Bull Shark butchered on the dock in Dania

[Rick Murchison]

Here in Belize they help botflies. After an aerial battle it deposits its egg on the proboscis of the mosquito. When the mosquito then bites you, the egg is deposited under your skin and develops into a little maggot like thing which is locally called a beef worm. See? they do some good......for botflies.

Our botflies around here just lay their little yellow eggs right on the hair of horses and cows. Don't need mosquitoes. When they get into rabbits we call 'em "wolves." If one can get past the look and the thought, the botfly maggot "wound" is really quite clean, and the flesh around it is perfectly safe to eat. (Unless, of course, it's infested with some other critter than the botfly)
Rick

 

[Hank49]

Our botflies around here just lay their little yellow eggs right on the hair of horses and cows. Don't need mosquitoes. When they get into rabbits we call 'em "wolves." If one can get past the look and the thought, the botfly maggot "wound" is really quite clean, and the flesh around it is perfectly safe to eat. (Unless, of course, it's infested with some other critter than the botfly)
Rick

Well, another good thing they do here in "Bugland" is cause a little sting when they bite. This then causes you to brush your arms and legs off more frequently also removing the sand flies and "no seeums" that you wouldn't feel and otherwise brush off resulting in many more bites. But I have to agree with you...basically, mosquitos suck.

 

[Hockeynut]

Oh, I don't know 'bout that... I kill mosquitoes and house flies with reckless abandon. And while fly maggots serve a useful place in the system, mosquitoes aren't essential to anything that I know of, except as a vector for disease.
Rick

There's lots of species of birds and stuff that rely on mosquitos. And although I don't necessarily believe it, I have read before that lots of scientists think that complete removal of the mosquitos would cause a chain reaction that would destroy all life on the planet.(boy that sounds crazy) But now I realize I've strayed from the subject of the shark and I recall eating a few before and they were lots better eating than a mosquito!

 

[ScubaDadMiami]

Though I have had some close run-ins with bulls that have left me not wanting to cozy up to them, I wouldn't kill one just because it is doing what comes naturally. (That is, unless it were a case of self defense.) I also would not kill any other kind of fish or animal. That's why I became a vegetarian in the first place.

So, if this is about drawing the line at one kind of fish over another, I don't see it as making a whole lot of sense. They all deserve equal respect for their place in the world and its ecosystem. Perhaps a seed has been planted here, and you will use this to think things over and decide to become veggie/vegan.

 

[baitedstorm]

Ya know, I love a good tender rare steak, but I sure as hell don't want to see the cow bleeding all over the place with it's guts hanging out.
I think I understand where Mem's coming from. It's hard to watch these things happen as divers because we can associate with the living species much easier then one being gutted for whatever purpose.
Although I very well might have enjoyed a shark steak with Rick, I certainly would have needed to keep walking quickly by with Eric to avoid my own sadness seeing such a marvelous creature being destroyed.

 

[Jedi]

Do you have the same sadness when walking past the fish market in the deli and seeing the neatly sliced steaks of tuna, shark or full bodied salmon? It has to start from somewhere. Some are comfortable with seeing the beginning of the process, others can only handle seeing it in the supermarket.

When we quartered and butchered the deer taken last hunting season it wasn't done out of hate or malice toward the animal...we were hungry. In the off-season I love watching deer roam the property and munching on the food plots we planted for them.

It all comes down to personal comfort with the situation. If you had been prepared to see something like that (ie you knew ahead of time that it was going to occur and the purpose behind it) you might have had a different response.

Sorry you had an unexpected experience.

 

[TheDom]

Ugh, botflies are *shudders* filthy!
I too love a tender rare steak (hold the botflies please) but if given the choice I would rather see the "cow bleeding all over the place with its guts hanging out" not out of some morbid fascination with gore, but out of respect for the animal that will die that I might eat. I think there is something lost by just going to the supermarket and grabbing a steak, no thought paid to where it came from. Heck, some people I know freak out when I describe what part of the cow a particular steak comes from! I think by hunting/fishing and catching, killing and cleaning one's own game, it gives one a greater appreciation for where their dinner comes from, and a greater respect for the animal they're eating.
Just my $0.02

 

[fishoutawater]

I've hunted most of my life. Lived on a farm. Blood-n-guts don't bother me at all. Except once when I was a wee lad, my uncle had me chop off the turkey's head. It chased me around headless, squirting all over me. Scared the crap outta me!
That and rabbits do have a certain "odor" when you split them open (and Rick, I'm very familiar with them wolves.)
I'd read somewhere that it's "scientific fact" that if everyone on the planet became a vegetarian, the earth couldn't grow enough veggies to support the population, and we'd all starve to death.
All I know is, I wasn't born with flat teeth, so I was meant to eat meat.
Quote from unknown source, "If God didn't intend for me to eat animals, he wouldn't have made them out of meat".

 

[Hank49]

I'm about to butcher one on my dock if he keeps coming in closer at my favorite spear spot. I mean, I don't bother him when he's getting HIS fish to eat. So leave me alone too. Fair is fair....

 

[deadend]

Ugh, botflies are *shudders* filthy!
I too love a tender rare steak (hold the botflies please) but if given the choice I would rather see the "cow bleeding all over the place with its guts hanging out" not out of some morbid fascination with gore, but out of respect for the animal that will die that I might eat. I think there is something lost by just going to the supermarket and grabbing a steak, no thought paid to where it came from. Heck, some people I know freak out when I describe what part of the cow a particular steak comes from! I think by hunting/fishing and catching, killing and cleaning one's own game, it gives one a greater appreciation for where their dinner comes from, and a greater respect for the animal they're eating.
Just my $0.02

TheDom, this is the single most sensible post I've seen on SB in a long time and one that needs to be read by alot of folks who can't get past the cute bunny emotional part of death and life.