Posted on 10/08/2004 10:13:50 AM PDT by neverdem
Darn, we missed it.
Sept. 25 was designated ``Turn in Your Tackle Day'' by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and I forgot to get it done.
The animals-before-people group targeted recreational anglers for their combined wrath, and had marked Sept. 25 as the day for all of us who are feeling guilty about barbing bass, snatching snook and whacking wahoo to get it off our conscience by turning in our instruments of torture.
PETA has one bureaucrat with what has to be the politically correct job title of the decade: fish empathy project manager. And readers of this column won't want to miss the Web site FishingHurts.com - you'll find urgent suggestions such as substituting a tasty slab of tofu for your grouper fillets, demonstrating at local fishing tournaments, asking local government to ban fishing in local lakes, and retiring the fishing merit badge for Boy Scouts. They don't want us wearing leather shoes or riding on leather auto seats, eating hamburgers, or using animals to develop new drugs that might save millions of human lives.
Presumably they also oppose the use of animal products in dog and cat foods. While my dogs will eat pretty much anything that hits the floor, including erasers and cardboard, my cats eye anything that does not come out of a Friskies can with great suspicion. Veggies are not among the things they deign to consume. Some of this would be laughable were it not for the numbers of people who have bought into this silliness over the past 24 years. PETA claims 800,000 members, and if those are all paying members at $16 a pop - or more - that's more than $12 million a year they have to lobby for wiping out our favorite sports. And they have proven very good at getting public attention.
Actually, if PETA could restrain its more radical elements, there are some ideas for rational people to support in the program. They value all life on the planet, right down to caterpillars and catfish, as we all rightfully should. They're a strong voice in stopping cruelty to animals of the sort that no decent person can tolerate, including dog fights and rooster fights. But the fact they actively are trying to destroy hunting and fishing makes them a danger to sportsmen everywhere, and by extension to wildlife management areas, huntable wildlife and recreationally targeted fish, all of which have benefited enormously as a result of billions of dollars worth of support from sportsmen in the past 70 years.
FISHING SHOW: The Florida Sportsman Fishing Show comes to Florida State Fairgrounds east of Tampa next weekend. The show includes an 80,000-square-foot tackle and boat supermarket, plus continuous how-to seminars at Expo Hall.
Show director Robin Smillie said the hands-on learning aspect of the show is the major draw.
The show also features casting instruction for kids. Hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $7 for adults and free for children under 12 with parents. Discount coupons are at www.floridasportsman.com
SEMINARS: Rusty Chinnis, outdoors editor of the Anna Maria Sun and an Orvis fly-casting instructor, presents a free seminar Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at the Tampa Bay Fly Fishing Club meeting at Compton Park Rec Center in Tampa Palms. Non-members are welcome. ... Captain Randy Rochelle joins captain Mel Berman of WFLA, 970 AM, for an offshore clinic Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Park Auto Mall, 8000 Park Blvd. in Pinellas Park. For more information, call (727) 545-3100. ... Captain Dave Pomerleau presents a free snook seminar Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Minnows & Monsters Tackle, 3811 S. Manhattan Ave., Tampa; (813) 835-1512. ... Captain Larry McGuire presents a free grouper/snapper seminar Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Boater's World on State Road 60 in Brandon.
QUOTA PERMITS: Leftover quota permits are available from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission for hunting on state wildlife management areas this fall. Some 5 million acres of public lands are available. Visit www.MyFWC.com for details.
CONDITIONS IMPROVE: Despite dirty water, trout are becoming active around Tampa Bay, particularly in waters beyond the Sunshine Skyway, where Gulf tide changes are helping to clear the murk. Anglers fishing potholes near the mouth of the Manatee River reported good catches last week.
This story can be found at: http://outdoors.tbo.com/outdoors/MGBTWGXFUZD.html
Bean was a great little furbaby. Even when he went through some painful procedures to clear up his wounds, he never bit or held a grudge. As soon as the difficult stuff was done, all he wanted to do was play and sneak treats out of the yogurt drop box. : )
Do you have any idea what happened to him to put him in that condition?
No way of telling for sure, but I suspect the worst wounds were inflicted by his mother and worsened by his siblings. That sort of destructive behavior can manifest itself in conditions of overcrowding with meager food and water, or if the mother is bred at too young of an age (which is sickeningly typical).
