North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Dan Sorensen <dan.phantom@westpa.net>]

Bruce,

Are you a fan of The Lord of the Rings perchance?  I recall almost the 
exact words ("If one can't give life, one should, perhaps, not be so 
anxious to take it away.") being spoken by Gandalf regarding Frodo's 
attitude toward Gollum.

I used to shoot any woodchuck that came into my yard and usually felt 
guilty about since they never had actually done any damage to anything.  I 
stopped shooting them one day and discovered they quit coming into my 
yard  for several years after that.  Nowadays my pair of miniature 
dachshunds patrol the yard and alert me whenever one dares to 
intrude.  They keep him busy while I find a 5 gallon pail and  slip it over 
him.  Then I slide the cover in underneath, flip the pail and he and I take 
a ride in the pickup to a state gamelands two miles north where he is 
released and given a chance to make a new life.  When I get home, the dogs 
always check out the pail to be sure the chuck is gone.

My brother is an avid woodchuck hunter.  He helps out the local farmers who 
dislike them for the damage their burrows and mounds do to their 
equipment.  He cooked some up once and I tried it.  I found it tallowy, 
tough and quite gamy tasting.  Perhaps the preparation was wrong, or the 
time of year or age of the chuck wasn't optimal, but I'll be reluctant to 
eat it again except in case of famine.  My grandfather used to eat them 
regularly, but then he'd eat almost anything, including skunk.

Dan Sorensen

At 08:31 9/4/2002 -0400, you wrote:

> Hey:
>
> All of this discussion about killing animals, so called varmits, red misting
> them, poisoning them, lock and load, is interesting. Very male and macho. I
> take my position from my neighbor who lives down river from me. He is a big
> fellow with steely gray eyes, many rifles and several hand guns. He has
> killed much bigger prey than ground hogs Yet for control of ground hogs and
> raccoons he uses electric fence. It is cheap and effective. To protect trees
> he uses tree tubes, again cheap and effective. I use his methods, they work.
>
> From my experience, animal hunters are a far bigger problem to me than these
> so-called varmits. If one can't give life, one should, perhaps, not be so
> anxious to take it away. On another note, perhaps the real problem is
> humans. They breed too much. There are too many of them!
>
> Bruce