Hooooolleeeeey SH******T!

[Schly]

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...gs_sharks.html

WTF is wrong with people?




Dogs Used as Shark Bait on French Island

By Maryann Mott
for National Geographic News

October 19, 2005
Live and dead dogs and cats are being used as shark bait by amateur fishers on the French-controlled island of Réunion, according to animal-welfare organizations and local authorities.

The small volcanic island off Africa's east coast is bursting with stray dogs—upward of 150,000, says Reha Hutin, president of the Paris-based Fondation 30 Millions d'Amis (the Thirty Million Friends Foundation).


Hutin sent a film crew to Réunion this summer to obtain proof that live animals were being used as shark bait. The goal was to expose the practice on the animal rights group's weekly television show.

It didn't take long for the film crew to find three separate cases, she said.

A videotape and photographs show the dogs with multiple hooks sunk deep into their paws and snouts.

"From then on everyone started to take the whole story seriously and realized it was true," Hutin said.

Photographic Evidence

A veterinarian successfully treated one of the canines, a six-month-old dog with a large fishhook through its snout (see photo), at an SPA (Société Protectrice des Animaux, or Animal Protective Society) clinic in Réunion's capital, St.-Denis.

Unlike most of the hooked animals, the dog was someone's pet, according to Saliha Hadj-Djilani, a reporter for the Thirty Million Friends Foundation's TV program. The dog had apparently escaped its captors and was taken to the SPA by a concerned citizen. Fully recovered, the animal is now home with its owners.

The other two cases uncovered by Thirty Million Friends were strays. They now live in France with new owners.

The foundation plans to finance a sterilization program on the island to reduce the stray overpopulation. But the job won't be easy.

Hutin said many locals view the strays as vermin. "There's no value to the life of a dog there," she said.


Page 2:


Practice Not Widespread

Stephanie Roche of the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, another animal-welfare group in Paris, confirmed that live animals are used as bait on Réunion. But, she said, it is not a common practice.


The Bardot organization has been fighting the practice for a decade. But this is the first time Réunion politicians have reacted strongly and swiftly to stop it, Roche said

Last month, it became illegal for fishing boats to carry any live or dead dogs or cats.

The French Embassy in Washington, D.C., issued a written statement condemning the use of dogs as shark bait, emphasizing that such acts are illegal and will not be tolerated in the French territory.

The embassy maintains these are "very isolated cases and authorities on the island are closely monitoring the situation."

Earlier this month the first court case was held involving a person charged with using live dogs as bait.

Authorities had found a seven-month-old puppy on John Claude Clain's property in July with three fishing hooks in its paws and snout.

Clain, a 51-year-old bread deliveryperson, was found guilty of animal cruelty and fined 5,000 euros (U.S. $5,982), according to Clicanoo, a Réunion newspaper.

The amateur fisher said he did not use the puppy as bait. Instead, Clain said, the dog had been injured by a trap he had set to protect his hens, the paper reported.

Clain's case isn't an isolated one, said Fabienne Jouve of GRAAL (Groupement de Réflexion et d'Action pour l'Animal, or the Grouping of Reflection and Action for Animals), an animal rights organization based in Charenton-le-Pont, France.

"Lately, almost every week, one dog has been found with hooks on the island, not counting the cats found on the beaches partially eaten by the sharks," Jouve said.

Once fishers capture the animals, she said, the dogs and cats are hooked "the day before, so they can bleed sufficiently."

Some escape before being tossed into the ocean. Others aren't so lucky.

After hooks are plunged into their paws and/or snouts, the animals are attached to inflatable tubes with fishing line and dumped into the ocean, Clicanoo, the newspaper, reports.

To avoid detection fishers place their bait in the middle of the night, according to the newspaper account. In the morning the men return to see if a shark has been caught.

"Barbaric practices have no excuses, whatsoever, in the 21st century," GRAAL's Jouve said.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in Friday Harbor, Washington State, is offering a U.S. $1,000 reward to any Réunion police officer who arrests anyone using live dogs or cats as bait for sharks.

Both the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in the United Kingdom and the Thirty Million Friends Foundation are asking animal lovers to sign a petition urging the French government to step up enforcement of laws against the use of live dogs as bait.

[sceep]

ok.. 150k strays....

how big an island are we talking about here? edit: slightly smaller than rhode island

i can see the "vermin" stance..

maybee.

[smokeeater]

R

snopes

Partially true...to some extent....

[Schly]

I tend to trust National Geographic, although I don't know their environmental/PETA/etc stance so they *might* be exaggerating a little?

Although they cite several photographs and some videos to prove their case and the article on NG is dated 10/19 and the article on snopes is dated 10/3.

[TEX]

Originally Posted by Schly

Hutin said many locals view the strays as vermin. "There's no value to the life of a dog there," she said.

Stray dogs are vermin, though I personally think using live ones as shark bait is kinda cruel. Wonder if it's effective bait.



TEX

[Schly]

Originally Posted by TEX

Stray dogs are vermin, though I personally think using live ones as shark bait is kinda cruel. Wonder if it's effective bait.



TEX

I agree. I'm not so much concerned with the killing of unwanted, overpopulated animals, as I am of the concern of torturing any animal that's still alive. And I would consider this torture.

