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Calif. Gray Whale Shot With Machine Gun
AP ^ | 9/9/07

Posted on 09/09/2007 6:30:36 AM PDT by Mr. Brightside

Today: September 09, 2007 at 5:5:7 PDT

Calif. Gray Whale Shot With Machine Gun

NEAH BAY, Wash. (AP) -

An injured California gray whale was swimming out to sea Saturday after being shot with a machine gun off the western tip of Washington state, officials said.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Kelly Parker said five people believed to be members of the Makah Tribe shot and harpooned the whale Saturday morning. The extent of the whale's injuries were not immediately known.

Tribe members were being held by the Coast Guard but had not been charged, said Mark Oswell, a spokesman for the law enforcement arm of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

A preliminary report said the whale was shot with a .50-caliber machine gun, Oswell said.

Coast Guard officials created a 1,000-yard safety zone around the injured whale, which was shot about a mile east of Neah Bay in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The whale had begun heading to sea Saturday afternoon, Oswell said.

Although the tribe has subsistence fishing rights to kill whales, Oswell said preliminary information indicates the whale may have been shot illegally.

"We allow native hunts for cultural purposes. However, this does not appear to be of that nature so far," he said.

The Makah Tribe has more than 1,000 members and is based in Neah Bay.

A call to tribal officials was not immediately returned on Saturday. Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson told The Seattle Times that the tribe has been seeking an exemption from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act so that it could take up to five gray whales per year. However, Johnson said the tribe had not yet secured that exemption for a new hunt.

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TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: animalcruelty; animalsarepeopletoo; banglist; civildisobedience; coastalenvironment; environment; indiantreatyrights; machineguns; nativeamericans; nukethewhales; whale; whales; whaling
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To: spunkets

They did, however, drive entire herds over cliffs. Having so done, there was meat and hides galore, followed by flies galore, followed all too soon by hunger galore.

Teeth of most Indians show indication of annual starvation periods.

Being a stone age savage was not a nice “way of life” because it had no “quality of life” and often resulted in no life at all.


81 posted on 09/09/2007 8:30:25 PM PDT by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principle)
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To: spunkets

? ? ? “You be wrong.” ? ? ??

You be posting Ebonics?

;-)


82 posted on 09/09/2007 8:31:56 PM PDT by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principle)
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To: Solitar

Minus white civilizatin produced weapons, the Indians couldn’t kill off all the buffalo, even when they drove entire herds over cliffs.

All that accomplished was a large feast, followed by lots of labor drying meat and prepping hides.

Then, it was a 25 year wait until the next herd grew up.


83 posted on 09/09/2007 8:35:17 PM PDT by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principle)
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To: ProCivitas

Humans have a responsibility to not murder innocent beings, and our laws should reflect that. Don’t you agree?

Agreed, but we are not ‘murdering’ any animals. We do, however hunt, shoot, and eat them.

There is a place for all of God’s creatures. That place is either on a grill or next to the mashed potato serving bowl.


84 posted on 09/09/2007 8:42:03 PM PDT by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principle)
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To: GladesGuru
There is a place for all of God’s creatures. That place is either on a grill or next to the mashed potato serving bowl.

Definitely that applies to chicken and fish -- both of which so far from us sentient mammals that I have no problem killing and eating them (and our family raised chickens which I helped to kill and eat (stupid birds!).

I also dearly do love pork, lamb and beef in their place with mashed potatoes. I rationalize that the cows, sheep and pigs we eat have been bred to be more stupid than their wild ancestors. Deer, elk and bear are a step up in sentience, intelligence, and maybe consciousness, but I have little problem with killing and eating them.

Whales or dolphins I would have more of a problem with killing and eating because they are closer to us on the sentience, sapience, consciousness, intelligence, self-awareness scale.

I guess that some desensitization is needed in order to kill and eat some of our more intelligent fellow mammals. Probably that desensitization is similar to that needed to kill some of our fellow humans in self-defense or in war. Some of our enemies I'd rate lower than whales or chimps.

85 posted on 09/09/2007 9:17:50 PM PDT by Solitar ("My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them." -- Barry Goldwater)
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To: Solitar

The baleen whale’s role in life is engulfing huge amounts of organisms like krill and swallowing them alive. The toothed whales snap and swallow live fish or, in the case of teh sperm whales, live squid.

Unless one is a plant, one lives by killing and thus harvesting the collected energy of ones prey.

Once one accepts the basics of biology, one avoids the endless second guessing of what should I eat.

In my case, I know that a whole apple pie and an endless supply of perfect peaches does have a lingering effect on me.

That effect is called “fat”, so on that note I shall sally forth into the ‘Glades and do some work.

Have a good week,

GG


86 posted on 09/10/2007 5:37:52 AM PDT by GladesGuru (In a society predicated upon freedom, it is essential to examine principle)
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To: Mr. Brightside

I think there is an envy factor here. Whites (like myself) are controlled by hundreds of sometimes petty and confiscatory laws concerning hunting and fishing. To get a license in Washington is confusing to say the least. Indians (I wont call them native americans, as I too am a native american) seem to be able to hunt and fish without restriction or tax. We are slaves, they are free men and it sticks in our craw.


