tommy dans tout ça ? Bref, la nouvelle Warp est bientôt là, tout le monde a dût voir leur vidéo à la I Love Techno. Pour les gens préssés, il y a Vakkuum qui encore une fois fait un edit des ritals, et c’est qu’une preview.

The Bloody Beetroots – Warp 1977 (VAKKUUM’s Xtended Preview Edit)

Soundboysrock, ils sont encore là aussi, quand je disais qu’ils faisaient shaker du booty particulièrement sur Paris depuis peu, y’a qu’a écouter leur nouvelle mini mixtape, dont voici la tracklist :

1) Udachi, Jubilee: smoke rings
2) ****
3) Skinny: shake it (Wonk remix)
4) Calvertron: buggin’
5) Soundboysrock: Fuck My Pussy (dispo sur poneyklub)
6) Sound of stereo: zipper
7) Stereoheroes: washout (Mikix the cat remix)
Kick-Oh: black celebration ( Jamie Fanatic remix)
9) Play on (Soundboysrock remix)

Soundboysrock – Gangsta Minimix #2

Troisièmement et dernièrement, le retour de Fckn Crew ! Tout seul peut-être mais encore bel et bien présent, il pond sa dernière track “Slaughter”. C’est du Fckn, de la disto, ça envoie, on aime, on télécharge :

Fckn Crew – Slaughter

Myspace The Bloody Beetroots

Myspace Vakkuum

Myspace Soundboysrock

Myspace Fckn Crew

Hey All, this year I decided to write a Thanksgiving story.  And while I intended to write a feel good moral story about appreciating what you have, something else entirely came out (in true Free Stories fashion).  I will endeavor to write another Thanksgiving story for Thanksgiving day, but for now, enjoy this bloody ode to feasts and celebrations!

I killed him after slicing the turkey.  One swift rake across the jugular and thick globs of red squirted all over the stuffing and cranberry sauce.  His jaw dropped, and his face immediately paled.  He gasped.  After long long seconds he gasped again and then reached at me with splayed fingers, his wide eyes glaring at me with malice.  The fingers of his claw like hand curled into an accusing finger which pointed at me before shaking wildly.  The flabby ball of his torso struggled to remain erect and began shaking also.  Finally, he gasped one last time and slumped forward, landing his pale fat face in the thick slice of pumpkin pie he had stubbornly insisted on eating first.

With the evening’s daunting task completed, I sat down.  I touched my face and realized I was grinning madly, my lips frozen in a sort of snarl.  I felt a ball of energy swelling in my chest and realized I was holding my breath.  I barked a laugh.  I stopped.  Was that appropriate? I wondered.  I laughed again.  I let it roll out of my chest.  Waves of laughter rolled out of my frozen lips and flooded the table, lapping at the edges of the still warm dinner rolls and the steaming turkey.

“Oh God,” I moaned when the laughter finally left me, “thank you.”

I decided not to eat.  Instead, I wrapped my thickest cloak about me and pulled out the sled.  After positioning the long planks of the sled by the dinner table, I heaved that dead body onto it and dragged it out the front door.  With a crackling torch in one hand, and the sled’s reins in the other, I plodded through the snowy woods.  The menacing crunch of my boots on the snow, the long shivering shadows and the needle thin fingers of the branches did not frighten me, nor did the wolf howls that seemed to grow closer and closer.  Good, I thought, hopefully they can smell the blood.

Upon reaching the clearing, I set to work cleaving the body into smaller pieces and scattering them in a circle.  In the middle of the circle lay the pyre of dry wood I’d been accumulating all year.  I poured oil on it and used my torch to set it ablaze.  ”Come!”  I shouted, and the wolves howled.  ”Come and eat your fill!”

In the middle of the scattered body parts I stood waiting all night.  The wolves came and I watched them creep at the edges of the light, snatching up the body parts in hungry, slobbering jaws.  But before they did, each one lowered its head, as if in thanks.

I found out yesterday that I have a bonus weekend off this weekend – hooray! Last weekend was officially my weekend off, but because it was the apprentice astronomy weekend I couldn’t really go anywhere or do anything. I’d assumed that it was just tough luck if it works out like that sometimes, and was beginning to feel the effects of not having a proper day to myself in 3 weeks. But Henning decided we should change the rules, and now I am overflowing with days off: this weekend and next weekend!

