All this "don't hurt the magpies" talk makes me want to grab my compound bow and impale them onto my trees to use as warnings for the next batch of magpies that comes around.
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These are my airsoft BB guns, call me if you need help.
But the $30 ones at Wal-Mart or Canadian Tire will do in a pinch. And seriously, don't hit the magpies. They are very smart and amazing birds, just plink close to them and spook them.
Good advice. I did go buy a "spring loaded" bb GUN today. I aimed just to the side of the flying rats, twice, and so far it has been a very quiet evening and very little pooh.
BTW: My neighbour popped over and wanted to know if these bb's would hurt, So.... I shot him. He said it stung. The gun I purchased was rated at 200 feet per second so it's very slow.
when was the last time you were going to die if you did not that hamburger. I don't like hunting either so much but I am not morally better just because I do my killing at arms length when I choose to partake in the pleasure of eating meat.
It has nothing to do with morality but with neccessity. Hunting for sport is a death in vain and in waste. Animals raised and slaughtered in faraway industry for human consumption is different to me than a wild animal that you purposefully go on the weekend to meet and kill on a whim because you want to have fun and have no qualms with doing so. And yes, killing at arms length SHOULD be different from killing something directly. It has nothing to do with morality. It has to do with empathy and your personal and direct responsiblity for the death of another animal for your own pleasure. I'm sorry that you don't see that distinction.
And yes, I have killed animals by my own hand before. I still feel guilt for their suffering. The ability to empathize with the plight of another intelligent creature that is right there front of you is one the qualities I treasure most in being a human being.
I just ate like 30 Buffalo Wings today. Do I worry about how brutally the chickens died so I could have my wings? No. But if I was the one that personally threw them into electrified water baths on their way to the automatic neck cutter so they could end up at the restaurant? Maybe.
Hunting is a primal instinct, and I understand why people would get pleasure out of trophy hunting. When I was a young teenager, I killed a ton of birds on a camping trip once because I somehow just got this primal urge to go kill them. I crippled them with thrown rocks and then just got really excited hunting them down on the ground and had this huge burst of adrenaline and positive feedback...but then I felt terrible and sick afterwards and still did for years afterward whenever I think about. I'd go back to that campsite when I was older and find the skeletons and just feel awful and cry. In the end, I just think that in this day and age, there are better ways for adults to act out their primal instincts than to go out and kill things for sport.
Last edited by Hack&Lube; 06-21-2009 at 11:00 PM.
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All this talk about how smart magpies are reminds me of one of my neighbours incidents with a magpie. They caught it, clipped his wings a bit and tamed him and one day the bird fell into a five gallon pail of water and drowned. He must have been in the lower part of the magpie IQ scale. Apparently if you cut their tongue in a certain way, you can teach them to talk.
Anyways, enough magpie love. I say shoot the basterds. They're a big, loud, aggravating pain in the ass.
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Good advice. I did go buy a "spring loaded" bb GUN today. I aimed just to the side of the flying rats, twice, and so far it has been a very quiet evening and very little pooh.
BTW: My neighbour popped over and wanted to know if these bb's would hurt, So.... I shot him. He said it stung. The gun I purchased was rated at 200 feet per second so it's very slow.
Smart birds have long memories and magpies that have been bothered by humans will remember that and usually be wary of you from now on. If they come back, a few more shots to bother them should shoo them off...and it's probably fun. I wish I had a few annoying critters so I could have a backyard shooting gallery! A plastic bb would only sting a person but it might fatally wound an small and light animal with porous bones like a bird...But magpies would probably survive a 200 fps springer (those are usually rated 200 FPS at 0.12g weight bbs only so it's almost nothing). Mine shoot like 380 FPS with 0.25g bbs and I've put holes through deer skulls I found in the forest...and drywall in my house Have also embedded one in some guy's chin before.
All this talk about how smart magpies are reminds me of one of my neighbours incidents with a magpie. They caught it, clipped his wings a bit and tamed him and one day the bird fell into a five gallon pail of water and drowned. He must have been in the lower part of the magpie IQ scale. Apparently if you cut their tongue in a certain way, you can teach them to talk.
LOL, if somebody cut off your legs so you couldn't walk and you fell out of your wheelchair into a pool and you've never had swimming lessons before, I bet you'd drown to death too. I don't clip my bird's wings so they can take care of themselves, fly back to their cage, or get away from cats. If a bird can't fly and they fall somewhere dangerous, it's the same as a "smart" human falling into something dangerous.
LOL, if somebody cut off your legs so you couldn't walk and you fell out of your wheelchair into a pool and you've never had swimming lessons before, I bet you'd drown to death too. I don't clip my bird's wings so they can take care of themselves, fly back to their cage, or get away from cats. If a bird can't fly and they fall somewhere dangerous, it's the same as a "smart" human falling into something dangerous.
Nah he could still fly a little, just not very far. Either way, no tears were shed when I found out he'd bit the big one haha.
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Let's get drunk and do philosophy.
If you took a burger off the grill and slapped it on your face, I'm pretty sure it would burn you. - kermitology
Man... I hate the magpies.... This is a recently developed hate which started since they began to wake me up before the alarm goes off. My cat is outside most of the night, and let me tell you, he's one tough . But it's is my honest belief that the magpies will fly to my backyard, notice the cat, and start harping on him, just for the fun of it, waking me up in the process. After I get up, and let the cat in, he looks as if he spent several years in POW camp. Since these asses are so "intelligent" they won't let him catch them (he has killed other birds, not that I endorse it ) plus they are quite big. So technically they are like bullies, terrorizing me and my cat. Why the hell would I not want to shoot them with a BB gun? I don't want to kill any living thing really, but you can't take the abuse and not do anything about it. You guys defending the magpies, obviously did not have any previous problems with them. Let me tell you... they are a major buzz kill.
I know someone who just came up from Chicago and she was fascinated by magpies, she kept saying how beautiful they were because the of the white and blue plummage. Then I told her to imagine that it had no white or blue and it was basically just a crow with different colors and then she was like: "uhhgg, I hate crows".
Another reason why the cuteness or beauty of an animal affects how people think about it...to the point of irrationality where we have celebrities railing against clubbing baby seals.
But that's for that video. I loved the part with the crow making tools. That video brings up a valid point, that humans have driven these adaptable animals to parasitism where they have become pests in our cities when there should be away to have a more symbiotic relationship where we can help each other.
One of the first exhibits in the Winnipeg zoo... a magpie cage. I kid you not. What made it all the more funny was the 'wild' magpies outside the cage assumedly mocking their captive brethren.
The other morning I saw a crow and a magpie fighting over a giant stick. The crow was flying around with this stick three times its size, and the magpie was doing circles around it attempting to snare it away. Like a labrador and a yappy terrier in the park.
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Have also embedded one in some guy's chin before.