87 posted on 09/10/2007 5:59:15 AM PDT by jwatzzzzz (jwatzzzzz)
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To: Solitar

post #80

Excellent point! Reminds me of one episode of the Twilight Zone. Two astronauts crash landed on Mars. Roddy McDowall played a scientist, and his partner was killed in the crash. McDowall meets the inhabitants of Mars, and they provide him with a nice house to live in. At the end of the show, McDowall finds out his house is an enclosure in a zoo, and the Martians view him as nothing more than a zoo specimen for their children to gawk at.


88 posted on 09/10/2007 2:06:29 PM PDT by chessplayer
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To: fish hawk

Tribal law applies on the reservations (instead of state law). And when federal law and tribal law conflict, you’d be surprised at the judicial rulings that comne down in support of tribal law.


89 posted on 09/10/2007 4:19:08 PM PDT by ought-six ("Give me liberty, or give me death!")
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To: ErnBatavia
“....Gay Whale” ?


90 posted on 09/10/2007 4:25:34 PM PDT by rottndog (Government is a necessary evil, but as with all evils, the less of it the better.)
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To: spunkets
Ceremonial meat? Give me a break. The tongue was a favored and choice cut. It had nothing to do with ceremony, and everything to do with taste. The only truly ceremonial cut was the heart.

And, as for the so-called “annual hunt,” you make it sound like they went out for a month or so and hunted, much like we hunt deer nowadays. The plains tribes such as the Sioux and the Cheyenne and the Arapaho (just to name a handful) followed the buffalo herds, so it wasn’t so much an “annual hunt” but a perpetual hunt until winter made logistics unmanageable(they also went after antelope, elk, deer, etc.; however, one of their main staples was dog).

91 posted on 09/10/2007 4:39:19 PM PDT by ought-six ("Give me liberty, or give me death!")
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To: fish hawk

Change places with them? I would, in a heartbeat, just as long as the tribal council held no authority. I know, because I used to work for a company that insured them, and I handled their claims; and a more incompetent and corrupt governing body you have never seen.


92 posted on 09/10/2007 4:45:51 PM PDT by ought-six ("Give me liberty, or give me death!")
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To: ought-six

Tribal law is in power unless the crime is a federal law like murder of kidnapping etc. Federal low over powers tribal law. Tribes are not really 100% sovereign. They are a sovereign nation with in a sovereign nation (the US Government)


93 posted on 09/10/2007 4:48:03 PM PDT by fish hawk (The religion of Darwinism = Monkey Intellect)
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To: ought-six
It’s hard to believe they are as corrupt as Congress. Even if they are equal with Congress they hurt less people than Congress does. Not much consolation though. LOL
94 posted on 09/10/2007 4:56:43 PM PDT by fish hawk (The religion of Darwinism = Monkey Intellect)
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To: Dutch Boy
What really stinks is they do not have a cholesterol problem.
95 posted on 09/10/2007 4:57:38 PM PDT by mad_as_he$$ (Remember Mustang 22 and her heroes.)
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To: Solitar
Pssst Bambi Tastes great with gravy

whats a good recipe for whale

96 posted on 09/10/2007 5:11:14 PM PDT by Charlespg (Peace= When we trod the ruins of Mecca and Medina under our infidel boots.)
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To: ought-six
"The tongue was a favored and choice cut. It had nothing to do with ceremony, and everything to do with taste. The only truly ceremonial cut was the heart."

Tongue hunts were largely for ceremony.

"And, as for the so-called “annual hunt,” you make it sound like they went out for a month or so and hunted, much like we hunt deer nowadays. The plains tribes such as the Sioux and the Cheyenne and the Arapaho (just to name a handful) followed the buffalo herds, so it wasn’t so much an “annual hunt” but a perpetual hunt until winter made logistics unmanageable(they also went after antelope, elk, deer, etc.; however, one of their main staples was dog)."

Yes, they followed the herds. Their lodges were buffalo hide weighing near a 1/2ton, so they didn't move, but maybe once a year. The annual hunt I referred to was when they killed large numbers of buffalo and brought large amounts of stuff back to camp. Their regular hunts did not involve killing large numbers, as in driving them off a cliff.

97 posted on 09/10/2007 5:39:44 PM PDT by spunkets ("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
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To: spunkets

“Their lodges were buffalo hide weighing near a 1/2ton, so they didn’t move, but maybe once a year.”

With all due respect, you know absolutely nothing of the Plains Indians. They moved their village sites several times during the year. Theirs was a semi-nomadic culture, made more so because of the horse. The only time they stayed in one place for any stretch was when they went into their winter camps. The Plains Indians did not farm like their eastern or far-western counterparts. As for their lodges, they used deer hides, elk hides, buffalo hides, you name it.


98 posted on 09/11/2007 2:20:53 AM PDT by ought-six ("Give me liberty, or give me death!")
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To: ought-six
"With all due respect, you know absolutely nothing of the Plains Indians. "

Whatever.

99 posted on 09/11/2007 8:19:23 AM PDT by spunkets ("Freedom is about authority", Rudy Giuliani, gun grabber)
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