EA and I don't call ourselves green , however , we do pick up other peoples rubbish from the beach, ramps and riverside when we are out fishing and from a camping area near us and dispose of it as properly as we can, we recycle metal , waste oil , and any packaging.
We have two things that must occur when we are hunting, one, the animal must not know we are there , we cam up and move slowly in the bush, and, two, it must die instantly, ie a brain shot, if those things are not possible we don't take the shot, 95% of our shots are at targets at known ranges, to make very sure the weapons are very accurate, I also reload and have worked up some accurate loads for all of our centerfires.
We make use of all meat animals we shoot, ie, goats and pigs, but feral cats and foxes are destroyed humanely as a matter of course.
We have watched, for an hour or so, a mob of goats feeding and just taken photos, we also have approached roos to almost within touching distance, sat and watched a mob of deer and seen their antics.
Had a bird land on me once when we were cammed up and sitting out for a pig, frightened three bells out of me
I find it puzzling that environmentalists call us, to our face and to our daughters face, " Gun happy rednecks ", " violent and bloodthirsty killers ", when those same people applaud loudly when feral animals are condemned to hideous deaths from poisoning and trapping and have horrific diseases visited upon them in the name of the environment.
Ea and I, mostly EA, have spent over a decade representing recreationalists , fishers, hunters , bike riders , four wheel drivers etc on a couple of Government committees and have seen first hand how the greens representatives work.
I have stood in front of a Parks dozer when they were trying to block a track to a fishing spot that a couple of our Gubba elders
had put in, on the recomendation of the local conservation and bushwalking group , won that one !!
We, too, are concerned about our wasteful society and agree that anything that can be done to help stop a lot of wasteful use of finite resources has got to be a good thing.
However , the mindless chanting of mantras that come from the Greens is counter productive and divisive , punitive taxing of of anything a government doesn't agree with , ie, smokes, yeah , we both smoke but still walk the hills and we are both over 65, doesn't do a great deal towards stopping people doing it but provides the government with another income stream.
The carbon tax, in my opinion, falls into the income stream category, make 'em feel guilty and they'll pay up !!!
OK , now, a quote from a college lecturer
" Indeed , it pre-supposes that the supreme statesman in democratic government is public opinion.
Many of the shortcomings of democratic government are due to the fact that public opinion is not neccessarily a great statesman at all "
H'mm
I dunno how to finish this ramble , but we try, Ea and I , within our vision and conscience to do what we consider is right.
Foss and EA
