Live pups and kittens used a bait

[stdave1]

Just saw an article today where on the French island of Reunion live puppies and kittens are being used as shark bait. Guess this is another reason to hate the French.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

Thats outrageous. I assume you have proof, or can refer us to your source?

 

[nessonite1]

Sure this wasn't The Onion?

 

[gila67]

I'd like to see the source for this, too.

Another thing is, Reunion isn't a French island; it's French-ruled, but is actually close to Africa. So it's only as "French" as Samoa is "American".

 

[MistressValerie1]

Google News yielded nothing, but I found this page from a Dutch conservation group:

Dogs Used as Bait

Meanwhile, dogs are also involved in another assault on nature, this time as victims and as bait. On the French island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean, fishermen have been using live dogs as bait for sharks.

This practice is specifically outlawed by French law but the law, as in many places throughout the world, is ignored by fishing communities who apparently believe they are above the law.

....

In response to this Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has sent a message to the police in La Reunion offering a reward of €1,000 (Euros) for the first successful conviction of a fisherman using a dog as bait and €200 for each conviction thereafter.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

What comes around goes around. These fishermen will pay in one way or another for this whether they get caught or not. May their efforts and toil be in vain and their catches meager and insufficient until they repent. May their machinery fail and their boats stall. May what they do catch spoil and rot, and taste of bitter ashes. May the sea and it's creatures rebel against them and may they incure nature's wrath until such a time that they are worthy to be what they call themselves.

 

[mdizzle]

I saw this on the drudgereport.com (legit site) the other day and read an article from a french source. So i assume it's legit.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

Yeah. And you'll see and hear other legit. articles and newscasts too. Like me harpooning these a$$hole pieces of sea-faring $hit while singing the Gilligan's Island song.

 

[coloman]

That article shows just how cruel and inhumane some people in this world can be. If I cought them using live pups or kittens as shark bait there wouldn't be a fine, I would just use them as live shark bait instead.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

Yeah! Damnit, this has got to be the most sickening thing I have heard in a long time as far as animals are concerned. I've heard of kittens being purposely shot with crossbows, but this takes the cake for the most sickening. Just the act of doing it alone, and not the result, even the notion, the will to do it is simply not human. To have no remorse in doing something so bizarrely disgusting is uncomprehensable.

Have some people's offspring and genology been so f*cked up through the generations that THIS is what it's come to? Barbaric, unnecessary and cruel means just to attract sharks? What the hell is wrong with using the normal methods? What the hell about a dog or cat is so damn appealing in their sick minds that they think theres nothing wrong with it?

There is absolutely nothing, no damn excuse EVER for doing this to an animal, ever. You're talking about literally stabbing hooks into their paws and not giving a $hit how they wail and yelp in agonizing pain they cannot tolerate, and then to feel the ultimate betrayal of being thrown overboard like some refuse, like some piece of garbage. And thats just the beginning! Then they let the poor thing bleed to death and they yang at the line, ripping the poor thing's flesh as it bleeds some more as it struggles to stay afloat so that sharks can come and rip it to shreds!

I can honestly say that I have never thought about killing another human being. Ever. It goes against everything I believe in. But if I was over there, I would do everything short of killing them.

I know this is just talk, and I've venting over this horrible injustice and cruelty and that there is not a damn thing I can do about it....damn it makes me want to cry. I love animals...how the f*ck can they do this. It just doesn't make any sense.

This is not human to me, its simply not human. I did not need to see this. I wish I never would have heard. Ignorance truely would have been bliss.

 

[nessonite1]

Yeah. And you'll see and hear other legit. articles and newscasts too. Like me harpooning these a$$hole pieces of sea-faring $hit while singing the Gilligan's Island song.

Juuuust sit right back and you'll hear a tale
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this Frenchy port aboard a sharking ship
The mate was a mightly Russian Count
The skipper, brave and sure
Five fishermen set sail that day for a 3 hour tour...
a 3 hour tour....
The fishermen started getting rough
Some tiny pups were tossed
If not for the courage of our fearless Count
Fido would be lost...
Fido would be lost....
The ship set ground on the shores of this
Little known French isle
And Vladdie tossed... (doodiedoodiedoodiedoo)
Out the men... (doodiedoodiedoodiedoo)
With harpooooons in their backs
"and that ends that!"
Vladdie said, wiping his haaaaaands
Here on Reunion Isle

 

[BigNorm]

I'd like to see the source for this, too.

Another thing is, Reunion isn't a French island; it's French-ruled, but is actually close to Africa. So it's only as "French" as Samoa is "American".

but it's french ruled, so they make this crap legal, hence you can still hate the french.

 

[joham1]

Did anyone read the excerpt posted? This is illegal under French law.

