OT: I love it when Mother Nature wins a round.

[Guest]

I know it’s wrong and would never condone poaching. But, I also grew up in a middle class home with plenty of food, clothing, and shelter. You never know what you might do to feed yourself and your family.
I don’t think they are the people portrayed in movies, I think they don’t know any better. There has to be an understanding of why it’s wrong before saying every poacher should be put to death for hunting endangered animals. 

[Guest]

@JimmyinSD said:

@jargomcfargo said:
I hope we aren't applying our standards to those who may be starving!

Come again? 

I think he's saying we are applying our outrage to only the front line of the poaching problem.  In a poverty stricken region poaching may be one of the only options for feeding ones family. The ones who risk the most and receive the least often. If you really want to end it set a pride of lions loose in the office of the rich Chinese businessmen who believe ingesting endangered rhino horn will give them better wood. Simple supply and demand. Behind many hunts to extinction is the money to pay the premium prices that the last of anything cost.
Or maybe he's just pro-lion and I'm way off base.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional...the-world/

[Guest]

@suncoastvike said:

@JimmyinSD said:

@jargomcfargo said:
I hope we aren't applying our standards to those who may be starving!

Come again? 

I think he's saying we are applying our outrage to only the front line of the poaching problem.  In a poverty stricken region poaching may be one of the only options for feeding ones family. The ones who risk the most and receive the least often. If you really want to end it set a pride of lions loose in the office of the rich Chinese businessmen who believe ingesting endangered rhino horn will give them better wood. Simple supply and demand. Behind many hunts to extinction is the money to pay the premium prices that the last of anything cost.
Or maybe he's just pro-lion and I'm way off base.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional...the-world/

Oh I agree on the penalties going up the "food chain",  however I can't go along with doing what ever to feed a family.  If they were that poor I doubt they ha e a silenced hunting rifle...maybe, but I am betting this wasn't their first time and they were doing it strictly for the cash.  If they were that hungry and had a hunting rifle...why wouldn't they shoot something they planned on feeding to their families?

[Guest]

@JimmyinSD said:

@suncoastvike said:

@JimmyinSD said:

@jargomcfargo said:
I hope we aren't applying our standards to those who may be starving!

Come again? 

I think he's saying we are applying our outrage to only the front line of the poaching problem.  In a poverty stricken region poaching may be one of the only options for feeding ones family. The ones who risk the most and receive the least often. If you really want to end it set a pride of lions loose in the office of the rich Chinese businessmen who believe ingesting endangered rhino horn will give them better wood. Simple supply and demand. Behind many hunts to extinction is the money to pay the premium prices that the last of anything cost.
Or maybe he's just pro-lion and I'm way off base.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional...the-world/

Oh I agree on the penalties going up the "food chain",  however I can't go along with doing what ever to feed a family.  If they were that poor I doubt they ha e a silenced hunting rifle...maybe, but I am betting this wasn't their first time and they were doing it strictly for the cash.  If they were that hungry and had a hunting rifle...why wouldn't they shoot something they planned on feeding to their families?

I agree. There's plenty of guilt to go around.

[Guest]

The world makes enough food for everyone not to go hungry.  The problem is a distribution issue not a lack of food issue.  The suggestion that they need to poach because they're potentially poor suggests that we value our economic systems more than rhinos.  This is an issue that affects the US as well, because technology and automation is increasingly hollowing out industry into a select few with valuable skills and the masses with undervalued commodity labor that is rapidly being replaced.

Now if they're poor, and they have to do what they have to do, you can't fault them, but it's not like we get a free pass, because our choice of economic rules puts them in that situation.

[Guest]

@Riphawkins said:
I know it’s wrong and would never condone poaching. But, I also grew up in a middle class home with plenty of food, clothing, and shelter. You never know what you might do to feed yourself and your family.
I don’t think they are the people portrayed in movies, I think they don’t know any better. There has to be an understanding of why it’s wrong before saying every poacher should be put to death for hunting endangered animals. 

The poachers were starving you say???  Are you suggesting we fatten them up before feeding them to the lions?  Lions don't want no stinking skinny poachers!!!

[Guest]

I think that all of us should be careful what we wish for.  It's easy (and fun, I suppose) to wish/hope/enjoy it when people get "what they deserve"... but that's probably because we have an inflated (and false) sense of who we are and what we "deserve".  I, for one, am thankful for grace: that I DON'T get what I deserve (because if I did... I wouldn't be around to type out this response...).

[Guest]

@pumpf said:
I think that all of us should be careful what we wish for.  It's easy (and fun, I suppose) to wish/hope/enjoy it when people get "what they deserve"... but that's probably because we have an inflated (and false) sense of who we are and what we "deserve".  I, for one, am thankful for grace: that I DON'T get what I deserve (because if I did... I wouldn't be around to type out this response...).

oh so now you are going to be that guy?  come on man,  you know you have a little part inside that is cheering for the lions.   =)

[Guest]

havnt read the article. did they kill the lions afterwards?

[Guest]

Given this misguided logic we'd have to excuse ever thief for stealing until we've dissected their needs based on economic  situations.