I always took very good care of my dudes, but none of them ever made it past 2.5 years. You're very lucky to have had one around for that long.
Thanks very much. And 2.5 years isn't bad at all, by the way. Y'see, pet rats are direct descendents of laboratory rats, all of which were specifically bred to be susceptible to lung disease (like mycoplasma), kidney failure, and all sorts of cancers. That sort of genetic makeup always makes for a short lifespan. : (
I didn't know that. Most of my rats grew large tumors shortly before they died, I had no idea this was due to any sort of breeding patterns.
Nice fish. I'm headed out tomorrow to tackle some of those critters myself.
Yup. Sad, but true. If your ratties were girls, chances are pretty good that the tumors were mammary cancer. Very common. I've seen about 2 dozen cases of it in the ones I've rescued. Highly treatable, but it does have something of a recurrence rate.
I've also had a few rats who also had some rare sarcomas (cancer in the connective tissues). Very nasty, very malignant, very metastatic. Having them put down was a severe mercy.
Most excellent. Good luck and Godspeed! Post pics if you get something good. : )
Even they know he is fraud.
Then the Lord Jesus Christ must have been a murderer since he ate fish (while in His Resurrection body!-Jn.21:13)
I did have one rat with no external signs whatsoever of tumors or illness, that suddenly died one day while I was at work. The only sign on her body I could find to explain what happened was a little of blood coming out of her rear end... any idea what that could have been?
Well, some years ago I used to know a [meat eating] cat who liked to eat fresh sliced cucumbers. In addition to meat and fish she also ate rye bread, too - I saw it with my own eyes. Go figure.
What a bunch of d!psh!ts.
That's a hard thing about ratties. They won't show symptoms of disease until they cannot mask it any longer. I've got one girl who had a stroke (or a slow-growing brain tumor) and she walks around with her head tilted at nearly 90 degrees, but her appetite and playfulness are still in top form.
Had one boy we rescued who was the seeming model of health except for he would, two or three times a day, shriek in pain for no apparent reason. After two days of that, we took him to the vet and learned that one of his hind legs was *broken*. After he got the treatment he needed (and three weeks in isolation...which had to suck), he was fine. But that was a real object lesson for me.
I did have one rat with no external signs whatsoever of tumors or illness, that suddenly died one day while I was at work. The only sign on her body I could find to explain what happened was a little of blood coming out of her rear end... any idea what that could have been?
Far too many things could have caused it. Could have been megacolon (that typically kills rats in young adulthood...and there's no treatment for it). Could have been a respiratory illness that brought on sudden distress (that tends to make blood vessels burst in various locations), could have been a stroke. No way to tell for sure without an autopsy.
Sorry for your loss, though. Never easy to lose a furbaby.
Hey PETA, I'm going flounder gigging tomorrow for the next three days.
I hope I walk into a school of them bedded down at night in the marsh and shine my light on their ruby-red eyes then savagly stick them with the gig. After that I'll run a leader through their gills and drag them behind me as I go on to spear their brothers and sisters.
When I tire of that I'm going to chop up a mullet and take a #5 hook and set a trap for an unsuspecting fish in the surf. Won't it be suprised when it finds a nice juicy morsel of mullet, bites down then finds itself hooked and pulled out of its universe into a waterless environment?
I had rats for pets growing up - very nice animals!
Hope that means the veggies were eating soup for a month<<
Nope. These people were just stupid, I convinced them it would be better for me to take the cat-than call in a cruelty to animals report.
It worked. The cat lived for 18 years after that.
In addition to meat and fish she also ate rye bread, too - I saw it with my own eyes. Go figure.
Ever have one that ate pizza? My two love the stuff!
Stories like that just break my heart. I can't count how many times I've had a pet that hides their pain until they can't stand it anymore. It really is a shame they can't talk.
My current pet, a big fat kitty, developed a limp so well hidden that for weeks I thought I was imagining it. When I was finally able to tell it really was a limp, I bought her in to the vet only to discover that her toe bones (I think they're called flanges) were growing out through the bottoms of her paw pads (her previous owners had her declawed). Ouch!
Also had a cat that went crazy for powdered donuts and jello. Can't argue with that...
Just because they did this...I'm gonna go get my License, and start Fishing again. and Hunting.
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