But then, locking up people and holding them without trial or access to a lawyer is against something called the Constit... constamatu... constitution, I think it's called, but that doesn't seem to prevent the American Christian Empire from doing it.

I'll have some French Fries please.

And so endeth the "don't hate all people of one nationality because of a few freaks" rant.

Oh, and drudgereport as a legit news source?! That's funny. You're killing me here.

Edit: it's also interesting that there's such outrage over the use of dogs and cats. I'm not saying it's right, but would there really be so much fuss if the animals weren't cute? What if they baited the shark with one of the many cows that are destined to end up in your Quarter Pounder with cheese?

My personal annoyance is that they're fishing for sharks - the oceans will be bare of them if we're not careful. The shark has been around for a considerable amount of time longer than we have and we'll have made them extinct in the blink of an eye.

 

[coloman]

Hey joham, don't bring up the topics of the U S Constitution and to use your words the 'American Christian Empire' because they are not even germain to this thread. What these fishermen are doing is barbaric and inhumane. Like I said earlier I would just skip the fine and use them for live bait if I ever had the opportunity to do so. Sharks have been around for millions of years and they will still be in all of the Worlds oceans except the Arctic long after we humans are long gone so there goes another one of your pipe dreams up in smoke. As far as the other stuff you bring up in your post most of it is not germain to the topic of this thread either but I think that should be pretty obvious to everyone to say the least.

 

[Johnny21]

Ugh...tough topic...I hate animal-teasers.

 

[general zod1]

People who do stuff like that should be turned into "Soylent Green"

 

[Hiryu]

I've read about cruel shit like this on the net and even seen stuff on the national news. There is one country where people cast live animals off of a cliff as a way to appeas their god or gods. I've also always heard that in Spain that animals are tormented with firecrackers and other things as a form of amusement at parties and in "The running of the bulls" the bull is constantly tormented, mostly on the face/head in order to inrage it. As for eating certain animals I don't think that qualifies here as we are not talking about roasting and/or eating creatures alive.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

You left something about Spain out, the biggest one, Keeper D- bull fighting. Quite literally, the madador is stabbing the bull to death with spears/swords until its so exhausted from loss of blood and pain that it just collapses and dies and/or when the matador scores a fatal blow/impales the heart, etc. This is a national passtime there and has been for a very long time. And while I don't expect them to be rid of it, it would be better if its simply a game of tiring the bull and lasting against it. Sort of a man v.s animal thing, where its simply a game of besting the bull, not killing or wounding it. Just the rush of dodging an enraged bull is fun enough to see and pay tickets for, but is it really necessary to kill them? I'm not so sure.

 

[Hiryu]

You're right. I did forget bull fighting. It's one of the greatest atrocities of animal cruelty out there. I swear if I were in the stands and the idiot got trampled and pummeled to death by the bull, I would probably point and laugh like a drunken heckler on crack.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

LOL! I guess theres something to be said for making the most of a bad situation, huh?

 

[Kalamos]

"Another reason to think."

I am deeply disappointed over this thread, and the replies I've seen so far.

I consider this whole discussione a bait, a flame bait.
I am opinionated. No denial there. But I've never been too vocal. I felt respected, and offered my respect to you all.

Then a "kind" gentleman, on a bad day, told another user to shut up, because said user was from a "small socialist country".
Something had changed that day.

I urge you all to stop.
Respect is harldy won a coin. Easily lost it is.
I've been called an America-hater. That is farthest from truth as I can ever conceive.
I am *wary*. Wary of people who seek excuses to hate. Of those who bathe in rhetorics, and demean fellow users by calling them "unpatriotic", at the slightest sign of dissention.

Some think France refused to help America against terrorism.
That is grossly inaccurate. France refused to join a war for power and oil.
Such is the widely spread opinion on Iraqi War.
Germany detained support too; Spain left Iraq shortly after.

There is no real reason for hating a country, except, perhaps, hatred for its own sake.
I fear I am wasting my time; my words might go unheeded by those who look down upon foreigners - me and my country, and Europe as a whole.
They claim we should be grateful to America, and be in awe of its glory and wholesome principles.

Be true to those principles, I say!
Land of freedom? Empty words if you allow yourselves to forget where you came from. You used to be rejects. Slaves, even.
Do not help those who would like to pervert your ideals, and raise fences where bridges should be built.

Let us not allow this community to be taken apart by a few troublesome individuals.
This forum is being held together by a common purpose, a sense of unity.

I appeal to your history, gentlemen. You've fought to become one and whole, under the same banner.
Be open-minded and welcoming, do not let a false sense of nationalism obfuscate your judgement.


