wishing bad things on people?

Ok so im bored and watching swamp people. Does it make me a bad person to wish one of these gators yank one of these idiots into the water and eat em? I mean i jnderstand the need to hunt to cull over populated species and i do my fate shate of big game hunting but to me this isnt fair chase at all.

I'm going to have to agree with you.

Yup pretty much. At least in the episode i watched they shot them fairly quickly. Like they didnt pretend there was some dramatic struggle that stressed out the gator even more. They sorta just hooked it, reeled it in and ended it.

yeah absolutely. If a gator snagged one of those morons and ate him on camera it would probably be the highest rated show. Hmmm maybe a new show idea "hillbilly hand gatoring" ha ha.

Lmao now thats funny right there

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Originally Posted by luvmyballs

yeah absolutely. If a gator snagged one of those morons and ate him on camera it would probably be the highest rated show. Hmmm maybe a new show idea "hillbilly hand gatoring" ha ha.

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That would be realllllyyy bad lol. The bill nelson would be like all reptiles with 4 legs are unsafe!!! Ban leopard geckos and beardies!

Personally, I'd have no issues with one of those guys getting pulled in the water and death rolled. Hey, sometimes when you mess with the bull, you get the horn.

I've only seen a few episodes of that show, but I have to agree with snake lab, I don't see much fair chase in baiting a line and "chootin' em' in the head.

If you really thought humans would play fair in anything then your sadly mistaken. The show does not bother me one bit. People are gonna be people an take the easy way out of everything. Lets face it no one wants to work hard for anything these days.

This is Rylmad's husband speaking so don't count it against her :)

What people have to realize is that this is a television show not showing someone participating in a hobby like big game hunting. This is the livelihood of the individuals being filmed and they are doing it for money for their families.

It would be similar to filming a beef slaughterhouse and then wondering why fair chase was not allowed for the cows. Although there are more efficient ways to harvest alligators(farming), it is the way that they do it and it assists in population control.

All that being said I agree that it would be somewhat humorous to see the gator get the upper hand once in awhile.

Of course this isn't fair.

Gator hunting in Louisiana isn't sport. It's a highly regulated business. They harvest a specific number of animals so that their flesh can be sold to restaurants and the hides are sold to European fashion designers.

There is sport-hunting for trophy gators all over the south from Louisiana to Florida, and it's nothing close to the same methods for filling 500 alligator tags by setting lines. It's trekking through swampland by boat or foot, spotting hundreds of gators before finding "the one" you want to take. It's a lot more work than sitting in a deer stand for five hours on a cold morning. Don't get me wrong either, filling 500 tags in a short alligator season is HARD work even if it is't "sporting". It's more along the lines of the trapping of furbearers that goes on here in MN. Some people do it for sport, but there are a few people who make their living spending 14 hours a day throughout the season tending to hundreds snares, body grippers, and footholds on hundreds of acres of land that must be traveled by foot.

Don't forget the history of alligator hunting in the US. They were unregulated and over harvested to the point where they were given protection and defined as an endangered species. They are the masters of their environment, and once left alone by people were able to return to lowest-concern status. Now with just enough regulation to stop over harvesting, the hunting of alligators (for sport or for profit) is a balanced affair that does not hurt their population numbers.

The alligator hunting on Swamp People isn't "fair chase".. but I'd like to see anyone try to fill 500 deer tags using "fair chase" methods as well, as if their livelihood depends on it.

Getting all emotional over the regulated harvest of wild animals that remind you of your pets makes you look like those furry-animal keepers who get emotional towards US for feeding rats to our reptiles, and wish harm towards us.

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Originally Posted by BallsUnlimited

If you really thought humans would play fair in anything then your sadly mistaken.

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No, I of all people, know that humans don't play fair. Which is why I won't really care if one of those dudes ends up as dinner.

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Originally Posted by Rylmad

It would be similar to filming a beef slaughterhouse and then wondering why fair chase was not allowed for the cows.

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Cows are domesticated live stock. The alligators the Swamp People hunt are wild. There is a bit of a difference even if the end result is similar.

Also, I never said I thought there should be fair chase, I just observed that there wasn't much.

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

Getting all emotional over the regulated harvest of wild animals that remind you of your pets makes you look like those furry-animal keepers who get emotional towards US for feeding rats to our reptiles, and wish harm towards us.

