NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/misc/rural/2910

Internet Message Format | 1993-01-28 | 2.4 KB

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From: [e-mail] (Mark Crispin)
Newsgroups: misc.rural
Subject: Re: the threat from animal-rights and environmentalists
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 26 Jan 93 18:36:45 GMT
Organization: University of Washington
Lines: 34
NNTP-Posting-Host: tomobiki-cho.cac.washington.edu
To: Steve Frysinger of Blue Feather Farm <[e-mail]>
In-Reply-To: <[e-mail]>
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Steve -

     You say that you are ``responsible for the death and consumption'' of
your animals, and that you hunt and eat your kills.  It seems that you have
defined yourself as *not* being an animal-rights activist.  Animal-rights
activists seek to ban all hunting, all animal husbandry, and all consumption
of meat.

     As for your environmentalism, you haven't said enough to define yourself.
A great many sins can be covered under ``discourage reckless development'' and
``encourage thoughtful land use practices.''  It's all a matter of degree.

     The 1989 definition of an ``environmentally-sensitive wetland'' is any
area where water is present for 7 days at a depth of 18 inches below the soil
surface.  Millions of acres of land that serve none of the functions of a
wetland -- presumably preserving water quality and providing habitat -- have
been effectively stolen from property owners using this overly-generous
definition, with no compensation.

     Other sins exist as well.  Where I live, we have huge numbers of the
tribal hippie-dippies singing insipid songs about ``working with the soil''
and preserving the farming lifestyle, but these same individuals -- through
their seizure of power in the local government -- are responsible for a
plethora of regulations which are driving farmers to extinction.  The hippie
dippies have as their allies in land seizure the Yuppies, whose idea of a
``rural area'' is one of ``piece and quiet'' with no farm machinery and
critters making noise and certainly no farm smells.

     So, where do you sit?  Is your idea of ``environmentalism'' one of using
natural resources in a responsible manner?  Or, is it the ``environmentalism''
of the extremists, who seek to create a plastic fantasy of a world untouched
by man?

-- Mark --