The alligators have to go.

[Cal Sibley]

M wife left a week ago to visit her mother in Sunrise, Fla. about 6 miles in from Fort Lauderdale. On the same day about three blocks from her mothers house a young woman was jogging near one of the many canals, and a gator grabbed and killed her.
There have been several such incidents this year, but it doesn't get publicized since Florida depends on tourist for much of its money. We're not talking sleepy little rural area here, Sunrise is close to half a million people now We can't continue to let this happen. Okeefenokee and the Everglades are both huge. That's where the gators belong. It's another case of letting wildlife and humans mix together, and it just doesn't work. What do you think? Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[Jack]

Florida is going thru a drought now, that's lasted for several years. A lot of wetland areas are now dry land.....like parts of the Everglades.
I wonder how long ago Sunrise was populated by 'gators rather than people?

[drummer]

While I am sorry for the families of anyone killed by a wild animal, I tend to agree with Jack. Overpopulation and overurbanization are not good things, and the extirpation of wildlife in the name of progress runs against my grain as a biologist/conservationist.I'm not trying to be hateful, but if you want places to hunt and game to hunt, photgraph and watch, it's time to tighten the borders and pass out some birth control.

[fabsroman]

Agreed.

[Skinny Shooter]

On the topic of dangerous critters, people are more important than animals when the animals become a menace.
Manage (kill) the gators (insert Mtn Lion if you like) where they need managing (killing).
Val should know more about this than any of us and it sounds as if they breed like rabbits.
Allen

[multibeard]

Val started a thread on the killings when they first occured.

Not sure if this link will work http://www.huntchat.com/showthread.p...threadid=43138

[fabsroman]

Skinny, killing all the alligators, etc. isn't the answer. Pretty soon you will be saying that feeding people is more important than saving the bluefin tuna. Humans are greedy creatures. We want more and more, and I think it has to do with dominance. The guy with all the land, peasants, etc several thousands of years ago would attract the most beautiful woman. Problem is that this greed is causing the extinction of animals and a worse place for our kids, grandkids, etc. to live.

Do you blame the great white for eating a surfer off the coast of California or Australia. I don't. They are animals, and they can't rationalize that what they are doing is wrong. Heck, to them it isn't wrong.

I guess we could argue that killing all the alligators, wolves, bears, lions, etc. isn't wrong either because we need that land to survive. Somehow, I have a hard time swallowing that.

Yes, human life is more valuable than animal life, but I think some people put themselves in harm's way and then blame the animal. Kind of like the idiot and his fiance that were camping with grizzly bears. Most people blame the bears, but I blame the idiot and his fiance. I don't know the exact circumstances of the alligator attacks, but I bet the victims were somewhat at fault. Blaming the alligator is like blaming the gun manufacturer for a criminal pulling the trigger on a handgun and killing somebody. Kind of like blaming an earthquake's destruction in San Francisco on the earthquake instead of blaming the people that moved there.

Everybody want their cake and they want to eat it too. Just the kind of society we live in. That is why the national savings rate is negative (i.e., we spend more than we make). God help us if tough times really do come around (i.e., Great Depression, World War II, gas shortage).

[Skinny Shooter]

[popplecop]

Just another situation where man has expanded his habitat into the wild. Now blame the animals as it sure can not be mans fault, just because we drained those swamps for sub divisions and cane fields. We reap what we sow.

[Valigator]

HOUSTON -- A Missouri City family found a 400-pound alligator in their back yard Monday, KPRC Local 2 reported.

The alligator crawled under a fence the homeowners put up to keep wildlife out of their back yard on Cicada Drive near Peninsulas Drive.

The family's dog found the alligator around 7 a.m. The alligator then lunged at the dog.

Neighbors snapped photos of the 10-foot-long reptile as a game warden roped and wrestled it into a cage.

Officials said that the alligator might have been looking for a mate because it is breeding season.

The alligator will be destroyed because it could pose a danger to people.

[Valigator]

"Skinny, killing all the alligators, etc. isn't the answer."

Killing all of anything has never been the answer to anything, no one here at least would ever encourage that...Managing is the key word here...and to date we have had sloppy management...

the argument of who was here first and the longest is a moot point....and a silly argument....in the case of the alligator...they have no natural enemies but man, so man needs to take them out in relation to the enviornment....

[Valigator]

Now here is the best idea yet.....


© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

The top stories in America this week are simply astounding.

First, illegal aliens continue to invade the United States seemingly at will, as our elected clowns (aka the president and Congress) remain gutless in their attempts to stem the tide. Gonads are apparently out of stock in Washington when it comes to deporting illegals and building a barrier along the entire southern border with Mexico.

Meanwhile, alligators are on the prowl in Florida, threatening anything that moves, from people to puppy dogs. As far as I can tell, the critters have no apparent new hatred for humans. They're just doing what comes naturally when encroached upon.


Both these problems have received plenty of media coverage, and have left much of America in a panic. So what's the nation to do? How can the republic survive? After about 10 seconds of deep thought, the answer is obvious.

Put the alligators on the border.

Yes, finally a solution that has some teeth. Lots and lots of teeth.

[Skinny Shooter]

Thanks Val.
Still trying to figure out how I was being understood as proposing to "kill all the gators" from what I posted earlier.

[Valigator]

Hey Skinny, I got what you said....

[fabsroman]

Skinny, I understand your point. If I ever saw a human being threatened by any animal, and I had a gun in my hands, I wouldn't hesitate to shoot the animal.

What is tough is mankinds moving into the home of these animals and endangering their very existence.

As far as the illegal aliens are concerned, there has to be some type of compromise. I live near Washington, DC and a lot of my small business clients employ these type of people. What should be done is amnesty for those currently here. Have them start paying taxes and make them obey our laws. Then, close the borders and only let in a select few after they go through some serious screening. A good number of these guys are criminals. Don't know if it is because they are poor or because that is the way their culture is, but they need to learn that it isn't that way here. I have represented a couple of them in criminal matters, and it seems that leaving the country is always an option for them. Makes me wonder why they left their home country to begin with.

Deporting all of them would cause a disaster to our current economy. Some Americans are not working just because they cannot find the "right" job. A tech that works with my wife has a husband that hasn't worked in months, maybe years, because he does not want to work in retail anymore because it is beneath him. Yet, they had to sell their house because they could not afford the mortgage. Now, they need to move out of the townhouse they are renting because they cannot afford the $1,850 a month mortgage. Better yet, the husband is saying that there is no way he will rent an apartment at $1,000, and he is insisting on renting another townhouse at $1,750. Can he really be this stupid. By the way, the down payment for their initial house was given to them by a parent and all the equity that they got from the sale of the house has been spent on renting the new townhouse. Yet, this guy doesn't want to go to work. I wonder how many Americans are like this. Would Americans really be willing to pick crops and do construction? I think most of us want a cushy job behind a desk.

Me, when I get slow with the legal and accounting work, I work with my dad doing home remodeling. Haven't had to do that in quite a while, but I wouldn't hesitate to do it if I had to.

If we do not have cheap labor, all of us will be screaming at the cost of food and housing. Then again, if there were no illegals available to pay a cheap wage to, then the playing field would be level. My clients tell me that they have to use illegals because everybody else does and they cannot be competitive if they do not. INS and the IRS need to really start enforcing the laws, but that would mean additional funding is needed, and where does the additional funding come from, taxes. Of course, the IRS has a $340 billion dollar tax gap just from last year. If they could collect 50% of that, I am sure it would pay for all the additional auditors. Personally, I think everybody should be audited at least once every 5 years, and that audit should be for 3 years of tax returns. Corporations and companies should be audited even more often.