Blood and guts have featured quite heavily this week. We had around 40 laying hens that weren’t really laying any eggs any more, and on Wednesday most of them were slaughtered. William set up a little slaughterhouse by the pig pens and by Thursday we were eating chicken stew. I’m a vegetarian (I didn’t partake of the stew) and don’t cope too well with blood, but I did want to see the slaughtering. William picked up a chicken and wrapped it tightly in a tea towel, held it down on the work bench and bashed it with a piece of wood to stun it. Then he stuck a knife in its beak and blood started pouring out. He waited about a minute while the bird was still twitching, and when the blood stopped flowing, he dunked it in to hot water to loosen the fat around the feathers. After that the plucking machine, which looked like lots of rubber spikes going round, quickly pulled out most of the feathers, and Alastair pulled out the last few feather by hand. I’m not sure at exactly what point the chicken actually dies, but I guess it doesn’t really feel anything, and that this very small scale system is far more humane than some sort of factory. I felt a bit sick and quite sad afterwards though, and only managed to watch once.

The second batch of blood and guts was when Henning found a roadkill deer. We brought it back in the pickup and skinned it in the barn extension. I think there wasn’t much usable meat left on it for some reason; maybe it had got run over too much. But the skin is now packed away in a freezer, and will hopefully help to protect our crops from deer invasions next season. One of the special biodynamic practices is that where an animal is a pest (perhaps rats or mice, or deer) you can burn the skin of that animal, then ‘potentise’ the ash, and spread this ash around the area you want to protect. You should then not have any problems (or at least have reduced problems) with those pests. I have seen roe deer quite often in Sunny Acres and I know they sometimes eat the carrots and cabbages if the nets aren’t on properly. According to the planting calendar, the 1st December is a good day to burn the skin, so we will have to remember to retrieve it from the freezer in good time. Watch this space for further reports…

The weather has been quite wet and wild for much of the week, so we’ve been doing quite a bit of work in the greenhouse and polytunnels. We pulled out all the pepper plants from the old polytunnel and a team have been preparing it for the next crops (early carrots and onions and garlic). That means taking out all the strings and paths and irrigation pipes, digging it all over, adding more compost and then putting back the pipes and paths. We’ve been continuing with a similar process in the first section of the big greenhouse, raking and relaying the paths (which are just strips of mypex pegged down) and fixing the irrigation pipes. We’ve now got two beds of chard and one of spinach in there, and the rest are destined to be early beetroot.

We’ve also been planting out lettuces and purslane with the children from Class 3, which was quite fun. They enjoyed nibbling the plants as we put them in, and decorating the labels for the rows. Since the astronomy weekend we are all now much more aware of the planting calendar (and understand the logic behind it better) so we were very pleased with ourselves when we realised we could plant out these leafy salad greens on a leaf day, in the afternoon and during a descening moon, which is exactly what you are meant to do (but isn’t always practical).

Outside we’ve nearly finished taking down the bean fence, which is a very fiddly job. All the old bean stalks have to be removed from the netting, then the netting has to be removed from the poles, and then the poles have to be pulled out of the ground. We’ve also been doing lots of harvesting, as always: carrots, parsnips, brussel sprouts, savoy cabbage, white cabbage, celeriac, celery, kale, leeks, salad things, beetroot, fennel and more. One short but very enjoyable job was cutting down all the old sweetcorn stalks. They have finished making sweetcorn and we wanted to cut them down so that they are lying on the ground and starting to rot. Mostly we were stamping them down with our feet, which was fine and worked okay, but the best part was that we also had one machete, which was extremely effective and felt like we might be hacking through the jungle or being peasant farmers somewhere tropical.

I have obviously been borrowing Henning’s knife for too long (he lent it to me a week or so ago); on Tuesday he bought an opinel knife each for me and Caspar. It is very nice to have a proper sharp knife all of my own and it gets used all the time for trimming leeks and irrigation pipes and celeriac and fennel and so on.

On my bonus free Saturday I cycled to Ringwood with Caspar and bought a new watch strap and had a pasty for lunch and got wet coming home in the rain. Then in the afternoon I baked a huge pile of gingerbread (not just men, but also tractors, pigs, butterflies, trees, flowers – we used just about every cutter in the tin) with Johanna. They might just be appearing on the supper table this evening…

That’s about all for this week.

