Kill Bambi

[Re: “Part of the process,” Riff-Raff, March 19] Raf Katigbak’s recent hunting column was great. I worked for Ontario parks a few years back and the Ministry of Natural Resources in Ontario. These folks participate in a seasonal deer cull. I am not 100 per cent sure of the number of deer that eat leaden death, but it’s more than a baker’s dozen. Most get fed upon by hunters, I believe.

The interesting part is this: the unintended impacts of human agriculture have led to alterations in the landscape, which really help the deer population balloon upwards. The police officer friend who shamed Raf for wanting to hunt likely wasn’t thinking of this sort of thing.

Sure it’s a bit unusual to blow away your prospective dinner with an AK, but if you know anything about the negative ecological impact of factory farms, then people would realize that “NATURE” (whatever the F that means; radioactive material is naturally occurring, yes?) is far better off by having us hunt deer than by eating bacon.

In fact, hunting deer is a way of stabilizing the ecological balance we have upset by developing an agrarian-based civilization. More farms = more deer; therefore the state of nature is better preserved by us hunting.

Furthermore, if you consider the domestication of animals, I would imagine that all of the relationships we share with well-identified domesticated animals (pigs, cows, etc.) began somewhat in the way our relationship with deer now exists. That is, our alteration of habitat led to a closer relationship with these animals (for example, wild dogs foraging on food wastes).

In this light, our alteration of habitat from forest to farmland has already changed the behaviour patterns of deer. Now they love the edges of forests and farms and will forage on farm crops. Thus, one might argue that deer are already domesticated, as they are not behaviourally the same animal they were historically in evolutionary time.

P.S. I don’t hunt. Though I did kill a terminally ill chicken once, in a mercy killing.

>>Morgan Boenke

Veggie friendly?

[Re: “Cool comforts,” Resto, March 19] I often have a look at your restaurant reviews and I just wanted to send you a friendly reminder of what vegetarianism really means. Animal-derived products—dairy, eggs, honey and such—might be a part of a vegetarian diet (if not, it’s called veganism), but no animals or their parts are. Therefore a real vegetarian does not eat fish or clams or whatever.

Please, do not confuse people more than they tend to be already and suggest that being a vegetarian means avoiding mammals (pigs, cows etc.) only, as you do in this week’s issue.

I might add that the “Vegetarian Friendly” designation in your reviews should not only mean vegetarians can find something to eat in the restaurant. If it’s “friendly,” it should mean that they actually feel welcome there. A place well known for its steak, stew, or seafood usually has nothing for non-meat-eaters to eat, unless they want soup (with a meat base, typically) or salad. And such places usually think true vegetarians either don’t exist at all or that they are really weird! Hardly “friendly.”

A good example of a truly vegetarian-friendly restaurant might be an Indian one with meat and non-meat sections, or an Italian one with lots of meat-free pasta dishes and pizzas.

Hope this helps.

>>Louise

Smarten up, sheep

[Re: “Wise man wanted,” Letters, March 19] At first reading, all I could think of was “just another rant,” but having taken some time to digest the all too real synopsis of this world’s ailments, I want to say thank you to Mr. Ed Hoyer.

Thank you for outlining what a lot of people recognize as the way our collective world functions today and what’s wrong with it. Thank you for yet another example of wasted time and resources spelling out the obvious. If one takes a close look at history, things haven’t really changed all that much since the dawn of humanity.

If computers, BlackBerrys and technology are causing you stress and eating into time with your loved ones, turn them off! Take your family for a walk in the woods, go skating, swimming or have a picnic lunch. It’s amazing how a couple of hours spent doing something simple can put the rat trace into perspective. The choice is yours to make whether you want to let life drag you around by the nose or if you create the life you want.

What we don’t need is to sit around waiting for the next Messiah to show us the way. That’s what got us into this mess in the first place.

If you don’t like what you see, get involved and effect the change. Write a letter to politicians and religious leaders at all levels demanding better and expecting more. Just don’t sit on your duff expecting someone to lead us out of it. What we need is not another shepherd—just smarter sheep. Hope resides within us. I hope for a better world every day.

Thank you Mr. Hoyer, for inspiring me to write this letter.

>>Colin Lathe

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