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By Stone Martindale May 31, 2007, 14:38 GMT
UPDATE: 'Hogzilla 2' killer is 11 year-old Alabama boy
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Older Talkback
Hogzilla was a legendary feral pig that was killed in Georgia in 2004. There is a film being made about that pig.
After reading all posted comments to date, I for once speak my mind online. I for one, am a hunter, father, and 'country' boy. I was among the few in my young generation (25 y/o) to ge brought up around guns. I was never 'formally' educated in hunter education or gun safety until the age of 12, at which point I was already well versed in hunting and gun usage. I was raised in a manner that most, this day and age, would dissagree with. You people who can't understand why somebody would take a YOUNG MAN (That is what the father is trying to raise) hunting with *heaven fordid* a gun of all things, and actually kill an animal (just as dead as what you find at the store), will never understand our way of thinking...because WE THINK! A few quotes for those of you that think I too, am crazy:
'Never argue with an idiot, as they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.'
'Educated people question what they're told; uneducated people do what they're told.'
'Your failure to be informed does not make me a wacko.' -- John Loeffler
A few other things that I would like to address form the comments:
1. All the school shooting have more than just guns in common. EVERY case of the horrible shootings ALSO included 'children' who were taking anti-psychotic pharmaceuticals. Every single case, every single shooter. That is factual. A kid brought up around firearms in an environment that treats such a thing as a tool, is far better adjusted for LIFE than a child who grew up knowing nothing but city life. That too is a fact, proven statistically for generations. We UNDERSTAND life, appreciate life, and in turn, actually LIVE. Your liberal views are what need to be questioned. Abortion should be in question. Factory farms (to supply YOUR inept culture with 'food')should be in question. The government should be in question. Yet you question the very thing that has occured for centuries, through which your pointless existence was made possible. Turn from your brain-washed understanding (or lack there of) and think for yourselves, the next time your eating your chemical-laden, antibiotic-laced, cruelly-treated animals, that you happily enjoy while whatching E!, The View, and all your other brainless liberal propaganda. Get a life, as we already have one, and don't appreciate your opinions any more than you do ours. On a final note, when the U.S. collapses due to YOUR KIND running it, don't come to US, since we will be the ones SURVIVING. 'It is easier to teach a CHILD than to CORRECT an ADULT.' Think about it.
-Nathan Chapman
I am not against hunting, but when do you go hunting for game with a revolver?
N W Chapman seems like a very angry individual who maybe shouldn't own a gun???
Jim,
First rule of writing: show don't tell. Show us the links that prove your assertions.
My second point is: of course guns and gun violence are better correlated with each other than are video games and gun violence. Of course, you didn't show us the links to prove your assumptions on the links, but I'll admit it.... sigh... here goes...... Yes, there is zero 'gun violence' without 'guns.' The poster's point was not that guns are not involved in gun related violence.
And, of course, the correlation between video games and video game violence is the same, as well as popsicles and popsicle suffocation and tires with flat tires.
Clearly a gun is a necessary, but not sufficient, to have gun violence, whereas video games are neither necessary nor sufficient. However, neither observation requires that video games or guns be causal.
That said, show, don't tell. Your links?
Hmmm... so he bagged a boar... I feel sorry for the kid. Why? Because I grew up just like him, and he will not in all likelihood have the same opportunities I had. I grew up in the bible belt where I learned to hunt and fish and love the land (but not understand it in any deep sense). But it was nothing short of intellectually stiffling to grow up among people who sincerely believed that the Earth was flat (or other equally absurd silliness). I floundered in K-12 and barely had the GPA to graduate. Within 12 years I was teaching at Harvard, and now I study the cerebral cortex in normal and disease states (e.g., Alzheimer's; wish us luck). What happened? I got out. Most of my classmates did not, and I find it sad. You may disagree, but I have the benefit of experience in both worlds.
This kids 'accomplishment' will be forgotten tomorrow, and bagging a boar will not open up the world to him.
Incidentally, I love the land more now than then, and my science studies have given me a much expanded view of the natural world. But all our efforts to preserve it--and even hunting--are in vain if the rural US can not evaluate evidence (re: global warming and other) on their own and must instead rely on 'authorities' who wouldn't know how to integrate f[x^2,x] if their lives depended on it.
dan
I was taught to use firearms by my dad from the age of six, though I've never been hunting. My dad was a farmer and saw this as a rite to passage, I guess. Anyway, I never had the desire to own a gun beyond the service revolver I carried as a plain clothed rent-a-cop that I worked as during the transition that I needed to get back to civilian life from a stint in the army. I was surprised to see how many city kids joined the army over the prospect of handling powerful automatic weapons - yet, they were unable to qualify on the range since they couldn't hit a target 50 feet in front of them. Guys like me, and most farm kids, shot 'EXPERT' when qualifying and had little interest in the weapons ( I could knock a mans head off at 500 meters without a scope) as they were poorly made and jammed easily.
Teaching a child to respect and properly use a weapon at an early age may serve to dispel the urge to carry one to school or carry one as an adult to compensate for some feeling of inadequacy, fear or weakness. A gun is a mechanical device that sometimes makes noise and can kill from a distance - that's all that it is; It's not a measure of manhood or a cause for fear.
Mmmm... sausage... *drool*
It is ok for an 11 year old to use a gun under direct adult supervision. I got my first gun when I was 8 and I have 'harvested' many wild animals and all of them have been put to good use, right next to the potatoes and gravy. Don't damn the boy and his family for enjoying GOD'S gifts. So enjoy your veggies you vegean's and us who enjoy meat are goin' hunting for rabbits. By the way they are great smoked.
Wow, you people who think this is a good thing are freaking me right out. I will come at this from all sides here...