[ironpig70]

did i miss it, don't see whats wrong with it. its okay to fish with fish but not a dog

[Schly]

Originally Posted by ironpig70

did i miss it, don't see whats wrong with it. its okay to fish with fish but not a dog

You know, if you MUST fish with a dog, at least kill it first, mmmkay?

[ironpig70]

Originally Posted by Schly

You know, if you MUST fish with a dog, at least kill it first, mmmkay?

sharks like live bait ever fish with LIVE worms is that better with 150k stray animals i'd use them as bait also

[TEX]

Originally Posted by ironpig70

with 150k stray animals i'd use them as bait also

With 150k stray animals, I'd use them as targets


TEX

[ranger]

Be better to use the irresponsible owners as fish bait...........

[TEX]

Originally Posted by ranger

Be better to use the irresponsible owners as fish bait...........

True, and that would certainly be entertaining. But by itself, it wouldn't solve the problem of overbreeding strays.


TEX

[Schly]

Originally Posted by ironpig70

sharks like live bait ever fish with LIVE worms is that better with 150k stray animals i'd use them as bait also

I think if I saw you doing that, I'd make YOU bait. Seriously. My money says you wouldn't have the stomach to hook up that Golden in the picture and toss it overboard so quit playing tough guy, K?

[Screwzer2]

Originally Posted by ranger

Be better to use the irresponsible owners as fish bait...........

Dude, with 150K strays, I think the owners are long gone.

[rustycruiser]

I went to Réunion and Mauritius in 1989. Don't remember seeing an overtly large stray population. But I was 13, so I was a lot more fascinated by all the boobs proudly displayed on the topless beaches.

[ItsaCJ6]

In for dime, in for a dollar. Fish, Worms, Shrimp, Cats, Dogs. Big fish need big bait. I do think I would kill them first.

[usmcdoc14]

Bait and food dont have names.
Bait and food are not "pets"

Its our pussified western thinking that has tainted us.

I have had rabbits and chickens and shit as pets as a kid, right along side the same species that were "food". They were fed the same, treated the same, but the food was eaten. I had frogs that were pets, that were bait, that were food.
and the frogs were cast in LIVE.

I have eaten dog and who the fuck knows when overseas. These were not someones "pet" these were food.

I see no problem with using strays as bait.
Note: key word being strays.

[ironpig70]

Originally Posted by Schly

I think if I saw you doing that, I'd make YOU bait. Seriously. My money says you wouldn't have the stomach to hook up that Golden in the picture and toss it overboard so quit playing tough guy, K?

yes its cruel and mean to many of us. but in many parts of this world there food. kinda like us gutting a cow what do you think a hindu would say. its all about your perspective of the whole situation.

[CaryW]

Wonder if the pups name was Amos Moses?

Name that tune!!

Oops, that was gators..nevermind

[Schly]

Originally Posted by ironpig70

yes its cruel and mean to many of us. but in many parts of this world there food. kinda like us gutting a cow what do you think a hindu would say. its all about your perspective of the whole situation.

If you kill the dog first, you can fuck it for all I care. But don't torture animals. Is this hard to understand? I'm not holding dogs sacred. I'm holding torture as immoral. Hooking an animal, throwing it in the water alive, especially when it isn't a water dwelling animal, and leaving it there overnight to either drown or be eaten, is torture. Plain and simple. Are you debating that? Are you advocating that?

[TwistedTJTank]

Fuckin French Mother Fuckers!!! Seeing the picture of that Golden pisses me off more than anything I can think of. I am all for fishing and understand my role in the food chain but, I really love dogs. I think I would go ape shit if I saw some MF doing that to a dog.

Fuck them......sons of bitches need killin

[TwistedTJTank]

Originally Posted by Schly

If you kill the dog first, you can fuck it for all I care. But don't torture animals. Is this hard to understand? I'm not holding dogs sacred. I'm holding torture as immoral. Hooking an animal, throwing it in the water alive, especially when it isn't a water dwelling animal, and leaving it there overnight to either drown or be eaten, is torture. Plain and simple. Are you debating that? Are you advocating that?

I don't agree with you alot of things.........but that is dead on dude. I am so pissed I can't even put together a solid thought right now.

xeleventy billion

[JasonR]

Originally Posted by Schly

If you kill the dog first, you can fuck it for all I care. But don't torture animals. Is this hard to understand? I'm not holding dogs sacred. I'm holding torture as immoral. Hooking an animal, throwing it in the water alive, especially when it isn't a water dwelling animal, and leaving it there overnight to either drown or be eaten, is torture. Plain and simple. Are you debating that? Are you advocating that?

In total agreement.

Animal torture (especialy dog and cats) is terrible here in the south. You hear on the news ALOT about animals being set on fire and the people watching them run around, or putting live puppies in garbage bags and dumping off on the side of the road, leaving them for dead. I just enrages me.

People that torture animals should be shot in the head.

[gipper]

I would shoot it, then hook it.


No problem using vermin for bait.


It's a big fish, you're going to need some bait.

[Whizzy]

Fawk man...............this thread just made me mad.



I am going to have to go home and give my dog some extra attention tonight when I get home cause this just totally upset me.

I see what your saying Schly about the torture thing, and I agree 100% that torturing anything, be it animal or person is totally immorral.

I dont know what to say.

UUUUUUUCK