Drone shot down at Inhofe fundraiser

KFOR.com ^ | 01:04pm, September 13, 2015 | Nadia Judith Enchassi

[skeptoid]

OKLAHOMA CITY — An infamous fundraiser that involves shooting pigeons has taken down another flying object.

A drone that was being used to film Senator Inhofe’s pigeon fundraiser was grounded Saturday.

The annual fundraiser earns money for the senator as guests shoot at tame, banded pigeons as they’re thrown into the air.

Showing Animals Respect and Kindness is an animal rights group that secretly filmed the fundraiser for Senator Jim Inhofe last year.

This year, the group said they tried to use a drone to record the event Friday night in Greer County, but they reported the drone was shot down.

A spokesperson for S.H.A.R.K. also said the sheriff refused to investigate the fall of the drone, insisting that shooting a drone is not illegal.

[piasa]

There’s a big difference between a pigeon and a tame pigeon. I seriously doubt anyone hand fed these pigeons from hatching day on up to flight readiness, so to claim they are “tame” is silly.

[piasa]

Pigeons are nimble and hard to hit.
Those pigeons [a/k/a squab] have a much greater chance of escaping to freedom than the chicken you eat ever did, and experienced far less fear upon being killed than a chicken tripped up with a catch stick or netted and then stuffed into a killing cone to have its throat slit.[ Assuming your chicken ever was in a pen large enough to require a catch stick and wasn’t raised in a cage with no room to move around its short life.]
Wing shooting’s just a different way of putting meat on the table that serves the purpose of improving shooting skills. It’s less efficient in that the mortality is going to be lower than the usual poultry killing methods because some birds will escape, but more humane than the meat processor, and at least if you are shooting it yourself, you’re not doing like everyone else does - relying on someone else to kill your food for you to keep that uncomfortable part of existance out of sight and out of mind.

[sparklite2]

Killing for fun and killing for food aren’t the same thing.
If I had to kill all my own food, I doubt I’d become a vegetarian. Killing for grins is a little different, though.

[Bob434]

[[ Killing for grins is a little different, though.]]

It isn’t just for grins- it serves a duel purpose- it cuts down on pests, and it helps sharpen shooting skills- like I said previously- no one bats an eyelash when people call orkin to exterminate vermin- mice, rats, moles, voles, groundhogs, skunks, etc- but somehow lose their mind when someone shoots a bird- (Never mind that these birds crap all over everything- ruining barns, rotting wood, ruining feed bins, causing health hazards by their crap getting into feed- water supplies- Ruining paint jobs on vehicles and farm equipment etc-

Ranchers routinely go out shooting prairie dogs- yep- it’s fun- and improves hunting skills- HOWEVER it also serves a purpose- it cuts down on the populations that are exploding to the point they are eating themselves to starvation- they are cutting down on the numbers, and thus the numbers of burrows that cause cattle hand horses to break legs, they care cutting down on diseases like bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, etc -

Hunting serves a valid purpose- even shooting does when it comes to vermin- I don’t know if you’ve ever been around barns before, but the damage that doves and pigeons do is tremendous- and it becomes necessary to cull them when they get too abundant- which they WILL if left alone- Ever had ot have your car repainted because of bird crap ruining the paint job? Not fun!

[Bob434]

[[They probably wouldn’t have wasted corn like that]]

Nope, but they would have put out corn that had goen bad- with blight or whatever- plus they’d put out the corn stalks, and every imaginable food source to draw deer and game in - life was a real struggle- especially in winter- it took extreme survival skills to survive, and getting animals coming into spots was one of them

They would even bait bear with rotten food, and dead animals, etc- These folks couldn’t just go down to their grocery store and buy a neatly wrapped, neatly cut and butchered sirloin steak or chicken or whatever- When you have to survive on your own- you use whatever means you can to get food, and the least amount of effort you can get food with, the better- because there are other important things to do besides hunting food for days with no luck- farm animals needed taking care of, piles of wood needed to be collected, cut, stacked, lumber had to be cut by hand (No Lowes store to go to to buy premilled wood)

Etc Etc Etc- Life was VERY tough In those days

[VRWCarea51]

Those new BB/Pellet Guns are deadly on those. :)

[higgmeister]

These folks couldn’t just go down to their grocery store and buy a neatly wrapped, neatly cut and butchered sirloin steak or chicken or whatever- When you have to survive on your own- you use whatever means you can to get food, and the least amount of effort you can get food with, the better- because there are other important things to do besides hunting food for days with no luck- farm animals needed taking care of, piles of wood needed to be collected, cut, stacked, lumber had to be cut by hand (No Lowes store to go to to buy premilled wood)

Been there, done that. Bringing in the firewood was one of my chores when I was a kid on the farm. We had chickens, hogs and around thirty head of cattle so feeding them was also one of our chores. I even had to take turns with my siblings emptying the overnight slop bucket in the morning for the year or two that we didn't have indoor plumbing. I was fortunate enough in my youth to live closer to nature than most Americans nowadays.

[Bob434]

Sad that not many kids get to experience a childhood growing up on a farm these days- learning hard work, care for animals, respect of parents etc-

I had the privilege of working a bison ranch for a couple of years later in life too- That was a very memorable experience- Winters were rough as the waterline to the barn would freeze under the road, and we had to lug about 20-30 or so 5 gallon pails to the tub 2 at a time, down a steep hill in the snow- let’s just say many is the day I had to sit by the fire to thaw out my frozen clothes lol-, and that was all before going to work- then back home at night and do the routine over again

Dunno if your family used to make their own salt pork? I remember as a very young child the barrels soaking in the hall closet covered in salt- We kids would fight over who got to get the chunks of salt pork In the baked beans-

We at least had indoor plumbing- (but the pump to the well would quit often- can still remember cursing that ‘durn pump’, and when it did work was LOUD- My folks however grew up without indoor plumbing=- that’s rough especially in winter-

Great memories growing up on farm

[higgmeister]

When we slaughtered the hogs our neighbor salted down the pork. He had his own hogs and he used wooden boxes he kept on their porch. It was really exciting seeing those hogs dropped down into a 55 gallon drum of boiling water so dad and Mr McKinnon could scrape the bristles off. Then later we had home made cracklings. Good memories. I don't envy you having to hall that water but doing it for bison must have been a real experience!

[Bob434]

[[dad and Mr McKinnon could scrape the bristles off.]]

That was a rough job, I ‘helped’ a butcher/processor do this once- Maybe I was too young, but it seemed like a hard job to get the bristle off-

[[I don’t envy you having to hall that water but doing it for bison must have been a real experience!]]

Lol it wasn’t that bad, only when I’d slip- I was in pretty good shape then and could sometimes even take 4 five gallon pails at a time (We’d put in about 4 gallons in a pail to keep down on the sloshing)- so it cut down on the time to water them-

I can still smell the scalding chickens- that is a smell you can’t soon forget- Many was the day we plucked chickens- Wish more poepel had that experience lol-