triumphguy

Let me repeat: If the perps had been taken hunting by their fathers they would never have treated the moose calf like this.

el_richo

I'm not a hunter nor have ever been hunting. I personally like the idea of hunting for sport, trophy, profit, etc. So my recent point being the fact that an animal being killed needlessly would occur whether it was by the hands of some kids with sticks or a 45yr old person with a high powered rifle. The only difference may be the length of suffering?

FYI, I know a lot of people who do hunt (my FIL and close friends included).

Saying that, i'm not a fan of fishing either because i don't want to hurt them

dbd33

That's a bit circular. Just about everyone in Newfoundland hunts. People who do not hunt themselves are exposed to hunting, they grow up with a bottle of moose in the fridge and pressure to enter the lottery for tags. There is a culture of hunting. There's no reason to think these people grew up as shut-ins and so every reason to think that, in their case, hunting is irrelevant to animal cruelty.

Are you driving at the idea that hunting and cruelty are mutually exclusive or the existence of some mystical bond with their fathers forged over animal carcasses which, counter-intuitively, makes the boys animal lovers in later life?

el_richo

Ooops a silly error in my post. It should say "I personally DO NOT like the idea of hunting......."

triumphguy

Thanks for expanding your meaning.

The juxtaposition of hunting with wanton cruelty is misleading and false.
These kids were intending to inflict suffering and were probably enjoying the fear and panic of the calf. A hunter does not intend to inflict suffering and takes no joy in it. A kill has to be as clean and quick as possible.

What the kids did lacked any kind of respect for another creature. Hunters respect the animals they hunt. If they had been hunting with an ethical hunter they would have known and understood the difference between inflicting pain for pleasure and killing for food or sport.

I don't know "if just about everyone in Newfoundland hunts." Probably many people do. I don't know if these teens were exposed to it. From their actions I would say not.

It would be nice if "mystical bonds were forged" while hunting, but I think it's more down to earth than that. It's the handing on of a tradition of respect and self discipline This vid might expain better than me.

Atlantic Xpat

More here: http://www.thetelegram.com/index.cfm?sid=277412&sc=79

Seems that a) no-one witnessed or is prepared to come forward as a witness that they saw three kids chasing and beating a moose and b) one or more of them has an albi that they were busy vandalising a church when the moose was allegedly beaten! Not Newfoundlands finest then.

dbd33 has the right of it - even if you don't hunt you know enough not to torture animals. Hell, I'm a CFA and even I know that.

hereandthere

This kind of animal cruelty - and the kind supplied in the link about the deer being killed in Dorset - is closely linked to serious psychosis. While many of these "children" would have been fueled by mob psychology, at least one in each case is basically, well, probably psychotic. It's pretty common to find animal cruelty in the childhood pasts of serial killers.

In other words, put the ****ers on a moor somewhere and make them break rocks for the rest of their worthless lives.

OnlineCB

Well according to today's Telegram the incident was misrepresented and they have apologized; officials now think the children involved were trying to assist the moose in getting up and returning to its mother

http://www.thetelegram.com/index.cfm?sid=280477&sc=80

Jeers: to bad information. Witnesses told the police. The police told the media. And the media told it to you. And now it seems the story of the moosechasing youngsters is not true. Two weeks ago, the RCMP in Deer Lake said teenaged boys on bikes had chased a moose calf and beaten it with sticks. The exhausted moose had to be put down. Police now believe one child may have prodded the young moose with a stick to get it back on its feet. The moose, rather than harrassed, may have just become ill after getting separated from its mother. Apologies to the town of Deer Lake for the bad press.

It's just too bad the apology didn't receive the same coverage as the original story.

act1980

Ah well that's good. Unlike the thugs in the UK!!