Let me say right up front that I have absolutely no problem with those who hunt legally and for the purpose of food. As my paternal grandfather told me more than once, If you shoot it, you better be ready to eat it. So please realize that I am not writing this piece in order to malign hunters in any way whatsoever.
However, I do have a major problem with stupid hunters and stupidity in general. And what happened recently in Norway is the perfect example of both stupidity and ignorant hunters.
Some Norwegian hunters watched carefully as their dogs made their way through a fence and spotted a herd of elk. Oh boy, what luck! Said hunters proceeded to shoot two elks through the fence, and then realized that the dead elks were inside an enclosure at a local zoo.
Don’tcha just hate when that happens?
Heinz Strathmann, the zoo’s chief executive said he:
“Reacted with disbelief…I think this is very sad, and it’s not okay. We had five elks, now we have only three.”
Will the incredibly dense hunters be punished at all? Nope. The chairman of the local wildlife tribunal said there was:
“No need to punish the men. It was a fatal error, but everyone understands that it was not done at all on purpose.”
Oh yeah? Tell that to the dead elks. Or at least try to.
The obvious question this incident raises is, How in the name of all that is holy do you not realize that you are shooting animals at a zoo? If you ask me, these two morons should have to pay a hefty fine, have their hunting licenses suspended for a year or two, and not be allowed to possess weapons for even longer.
So allow me to reiterate: Hunting is not the problem. Being an incredibly ignorant jackass of a human being is. And on that count, these Norwegian hunters are guilty as homemade sin.
Featured image by Wikimedia, available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial license.