"Another reason to hate the French." he said.
Let us prune the users list, I say.
Being fair handed so far proved fruitless. It only allowed this kind of behaviour to flourish, to fester boundless.
I am invoking stark measures to be taken against flame-baiting and hate-speaking, of any kind. Especially on ethnic and religious basis.

I ask the moderators to do their proper job and take rightful action, by letter and spirit of the TTC rules.
Act now before those guidelines become just an annoying preface to a flame-ridden clump of unsorted media files.

Please, lock this thread and make an example of it.
Let all know we value our principles, and we'll let nobody warp them out of malice or carelessness.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

Sorry, but I hardly see why a thread should be locked or made an "example of" simply because you and another person(s) aren't seeing eye-to-eye on unrelated subject matter. Take your scuffle elsewhere.

This thread has a topic, and that topic has merit and has had it since the beginning, minus the posts in question. This is about cruelty to animals and our outrage over that, not about nationalities or how we do/do not get along.

Rather than penalize an otherwise fine discussion and it's participants, I'd sooner urge the mods to simply delete/edit those political posts, as they have no business here. I feel this thread is better served this way, rather than what you're suggesting.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

On topic, I'm also disturbed by whaling. The Blue Whale (the largest mammal in the world) has declined drastically. It is believed that there are only about 600 blue whales left, at least thats what I heard. Those numbers may be inaccurate.

These gentle giants should just be left alone, but their sheer size make them prime targets for hunters, poachers and other sonsabitches.

I could see if whaling was necessary, but its not. Its practically a sport and they kill these magnificant creatures for just some parts of them. Its like how the settlers would kill buffalo and leave everything but the hide, whereas the native americans honored the animals in whole, by not allowing their bodies to go to waste.

A side question- what is your (and by your I mean anyone genuinely interested) opinion on cosmetics/furs/clothing made from animals, and for that matter, whats your opinion on animal testing of these and various other products? Should we continue, or are we wrong in assuming that just because animals are a "lower form" of life, that its justified?

 

[-Kunoke-]

You left something about Spain out, the biggest one, Keeper D- bull fighting. Quite literally, the madador is stabbing the bull to death with spears/swords until its so exhausted from loss of blood and pain that it just collapses and dies and/or when the matador scores a fatal blow/impales the heart, etc. This is a national passtime there and has been for a very long time. And while I don't expect them to be rid of it, it would be better if its simply a game of tiring the bull and lasting against it. Sort of a man v.s animal thing, where its simply a game of besting the bull, not killing or wounding it. Just the rush of dodging an enraged bull is fun enough to see and pay tickets for, but is it really necessary to kill them? I'm not so sure.

While your point is valid and has been argued about by many, bull fighting is more than just entertainment for Spanish people. Technically, it is just plain brutal murder, but thats not the reason it's entertaining to them. Bull fighting is a sport (yes, that much is true) of honor, and glory. Fans of bull fighting consider it to be very honorable to let a bull have a death such as that. The point of a bull fight is not really man vs. animal, it's basically a measure of honor. And actually, some people don't know it, but the bull is not always killed. It's a rare occassion to be sure, but it happens.

The gist of what I'm saying is, what you see bull fighting as is the honest truth, but what it's meaning is goes far deeper.

 

[MistressValerie1]

We need to address a few points about this thread.

First, the only sources I can find for the story are hearsay accounts from conservation or animal-activist groups; news searches have yielded no primary sources that confirm the animal cruelty.

All news articles found simply state that former actress Brigitte Bardot has called on officials to prosecute "the reported use by fishermen on the island of Reunion of live puppies and kittens as shark bait" (emph. added). The articles, all identical, refer to a Reunion newspaper's statement that one dog was found penetrated by hooks; a French animal rights group then offered its interpretation that this represents widespread abuse, but provided no evidence:

According to Clicanoo, a newspaper in Reunion, a French island located in the Indian Ocean, a six-month-old puppy was found last month with hooks implanted in its snout and one of its legs.

The French Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) told the daily the dog was the victim of cruel fishermen who attract sharks by throwing puppies or kittens into the water, tied to fishing lines, and wait for the predators to swallow the thrashing animals.

Secondly, Reunion islanders are not French per se, but Reunion is subject to French law, which prohibits animal cruelty. I believe that the original anti-French remark in the first post resulted from a mistaken belief that this supposed practice was permitted by French law.

I share the concerns raised by some about recent political and religious jingoism dividing this community along nationalistic lines. I would like to ask all members to use common sense and common courtesy when speaking about other peoples' national origins or religious beliefs, for the overall good of the forum.

If this or any other thread becomes intractibly disruptive, we will close or delete it, but especially in bona fide political debates, we want to do so only as a last resort if all appeals to reason fail.