Toddler Killed in Hunting Accident
Monday November 17, 2008
A 16-month old girl has been killed in a hunting accident while standing inside her mobile home in Swan Lake, New York. The hunter has been arrested and charged with manslaughter, although it is unclear whether he violated any hunting regulations. According to the Times Herald-Record, Edward J. Taibi was shooting at a deer with a high-powered rifle when one of his bullets pierced the wall of the mobile home, 400 feet away, and struck 16-month-old Charly Skala in the neck and shoulder.
Hunters argue that hunting is safe and that the fatality rate for non-hunters is very low. Has it occurred to them that a sport shouldn't have a fatality rate for non-participants?
June 21, 2009 Update: Taibi has pled guilty to second-degree manslaughter.
Comments
A AM DOING A DEBATE ON HUNTING. IT IS REALLY DANGEROUS AND MNY ACCIDENTS HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY HUNTING.
Hunting is safer than nearly all other sports, i.e. football, basketball, horse racing, yes, even non-participants are injured and even killed in spectator sports. Ever been to a Soccer game in Russia? Yes, I hunt. I have never injured or killed anyone, nor do I intend to. You see, we have in this Country a thing called ignorance. Quick lesson for all you people afflicted by this malady. We have, as a whole eliminated most of the natural predators in this continent, leaving us as the stewards of the land so to speak. Hunting has been a very effective way to balance out the imbalance that our forefathers caused, as well as feed millions, read carefully…MILLIONS of families in a perfectly legal, well regulated manner. If you idiots would rather transplant the large predators back to the areas where you like to view the White-tailed deer prancing, or cougars, or grizzly, take your pick. EDU
CATE yourselves before making judgements based on personal opinion, you might be wrong. If you don’t hunt, great. I do, I invest a considerable amount of time and money to do so, as do others. Look up the Pittman-Robertson Act. Hunters under this act have paid over 30 million dollars since it’s inception for conservation and habitat preservation, more than ANYONE else! How much have YOU forked out? Also, compare the automobile accident death toll to that of hunting related fatalities. Wow! so if you drive a car, you’re much more dangerous than I am! Do you eat meat? I do. I know where it was when it was harvested, its health, cleanliness and every other aspect of its handling because I do it myself. I hope you trust everyone in the chain handling yours. Or do you just consider it more regal to have the slaughter done for you so you can act superior. In short, if you don’t know anything about something, research it, know the truth, don’t spout hearsay, really, honestly, find out. Then a least you can make an educated remark. Oh, and by the way, everyone’s ancestors were HUNTERS before they were anything else.
Exactly. If it were not for hunting- NONE of us would be here now. Then argument would then be “well we don’t need to hunt for survival anymore-just go the the store.” As mentioned above- the killing still takes place somewhere. I take the middle man out of the equation. I enjoy seeing live animals too, but I still take my place in the food chain. Humans are omnivores. Get over yourself and leave us hunters alone!!
Hi, Rob and Mike,
Thanks for your comments. I encourage you to explore this site, so that you can see that the animal rights position advocates veganism. Not buying meat in a supermarket. For example:
http://animalrights.about.com/od/animalsusedforfood/a/SolutionFactory.htm
http://animalrights.about.com/od/animalsusedforfood/f/HappyMeat.htm
http://animalrights.about.com/b/2008/11/05/speak-up-for-your-vegan-bonus.htm
Pittman-Robertson funds go to pay for pro-hunting programs, such as hunter education and stocking of lands. Most people are surprised to learn that the government spends money to raise animals just for hunters.
Also, wildlife watching contributes more to the economy than hunting and fishing:
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/11/wildlife_watching_surpasses_hu.html
Rob, if you’re referring to riots by spectators, yes, riots are terrible. But the violence is not a characteristic of the game itself. Any kind of large crowd situation carries a risk of riots.
I Simply cannot understand zealots. Our entire world is based on the “web of life” or the “food chain”, or whatever it is being called today. This is true everywhere and always. I respect your right to choose not to eat meat or use animal by products, but when you actively trying to take my rights away then you have overstepped the bounds.
Just to give you something to think about…. I am teaching all 5 of my kids to hunt, trap, fish, butcher, and raise meat supplying animals. (and 5 of my kids are girls)
All my friends are doing the same for thier kids. As thier families did for them.
Just something for you to think about to know that a whole new generation will be picking up where we left off, and to carry on our lifestyle. So no time soon will it change.