Barry Soetoro, Barack Obama is guilty of Treason
Source: American Grand Jury

Obama must be prosecuted and severely punished for his Treason to save our Nation. You, and everyone you know must immediately and publicly file criminal complaints naming Obama in commission of Treason in an attempt to keep the Civil War already begun to the lowest level of violence possible.

Obama is a Muslim. The word Muslim is used in this writing to describe an armed invading force with the mission of destroying the United States Constitution, slaughtering you and your children and subjugating survivors. Muslims intend to take over America as part of their War to conquer the world.

Obama leads the Muslim invasion force as a foreign born domestic enemy. Obama’s Muslim invaders are augmented and reinforced from several quarters. All of Obama’s supporting forces are bent on the destruction of America.

Your failure to act at this moment ensures open combat in the streets. You’re gonna get more people killed! It may mean the death of America.

Trust me, it will be one helluva fight.

Pass the word. Your life, the lives of your children and the life of America depend on it!

Obama is my sworn enemy! Make him yours!

There isn’t more for me to say on any topic. It’s about Treason.

Damn right. An enemy of America is an enemy of DangerB.

Blue Öyster Cult “Godzilla”
The Scream “Young And Dumb”
Alice Cooper “Keepin’ Halloween Alive”
Rush “Freewill”
KISS “Strutter”
Lynam “Is This A Heartbreak Or A Loaded Gun?”
Jive Mother Mary “Let Me In”
Sammy Hagar “Privacy”
Slaughter “Up All Night”
Rok Hollywood “Deep Inside”
Winger “Witness”
White Lion “Wait”
Black Sabbath “Time Machine”
’77 “Less Talk (Let’s Rock)”
Airbourne “Runnin’ Wild”
Megadeth “Countdown To Extinction”
Age Of Evil “Slave To The Grind”
Ozzy Osbourne “I Don’t Wanna Stop”
Judas Priest “Judas Rising” (live)
Age Of Evil “Get Dead”
Iron Maiden “Strange World”
Aerosmith “Back In The Saddle”
Britny Fox “Girlschool”
BulletBoys “Road To Nowhere”
Yngwie Malmsteen “Aftermath”
Poison “Talk Dirty To Me”
Lita Ford “Back To The Cave”
Automan “Back In The Sun”
Mötley Crüe “Hooligan’s Holiday”
Firehouse “All She Wrote”
Stryper “Soldiers Under Command”
Felony “Yank That Chain”
Twisted Sister “I Believe In You”

Notícia do site Whiplash:

Membros de bandas de death metal pioneiras como AUTOPSY, POSSESSED, DEATH, REPULSION, SLAUGHTER, OBITUARY, MASTER, e OBSCURITY estão entre as mais de 100 bandas de metal de 30 paises que participam com suas receitas favoritas do livro “Hellbent For Cooking: The Heavy Metal Cookbook”, de Annick “The Morbid Chef” Giroux.

Com lançamento previsto para 24 de novembro, o primeiro livro de receitas destinado ao apetite voraz do público de Metal trará encantadoras receitas, como bife com cogumelos a la Jack Daniels de Matt Olivo do REPULSION; asas de frango incinerantes de Dave Hewson do SLAUGHTER, testículo Viking ultra masculino de Richard Christy do DEATH/CONTROL DENIED; e bolo de gelatina de morangos com pretzel e salada de Jeff Becerra of POSSESSED.

“Eu geralmente me arranjo quando estou doente comendo isso” diz Chris Reifert do AUTOPSY, sobre suas bombas de bacon e jalapeño mumificadas.

“Hellbent” é um generoso banquete metal, com 224 páginas inteiramente coloridas de Annick Giroux, alimentando apetites vorazes com seus tira-gostos favoritos, carne de boi, porco, cordeiro, aves, frutos do mar, comida vegetariana, sobremesas e drinks. As receitas são dos integrantes de bandas como THIN LIZZY, MAYHEM, ANTHRAX, KREATOR, Sepultura, DESTRUCTION, POSSESSED, OBITUARY, ACCEPT, DORO, GWAR, TOXIC HOLOCAUST, SAINT VITUS, AMEBIX, URIAH HEEP, BUDGIE, e muitos outros – mais de 100 bandas de aproximadamente 30 países, incluindo Estados Unidos, Canadá, Alemanha, França, Paquistão, Malásia, Japão, Grécia e Brasil. Para todos que curtem Metal, os portões da cozinha estão abertos – agarre suas armas de nutrição em massa e deixe o banquete começar. Morte às falsas refeições!

