elbesta
Loving the herd life
trampledbygeese are you in a populated area or is it you cant use a gun in Canada ?
do you slaughter out of sight/sound of the rest of the herd/flock?
- Thread starter bj taylor
- Start date
trampledbygeese
Loving the herd life
Most farmers across the country have the right to use a gun, especially for defending livestock or dispatching for food, injury, or illness, &c. so long as the gun is registered and the person has gone through the coarse thing. I think they need a licence and criminal record check too. Or maybe that's just for handguns. I'm really not up on the current requirements, but it's simple enough for most people to get.
However, my specific collection of municipalities has deemed that any use of firearm to be a big no-no. There is a very large conflict between the rights we have as farmers and the local laws against firearms. The local law conflicts with the federal laws... but until it's tested in court the local law stands.
It really annoys me because one of the big motivations behind it (aside from stopping people shooting eachother, that I agree with) is to prevent the cruelty to animals.
I reiterate. To stop cruelty to animals, we are not allowed to use a gun on our farm.
I was in shock when I heard this rational. When you know something about farming, this seems so wrong.
So if I catch a raccoon tearing apart my poultry, instead of being able to dispatch the raccoon there and then, I have to trap it in a live trap and end it by drowning. It takes a few nights to live trap the thing, they are cunning, and we risk of losing more livestock. Then the raccoon who is only doing what is natural to it, has to die a very slow and horrid death by drowning? I had one still alive after half an hour under water. How is that less cruel than a quick shot?
Or maybe a cougar is eating my sheep, instead of stopping the situation immediately, we have to call the cops and by the time they get here, the cougar is long gone, but has learned how to catch and eat sheep... many more sheep die, and sometimes humans before the cougar is stopped.
Or if my animal is suffering from something that cannot be fixed, I have two choices, euthanasia which means the carcass must be disposed of as hazardous waste or slit it's throat. Neither is nice for the animal. A gunshot is more simple and the suffering ends instantly.
Or even simply ending an animal as quickly and gently as possible so it can become food... I've seen several different methods done, and I think that by gunshot has been the most gentle, though Halal comes in a very close second.
Personally, I'm very conflicted about guns. I see how much good they do on the farm. But then again... I don't know if I actually want to use one.
However, my specific collection of municipalities has deemed that any use of firearm to be a big no-no. There is a very large conflict between the rights we have as farmers and the local laws against firearms. The local law conflicts with the federal laws... but until it's tested in court the local law stands.
It really annoys me because one of the big motivations behind it (aside from stopping people shooting eachother, that I agree with) is to prevent the cruelty to animals.
I reiterate. To stop cruelty to animals, we are not allowed to use a gun on our farm.
I was in shock when I heard this rational. When you know something about farming, this seems so wrong.
So if I catch a raccoon tearing apart my poultry, instead of being able to dispatch the raccoon there and then, I have to trap it in a live trap and end it by drowning. It takes a few nights to live trap the thing, they are cunning, and we risk of losing more livestock. Then the raccoon who is only doing what is natural to it, has to die a very slow and horrid death by drowning? I had one still alive after half an hour under water. How is that less cruel than a quick shot?
Or maybe a cougar is eating my sheep, instead of stopping the situation immediately, we have to call the cops and by the time they get here, the cougar is long gone, but has learned how to catch and eat sheep... many more sheep die, and sometimes humans before the cougar is stopped.
Or if my animal is suffering from something that cannot be fixed, I have two choices, euthanasia which means the carcass must be disposed of as hazardous waste or slit it's throat. Neither is nice for the animal. A gunshot is more simple and the suffering ends instantly.
Or even simply ending an animal as quickly and gently as possible so it can become food... I've seen several different methods done, and I think that by gunshot has been the most gentle, though Halal comes in a very close second.
Personally, I'm very conflicted about guns. I see how much good they do on the farm. But then again... I don't know if I actually want to use one.