Im 13, and im trying to do a persuasive essay on deer hunting and ive gone through about 30 sites now and realized something. Hunting will continue, no matter what. It is a right to protest and a right to hunt. IT is not fair to kill a deer or any other species with the modern technology today. This whole topic is point of view because no matter what either side says, pro or con, there will be some way to disprove it. If you dont hunt, great, if you do, thats your choice. Its simply idiotic to put down a hunter saying they are inhumain or in anyway unhuman for killing a deer or whatever. ITs your way to look at it, dont try to force others to see it your way, that also goes for hunters.
GO HUNTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO HUNTING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey Brandon and all the rest of ye hunters,I LOVE HUNTING ACCIDENTS,especially hunters who shoot each other,in fact why don’t the lot of ye keep shooting each other then no more innocent animals will die for ye small wankers and small brains,we no longer live in neanderthal era’s except ye blokes,so please just go and kill each other,ye take up precious air.
More spectators/bystanders are killed and injured watching racing events than from hunting, so should this be considered a sport ? Should we stop it, cancel it ? No matter how you do the numbers, no matter how you twist it, hunting id SAFER than almost any other sport/organized function you can find anywhere, PERIOD !! Yes, I hunt, I am president of a small hunting club, and owner of http://WWW.HUNTERSONLY.COM, a website for hunters, and I fell safe doing it.
(Edited to conform to About.com guidelines)
Hunting is a legal sport and as long as that remains true people will do it! Best you can hope for is that people are responsible and take all necessary precautions to avoid an accident (hunters saftey courses) We require are children to take classes to drive yet there are thousands of car accidents everyday all over the world. They are called accidents for a reason. We all need to worry about the gangs and murders with guns killing people on purpose. They are the real idiots here! Any accident that claims the lives of there victims is a true tragedy! What ever your sport learn the rules and be safe!
Rob:
Hunting opponents argue that hunting is unsafe, ineffective, unnecessary and unfair to taxpayers.
•Opponents point out that compared to other forms of recreation, hunting injuries are far more likely to be fatalities. Approximately 100 people die in hunting accidents in the United States every year, and unlike other forms of recreation, hunting endangers the entire community, and not just the willing participants.
•Opponents also argue that hunting is ineffective for solving human/deer conflicts. Studies show that car/deer collisions increase during hunting season because hunters frighten the deer out of the woods and onto roads. Contrary to popular belief, hunting does not address Lyme disease because the ticks are usually spread to humans by mice, not deer. And as long as suburban landscaping includes deer-preferred plants such as tulips and rhododendrons, that landscaping will attract hungry deer, no matter how many deer there are. Opponents also argue that hunting does not reduce the deer population because removing some individuals from the population results in more food per deer, which leads to the births of more twins and triplets. This also means that hunting is unnecessary because the deer will self-regulate and give birth to fewer fawns when food is scarce. If the deer population needs to be further reduced, immunocontraception can be used.
•Hunting is ineffective because state wildlife management agencies intentionally keep the deer population high, for hunters.
•Lands managed for hunting are sometimes purchased and maintained with tax dollars, even though 95% of Americans do not hunt.
Hunting opponents also find hunting unethical on a number of grounds. From a pure animal rights standpoint, killing any animal for food is morally objectionable, whether that animal is a deer, a cow or a chicken. Many find hunting to be unethical because the killing is recreational. Also, many argue that human/deer conflicts are not the fault of the deer, but are the fault of humans who take habitat from the deer. Some hunting opponents also believe that modern technology has erased any chance of fairness in hunting. Certain practices are also considered especially objectionable, such as canned hunting, trophy hunting, baiting, and hunting of stocked animals.
I get so many thumbs-up for my bumper sticker:
PENIS TOO SMALL? HUNTING & FISHING SHOULD HELP
Phil-
You sound like an uneducated waste of space. I love how people like you actually think people care about your uninformed opinions. Sort of like your bumper sticker…i bet you drive a Subaru too ya tree hugger. Get some class and stop putting obscenities on your car for children to see. You have not morals or values. Do the world a favor and drive off a cliff. You are like many of the other liberals out there single minded, uninformed, and reckless. For all others on this page who oppose hunting keep this in mind, I love the taste of wild flesh from an elk, deer or duck. Furthermore, I especially love to gut the animal after i shoot it…with my own two hands. Come on out to Montana and I’ll show you how.