O que eu acho: realmente muito interessante, apetitoso e acima de tudo, exótico…Já imaginaram algum deles indo dar uma dessas receitas no Mais Você ou no Com Sabor da Palmeirinha? KKKKKKKKK

Just saw Will Tuttle speak (saw him once before) in Sudbury. Unbelievable guy, so inspirational.

Lived in a trailer for the past 10 years, with his artist wife, cris-crossing the country, speaking about his book, and playing music for people. I was not able to capture the mood in the room, but I did get a few thoughts…

According to Heifer, International, cows were created for 4 Ms…Meat, Milk, Manure and Money

Every day, 75 million animals are killed in the USA for food. Every time you vote with your dollars, you are either for or against this deception, dissociation, and reductionism of the meat-eating agenda.

We grow enough grain on this planet to feed 13 Billion people, but we choose to have 1B starve, so we can feed over 90% of the grain to animals, grain laced with petroleum, pesticides and their dead animal brethren, so we can eat them (or waste them) while we watch TV, chat with our friends, or drive in our cars.

A plant-based diet is what we were designed for, and what helps us run best.

Come home to your true nature, of protecting the planet and its beings, and showing mercy, love and compassion to all your fellow creatures, so that you may also be shown mercy, love and compassion.

Humans were not meant to capture, enslave, drug, maim, torture, rape,, murder, eat and waste cows, pigs, goats, turkeys, ducks, chickens and fish. And we didn’t mean for it to happen to us. But what goes around, comes around.

We can change it. We need to do it, one person at a time. We can save our planet, and save our animals from becoming extinct, and we can save ourselves, even eliminate war. But not until we realize that it all starts on our plates.

Be Vegan and be proud.

Will Tuttle is 57, he looks 40. He’s a gifted writer, teacher, entrepreneur, musician and spiritual activist. He’s been vegan for over 35 years. His book, The World Peace Diet, is amazing. It goes into a broad range of topics, transforming its readers.

Buy it at http://www.skyboard.net/will_person_creditcard.html

Well the !@#@#!!! dogs returned! They mashed down the 6 foot tall chicken wire I put up and attacked the chickens again! There is one hen and one chick left. I am just glad they didn’t go after the rabbits this time. I am angry, sad, tired, disgusted and depressed. My world and my life that I am trying to build are falling apart.

Apologies my dears, as my heavy workload means I must neglect you again from my amazing blog posts, so instead I’ll leave you with the latest episode of Tech² – the podcast that me, Louis and Paul make – for you edification and enjoyment.

I’m technically the presenter, giving the introductions and links etc as well as putting in reviews, discussion and shamelessly plugging this blog, but given my trouble with speaking you can see that any time I speak it flows with all the grace of a drunk giraffe – enjoy!

Tech² Episode 2:
Anti-Farmville

In this episode, we discuss the new iPod Nano 5th Generation, Snow Leopard, £30 Windows 7 Student Discount, Super Webcam, Command and Conquer, the slaughter of digital animals and, of course, plenty of Apple bashing.

Find in iTunes

Simulposted with Animal Rights Africa

Hunters are killers, plain and simple. Let us not mince words. Hunters try to justify their violent pastime, but whatever they say to the contrary, hunting is the premeditated, cold-blooded killing of innocent animals.

The object of the hunt is to kill animals. Hunters argue that it is not just about killing. They claim that the camaraderie, nature appreciation, exercise, nature education, and so-called conservation benefits are just as important a part of the hunt as the actual killing or attempted killing of the target animal.

But most people can appreciate and learn about nature and also contribute to nature conservation efforts without having to kill animals, and by doing their shooting with a camera instead of a gun or bow.

Do hunters really care?