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How does an observation on fair chase vs. not fair chase = having an emotional reaction? No emotion here. Honestly, I couldn't give the square root of a rat's butt how they hunt gators, so long as they don't deplete the supply.

Now, if one of the Swamp People were to get eaten on an episode, I might get an emotion, but not the one you're alluding to...:D

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Originally Posted by Slim

How does an observation on fair chase vs. not fair chase = having an emotional reaction?

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Just to clarify, none of my comments were directed towards anyone in particular.

I do consider wishing people to be severely injured or killed to be pretty emotional.

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Originally Posted by mainbutter

I do consider wishing people to be severely injured or killed to be pretty emotional.

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While I will certainly conceed this point, I would beg some lattitude given the fact that I've spent 27 years in or working for the military. We strive toward taking the emotion out of that particular process. Not saying that is a good thing, or a bad thing, it just is what it is.

I have no problem with the harvesting, the methods they're using or the numbers they're taking.

You should also realize, quite a bit of the "fights" they show with the gator in the water is done with a dead gator. I noticed once a limp floppy leg during some thrashing about, and then started really WATCHING for it. Many of the underwater fighting is a tethered dead gator being slung around.

Even if all the fights were real with live gators, they're reeling them in as quickly as possible to shoot them. It's not about sporting or fair, it's just business. I don't feel like deer hunters should get gored to death, nor hog hunters get eaten up by a feral hog. I don't want a gator hunter to get bitten or killed by a gator just because he's doing a job his family has been doing for generations.

I do reserve the right to wish certain folks on tv would get mauled at least a little bit, but it's due to their personality and being complete jerks.... not just because they happen to harvest gators.

And gators taste good. Technically shouldn't everyone really support the gator hunting vs farming? I mean, everyone seems to scream about 'free range' being better... what's freer range than wild, right? LOL. That argument never works on most folks touting organice-freerange-whatever.

What they are doing is not hunting, it's trapping. I trap furbearers, and all i hear is how cruel it is. The show makes it seem like it's all about money, but in reality it's about adrenaline, being in touch with nature, and being able to outsmart a wild animal. Professional land trappers make a lot of money but the amount of wisdom they have is more outstanding. I assume that there is way more to trapping gators than we can tell from just watching swamp people. And the show does overdo the whole cajun thing. makes it seem like they have no education.

Ok here's my two cents. This thread started out kinda humorous. Ok maybe kinda dark humor but humorous none the less. I realize some people might not see the humor or the irony of a gator hunter getting ate by something he was trying to kill then sorry but I have a right to my sense of humor just like eyeryone else. I just think we do not need to turn every thing into a debate of morality. Or maybe we should so we have something to do tonight. Ha ha

I see humor in it, don't worry, you aren't alone.
I like the show, though. I think it's nice to see a fairly realistic portrayal of people working in a business that is taboo to most 'city folks'. It's quick and dirty. I appreciate the fact that they managed to make it dramatic without overdoing the Drama, or drawing things out.
As for the alligators...they're doing just fine, and frankly, I prefer to see food gathered this way, and would definitely prefer to eat it, over cows standing knee deep in their own poo in a feed lot being fed corn that loads their intestines with dangerous pathogenic bacteria.

Every once in a while, someone doing that job is going to lose a hand...or even their life. We do like the excitement that comes with watching people in danger. That's what 'Deadliest Catch' is all about, too.
It's also what the Colosseum in Rome was all about. It's part of human nature, for better or for worse (but, mostly, both).

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Originally Posted by WingedWolfPsion

I see humor in it, don't worry, you aren't alone.
I like the show, though. I think it's nice to see a fairly realistic portrayal of people working in a business that is taboo to most 'city folks'. It's quick and dirty. I appreciate the fact that they managed to make it dramatic without overdoing the Drama, or drawing things out.
As for the alligators...they're doing just fine, and frankly, I prefer to see food gathered this way, and would definitely prefer to eat it, over cows standing knee deep in their own poo in a feed lot being fed corn that loads their intestines with dangerous pathogenic bacteria.

Every once in a while, someone doing that job is going to lose a hand...or even their life. We do like the excitement that comes with watching people in danger. That's what 'Deadliest Catch' is all about, too.
It's also what the Colosseum in Rome was all about. It's part of human nature, for better or for worse (but, mostly, both).