As for being raised in the city vs. the country, I was raised in the country, yet I am not a gun-toting hunter and never have been. I live in the city now, and I'm equally appalled at kids toting guns, whether they are hunting in the back woods or killing each other on the city streets.
As for vegetarianism vs. meat-eating, I am a vegetarian, as are my husband and 4 year old daughter. She has been given the choice to eat meat and she refuses because she doesn't want to hurt any animals. We understand that people eat meat, and we don't think they are bad people. The only redeeming thing this boy did was to give the meat to charity. The real shame here is that the hog had to die in the first place, in such a horrible way. If it had been left to live out its natural life, its meat could have still been given to charity when it died.
As for the boy 'spending quality time with his father,'... wow... how about reading a book together, playing football, or building a bird house? Why killing animals? It's true that far too many children watch violence on TV and participate in violent video games these days. Gone are the days of childhood innocence where kids participated in constructive activities outdoors in the summertime. Hunting animals with your dad is certainly not teaching the boy social skills or even skills that will help him later in life. It is creating the first urges to KILL in a young child, and whether this boy grows up to be a soldier, or a businessman, he will have aquired that urge to kill at a young age. Will that urge ever truly go away now? I think not. Ask yourself what is wrong with society, and try not to entirely blame it on video games and TV. Let's place the blame squarely where it lies: with the parents, because let's face it, the parents are the ones ALLOWING this behavior, whether it's TV, gaming or hunting. How about more parents saying 'No' to destructive activities and instead, allowing behavior that is GOOD for childrens' growth and development? Think about that. Which kind of parent are you?
Maybe if all you county gunlovers got off your couch and got a job maybe you wouldn't have to hunt to provide food for your families, you hill billies!
Listen--I started hunting with my dad brother and both grandfathers at 5 or so. And it was up north, not in the south.
We have a law against hunting pigs on horseback or with dogs--not like the south were they cheat-lol.
I no longer hunt but still fish 50 years later with my wife dad and son. It makes a family a lot closer. Where we live now the deer are the size of dogs. And no I am not a redneck hillbilly I'm a white collar worker as is my wife living in an area of almost 6 million people. I would damn sure prefer my kids going fishing with me than doing drugs in the streets.
Check out the Anniston Star web site. This hog was raised on a farm and then sold to the father of the boy who shot him. The hog was wandering around inside a low-fenced area, basically a hunting preserve, when he was killed. The hog's name, by the way, is Fred.
I don't have a problem with firearms, but I do have a problem with hunting for fun. If hunting was done because of the lack of food in a certain region, then I see it has a necessary thing. But killing something for sport? Cowardly. Just cowardly. Ted Nugent, at least, uses the deer he kills to feed the homeless and hungry. There is someone doing some good with the fact that they feel the ridiculous need to hunt. I don't condone the killing of any animal, but if you are going to do it, do it because there is a need, not just to kill something. I would think it fair if the animals had guns, too, but that's hardly logical. There is no need for any of us to act like a bunch of savages. This BS about honoring the spirit of the animal and all that is just nonsense. There's very little difference between killing an animal vs a human - one living thing killing another. Ridiculous. Hunting is, in no way, a good thing in my book. Firearms? You can shoot clay pigeons for sport or fun. And it is fun because I've done it, but wouldn't kill anything. It's just wrong to kill for no reason.
What does fishing in huh's comment have anything to do with this article??
You'd rather your family went fishing than doing drugs - why does there have to be a choice not to do drugs other than it's a stupid and dangerous thing to do? I agree with the posters who question a boy going hunting with a revolver!
As a person who grew up in a rural area, I never hunted, and neither did the 'majority' of the people around me. In fact, those who hunted were in the minority. To say most people in the rural areas hunt is like saying all people in the city live in skyscrapers. It makes very little sense. Your limited view from the farm, Alan, must mean you believe everyone does as you do, which isn't the case.
First of all Hunting is not a sport. It takes absolutely no talent to kill something that is not armed and, more often than not, not even moving. The mentality that because we are humans we are a 'Superior' race, and that we have the right to kill animals for the pleasure of it or because it's a relaxing experience, or to 'bond' with our children, is disgusting. You want to bond with your children how about doing something that benefits this earth, cleaning a park, volunteering at a shelter, being a big brother/sister? Instead of contributing to the demise of our earth and it's most valuable assets, animals. Without which this planet would be ruined. It's great that this father was spening time with his son, but come on, he's 11 years old and shot a wild creature 8 times, chsed it down, then shot once more point blank to kill it. This creature has survived a long time and along comes some kid who decides he has the right to end it's life. I understand it happened in the south and the mantality is a little bakward down there, but it was wrong. He shouldn't be praised for it he should be punished.
If you read my comments you would see that I don't still hunt but do still fish---
The point is it is much better to be out in nature enjoying God's beauty and abundance than being a tired ass father who lays on the couch and teaches his kids nothing about life.
By the way you sniped at me I would guess you are of the tired ass variety of father who has no idea what the kids are doing.
I realized I had spelling mistakes in my above comment, I am at work and trying to type fast. I had to add this because I know some people get really into these comment things and start picking on people when they make mistakes, like their opinion doesn't matter if they can't word it correctly!
This domesticated, not feral, hog, was shot 16 times over a three hour period. That is how long it took the kid to kill it. Plus, can you imagine being a domestic pet, then being sold to a place where you are roaming wild, no food except what you find then someone comes along and starts shooting at you? Dumb beast or not, that's cruel.
Check out the Anniston Star. There is a full report of the owners who raised the hog (Fred) and they have proof from the Game and Wildlife folks that the hog was sold to the hunting preserve's owner. You can't post a link here, which sucks, or I would. Cowards. That kid didn't accomplish jack, and his 'kill' won't win him the keys to wisdom or teach him to get out of the rural hellhole he lives in.
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