Gordo's Hunting Perspectives

[sully]

Gordon Keith, from The Ticket, went on an African Safari for his vacation this year. He shared the experience on the radio and got a huge backlash from it out of all the non-hunters, etc. Here is his response...pretty genius...

gordonkeith.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/your-african-questions-answered/#comments

Read the article and the comments.

[P. Marf]

I read that this morning. Good stuff. I bet the trip was incredible. I feel like I would be on edge the entire time though living in the midst of all those beasts.

[fischer]

I read that. Very cool.

[sully]

He approached this as well as anyone I've ever heard when responding to the PETA types. I love his comments in response to 'Why shoot a defenseless baboon?"

Reader - "Not trying to be a hater or anything, but what led you to shoot the baboon? Considering their higher intellect, that one had me scratching my head."

Gordon - "Good question. I didn’t know this when the plane kissed the tarmac, but baboons are a scourge. They are like our feral hogs, tearing up everything they touch without serving any solid ecological purpose. You never get a decent shot at them and we lucked into one."

Reader - "Gordon, perhaps the baboon’s “ecological purpose” is to make it more difficult for hunters to kill game. Human and nonhuman hunters.

They simply DO serve an “ecological purpose” as evidenced by the fact that they exist.

Why don’t we start shooting poor people since they just tear up everything they touch and serve no sociatal purpose."

Gordon - "Yes, baboons do make it more difficult to kill game. They have tremendous eyesight and will spook game while you’re a mile away. We afford humans the assumption of an immortal soul, arbitrarily, religiously, or philosophically. That’s why we don’t shoot people as freely as baboons if we are at all decent. But we will kill humans if they get too destructive. That’s why we have just wars and capital punishment. We have the idea that we can take away life and liberty if you don’t deserve it anymore."

Reader - "Yeah man…totally get everything but the Baboon…not consumed/used. Response?"

Gordon - "There’s a war between humans and baboons there. I picked a side."

Reader - "Native Americans were a menace and tearing up stuff too. Europeans removed them. In hindsight, I think we can all agree the Native Americans got screwed.

The baboons were in Africa first, and as such, WE’RE the nuisance, not them.

I’m not getting all high and mighty on ya, I’m just saying that they have more right to their land than we have to suppress their inconveniences they cause humans. No matter how rampant the baboons’ terror is, nature would have balanced it out. When there are more wolves there are fewer rabbits which, in turn, leads to fewer wolves and more rabbits later. Without human intervention this balance exists. When humans encroach upon wildlife’s domain and we act like we have to regulate it, that’s flawed logic. We never should have been a factor to begin with."

Gordon - "Like I said, there’s a war between humans and baboons over there, and I picked a side. "

Reader - "Was the baboon coming at you, so you had to take him out? Or were you just aware of the human/baboon tensions in the area?

Gordon - "Elizabeth, I’ll level with you. He made a move for my wallet and he smelled of gin. After he was shot, we rolled him over and noticed the switchblade in his hands. SOB had it in his fur the whole time.

Actually, you take out a baboon over there for same reason we take out rats in our houses here. They cause a lot of damage and don’t co-exist with us well. You can’t imagine the damage they do to improvements. It’s almost evil-like. Is it bad luck they were born a rat/baboon? Yes.

In Africa, it’s like shooting the devil. You get lots of smiling words in languages you don’t understand from the locals. They treat you like you just shot a rapist."

[fischer]

that last one really cracked me up

[sully]

Yeah, me too. I love his response to the second to last question in the original article.