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Well ok I agree. When I was a younger man I had the good fortune of being able to race open wheel race cars up and down the west coast. People would flock to those tracks some to see good racing but a lot of people just wanted to see crashes and flips the more the better. I understand peoples need to watch dangerous stuff and I was ok with that we all knew the risk. Now about alligator meat. I am sure wild caught gator is better tasting just like deer or elk taste better from the wild that is why we have chickens and buy most of our meat from a local family run butcher shop healthier and tastier . But I am not sure where to get gator meat where I live but I might try it . Does it taste like chicken? Ha ha

Gator tail does taste a little like chicken. Or at least more like chicken than like beef. A lot of gator meat is from farmed gators now.

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

Gator tail does taste a little like chicken. Or at least more like chicken than like beef. A lot of gator meat is from farmed gators now.

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I've had quite a bit of gator tail, and I think it taste like frog legs...guess that kinda' makes sense...

I haven't seen the show, I try not to watch things that I'm sure will lower my IQ. However, my understanding is they simply hook these guys, pull them in and shoot them.

How is that hunting again?

I like gator meat. I've only had it a few times, but I've got nothing against their harvest. What I do have something against is some nitwit pretending that he's outsmarting some creature that doesn't even know the nitwit is after it. Suppose you tried to hook a deer then real it in, or pull the line in, until it was close enough to shoot. Do you suppose that would be entertaining or give someone bragging rights about how this is how we dun it fer a hunner year, my daddy did it and his daddy did it so I'm a gonna did it too.

Yeah, I can feel my brain melting just writing this post, which I why I don't watch that crap to begin with.

If you want to brag about going up against a creature, then do it. Drop the gun, pick up a knife and then I'll listen to you brag. I'm not much interested in guys who shoot deer from 500 yards either. Now an archer making a good shot, that I can respect, that takes some skill. Sitting in a tree with a high powered rifle, throwing bait out on the ground, well, I'm not sure what that takes but courage doesn't seem to be a necessary ingredient, nor much skill either.

Actually, one of the guys did kill a sizable gator with a knife last time I watched...

But none of the 'hunters' think it's a sport. They're harvesting wild game, efficiently. They have to figure where to hang baits, and know how to draw the gator to the surface to shoot it. Having commercial fished before, it does take experience and skill to be good at it, but it's not a "sport".

At least it is a regulated hunt with regards to maintaining and protecting wild gator populations. I wish the same would be done to protect rattler populations.

Frankly, I don't mind that they kill the gators. I know it's regulated, I know it's a booming business, and I know that gators are considered pests down there. And I can respect that.

What bothers me is that they make a spectacle of it. No one should be entertained by the death of an animal. Even game hunters respect the animals they kill. And you know they're only doing it because people think alligators are scary. To bring back the previous counterexample of cattle in a slaughterhouse, why isn't there a tv show showing cattle being slaughtered?

And why in god's name is it on History Channel? That doesn't even make sense.

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Originally Posted by SpartaDog

Frankly, I don't mind that they kill the gators. I know it's regulated, I know it's a booming business, and I know that gators are considered pests down there. And I can respect that.

What bothers me is that they make a spectacle of it. No one should be entertained by the death of an animal. Even game hunters respect the animals they kill. And you know they're only doing it because people think alligators are scary. To bring back the previous counterexample of cattle in a slaughterhouse, why isn't there a tv show showing cattle being slaughtered?

And why in god's name is it on History Channel? That doesn't even make sense.

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Makes perfect sense to me that its shown on the History channel, I am from south La, I have hunted gator before and I personally know the Klieberts and the one thing the show really doesn't hint on is that this is a dying way of life. The actual Cajun way of life as portrayed in the show is on its last legs, and this show more than anything is documenting and preserving this soon to be lost way of life making it fitting its on the history Channel. I also feel the need to point out that this is not considered hunting, its commercial Fishing and is define as such, hence the methods used. Actual hunting falls under a different set of regulations, and gators cannot be taken on a baited line if "hunting" them.

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Originally Posted by SpartaDog

No one should be entertained by the death of an animal.

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Blame the History Channel!

Spectacle, ghosts, and bigfoot. You know, history :P

I wouldn't mind seeing a gator get the upper hand sometime... :O