It is ludicrous to believe that someone who actively sets out to kill a healthy animal for fun, trophy or profit really cares about wild animals specifically or nature in general. Photographs of smiling hunters posing with their dead victims hardly reflect the kind of “caring” that most normal people relate to. If hunters are the “true” conservationists they claim to be, and really do care about animals, they would pursue every humane, non-lethal possibility or means of caring for wild animals and the environment. Instead, their solution to any perceived problem with animals is to reach for the gun. Why is it that hunters, as so-called conservationists, are interested only in those animals that are most attractive as trophies, most enjoyable to eat or most “challenging” to hunt?

Do hunters pay for conservation?

Killing wild animals is big business, and there are lots of people who make a lot of money out of it. Those who encourage and participate in hunting form part of a multi-million Rand industry that will fight to its last breath to stay in business. Manufacturers and marketers of hunting gear and clothing, guns and ammunition, bows and arrows, camping equipment and much more have a vested interest in promoting hunting as a good, healthy outdoor sport for the whole family. The more hunters out there killing, the more they sell.

Game ranchers and provincial and national conservation authorities generate millions of Rands annually by selling wild animals to private game farmers where hunters pay exorbitant fees to kill them for fun, trophy or meat.

As with every other type of institutionalised animal abuse, hunting will not easily be abolished in spite of relentless pressure from animal rightists. What makes hunting relatively easy to defend is that the hunters have spread a false message that it is they who fund conservation, and that were it not for them, most conservation areas currently in private ownership would convert to agricultural land with the total loss of the wildlife at present on that land. This implies, firstly, that the only justification for maintaining wild animals on the land is to generate funds from hunting, and, secondly, that all land which is not profitable game ranching land must automatically be taken over by environmentally destructive agriculture. This is absolute nonsense.

Conservation and the protection of wild animals must be funded from ethically acceptable sources, including a conservation levy on all profits from the sale of goods or services which have their origin in any natural resource. Wildlife and environment conservation must not be abandoned to an animal-unfriendly system that uses profit to justify the killing of healthy, defenseless animals. By allowing hunters to make the claim that they “pay for conservation”, human society is failing in its responsibility to wildlife. The fate of wild animals has literally been abandoned into the hands of killers.

Do hunters fulfil the role of predator?

Definitely not. Hunters will not miss out on any opportunity to cover themselves in glory, even to the point of claiming the role of natural predator in those areas where natural predators have been eradicated or do not occur.
But as so-called predator, the hunter selects only the finest specimens to kill. This is in direct contradiction of the role of true predators, who hunt the old, disabled and unwary and in so doing maintain the health of the populations. Predators too old, disabled or incompetent are also preyed on, but not by human hunters who only want healthy specimens in the prime of life.

The sustained killing of prime specimens of any population or species leads to debilitation of the gene pool and can hasten the rate at which that population or species becomes endangered or even extinct. No natural predator would act in this manner unless in very unnatural and exceptional circumstances. Natural and balanced predator/prey relationships lead to healthy populations of both the prey and the predator species.

Why hunting is wrong!

Hunting is wrong because for no good reason it violates the most basic right of any living creature – the right to life. According to hunters, they only shoot animals who are surplus or excessive to the carrying capacity of the land or who are old or injured . They claim that their killing is done for humane and practical reasons, and that an untimely death by bullet or arrow is preferable to death from natural causes.

All of this presumes that animals who are killed or wounded by human hunters, endure less fear, stress and pain than those animals dying from natural causes, including predation.

It is a fact that hunters kill for the pleasure, the satisfaction and the boost it gives their fragile egos. This makes killing seem like an honorable pastime that others should strive to emulate. It relegates animals to the status of utility items that exist to pleasure humans, and if that pleasure lies in the killing of an animal, then so be it.

Hunting simply perpetuates the ethically indefensible conception that animals exist for humans. And nothing more emphatically emphasises this misconception than when humans deliberately track down a wild animal and kill it for fun, trophy or profit. This shows an absolute disregard by hunters for the right of wild animals to live out their lives as nature intended, in circumstances which allow them to enjoy the diverse experiences of living in their natural environment. And for as long as hunters are allowed to conduct their bloody war on innocent wild animals with the sanction of civil society, then every human in that society shares in the guilt of the wrongdoing.

Also, when a hunter removes the body of the animal he/she has killed, this in fact robs that ecosystem of the nutrients locked up in that animal’s body. Every animal is composed entirely of elements accumulated within the ecosystem in which that animal has lived. When an animal dies of natural causes, the body is decomposed or consumed within that ecosystem, and the elements which made up the body are released back into that ecosystem and recycled through other plants and animals. When a hunter removes the dead animal from that ecosystem, the elements contained in that body are lost to the ecosystem.

Considering the weapons used by hunters today, it is an understatement to say that a targeted animal has little or no chance of avoiding being killed or wounded. The distance from which a hunter can deliver a fatal shot far exceeds the distance from which a natural predator could successfully attack it’s intended prey. Wild animals have not yet evolved the instinct required to keep modern hunters at a “safe” distance.

Man has always hunted

There is a very clear attempt by hunters to defend their bloody sport by claiming that it is in the human genes to hunt. This is absolutely not true. Hunters are conditioned into hunting by their peers and by an industry, which in various ways encourages people to become hunters by associating it with manhood, adventure and even Divine decree.
What this implies is that humans are incapable of evolving into more civilised, caring and tolerant beings. Fortunately nothing could be further from the truth. There is hope for a future in which animals are respected for their inherent value, and that those laws which now give humans the “right” to own and abuse animals will be replaced by popular laws which protect the rights of all animals, just as they now protect the rights of all humans.

Hunters and criticism

Hunters are notoriously intolerant of anyone who questions their so-called “ethics” or who dares to criticise their violent pastime. Anyone who opposes the killing of innocent animals by hunters is labeled a “bunny-hugger”, “unrealistic”, “impractical”, “emotional”, “ignorant”, “humaniac”, even a “terrorist” if you happen to be an animal rightist.

Any critics of hunting are so ridiculed that both they and civil society at large are cowed into a state of silent acceptance of hunting as an indispensable, even honorable, component of orthodox conservation policy and practice.

That hunters have to go to ever-greater lengths to defend their actions to an increasingly critical, well-informed public, is encouraging. However, the use of terms such as “sustainable use” and “wise use” have become the everyday language of hunters and are intended to give legitimacy to their killing.

It is also an unfortunate reality that most wildlife-related NGO’s are dominated by people who are themselves hunters or who see no wrong in others killing wild animals for fun, profit or trophy. Most ordinary members of these organisations are quickly indoctrinated into accepting that hunting is a necessary evil that goes hand in hand with so-called “sustainable use”. Those who criticise the hunting aspect of “sustainable use” are ostracised and sidelined within the organisations of which they are members.

What you can do to oppose hunting

1. Join JA and become an anti-hunting activist
2. Write to provincial and national conservation authorities and object to the opening of conservation areas to hunters
3. Let hunters know that you are opposed to their violent pastime
4. Don’t visit conservation areas which allow hunting
5. Don’t purchase the by-products of hunting i.e venison, biltong, animal skins, curios from hunted animals
6. Boycott stores that sell hunting equipment and promote hunting
7. Write anti-hunting letters to newspapers and magazines
8. Support campaigns to end hunting
9. Do not join or support conservation organisations that promote or tolerate hunting as an acceptable component of “sustainable use”.

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I just wanted to confess this….

We’re still several days from slaughter and I’ve already cried about my lambs. (yes, the ante has been upped to two.)

I was laying in bed with my face pressed against my pillow, staring through the darkness at my copy of Joy Of Cooking that rested on my nightstand. I’d been reading about lamb cuts and lamb recipes and drooling over amazing dishes before falling asleep. I slept well, I think. That is, until I awoke at 4:30 this morning. The covers were oppressively hot.

I readjusted the comforter but found no relief. I then realized it wasn’t just the heat keeping me from sleep. The night was too loud and my thoughts were too awake.

And then it happened.

I started wondering how I would react when I met my lambs, how beautiful they would be. And I thought about how I would react when the farmer/butcher led me through the things that farmer/butchers do. I envisioned the halter ropes and pictured myself leading my lambs from their pasture. I saw the tools laid out on a table and the stainless steal basin waiting to be filled. I felt the heavy weight.

I wondered if I really would be as non-squeamish as I promised him I’d be.
I wondered if I would cry when he said the prayers over the lambs.

And.

Suddenly.

I was crying.