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They killed Bob.

X Factor

X Factor

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www.yahoo.com

‘Bob the Goat’ dies during attempt to relocate him from Franklin Mountains

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — A goat who had been seen by hikers and many El Pasoans living in the Franklin Mountains has died after the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department attemped to relocate the animal in preparation for the reintroduction of desert bighorn sheep to the area, the state parks...
www.yahoo.com www.yahoo.com

I’m so pissed about this. I’ve seen this goat on a couple of occasions including earlier this year. He was something of a local celebrity and survived for years on his own but couldn’t survive incompetent humans. Thanks for nothing Texas Parks and Wildlife.
 

That's insane. They must've seriously screwed up with the roping for that to happen.
 
TheGoverness said:
That's insane. They must've seriously screwed up with the roping for that to happen.
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I suspect they just want to reintroduce the Bighorn Sheep so they can sell hunting licenses.
 
"The goat was roped, a standard practice in the livestock industry, but, unfortunately, died during the relocation process," a TPWD news release said.​
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wtf, did their old lynching instincts take over or something?
 
X Factor said:
I suspect they just want to reintroduce the Bighorn Sheep so they can sell hunting licenses.
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It might take a few decades and perhaps a lifetime or two to ramp up a huntable population unless they flood Bighorns in. Expensive and more likely to fail than succeed. The reintroduction of American Bison and Elk to the Wichita Wildlife refuge (Comanche county, ok) is a good case study in the ups and downs of managing the reintroduction of wildlife on a big scale...
 
Mr Person said:
"The goat was roped, a standard practice in the livestock industry, but, unfortunately, died during the relocation process," a TPWD news release said.​
​
wtf, did their old lynching instincts take over or something?
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They didn't pass through Springfield or Canton did they?
 
Depends. Better Bob die than Betty Goat join him and they start a feral population.
But it sounds like Bob didn't have to die.
 
Grand Mal said:
Depends. Better Bob die than Betty Goat join him and they start a feral population.
But it sounds like Bob didn't have to die.
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Bob lived there for years with no problems. Even feral cats here are returned where they lived after being fixed.
 
X Factor said:
Bob lived there for years with no problems. Even feral cats here are returned where they lived after being fixed.
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Well, I 'fix' feral cats here too and they're returned to Mother Nature.
But Bob on his own might be fine but he needed to be removed before Betty showed up. We know only too well how disastrous it can be, in directions we can't foresee, to introduce species.
It sounds from what you've said here like sheep might be native there. What if there's a species of plant/shrub/tree native there that sheep don't eat but goats do? How might the system be ****ed up if goats ate them all?
That kind of stuff has happened all over.
 
Bob was “on his own,” and he was fine. Obviously you think otherwise but most of us that actually live here know that he didn’t do anything to deserve to be strangled to death.
 
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X Factor said:
Bob was “on his own,” and he was fine. Obviously you think otherwise but most of us that actually live here know that he didn’t do anything to deserve to be strangled to death.
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No he did not deserve to be strangled. Did I imply that? I'm just saying he needed to be relocated to somewhere that Bob couldn't be a patriarch of a clan.
Do you not understand what I'm saying about introducing species into the wild?
 
Grand Mal said:
No he did not deserve to be strangled. Did I imply that?
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Actually, yes, when you said it was “better” that Bob was killed.
Grand Mal said:
I'm just saying he needed to be relocated to somewhere that Bob couldn't be a patriarch of a clan.
Do you not understand what I'm saying about introducing species into the wild?
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Well good news, then, from your perspective. He definitely won’t be procreating now. I guess I understand just about as well as you understand why I don’t think what happened to him was ok. If they were incapable of successfully relocating him without killing him, they should have left him alone. After years of peacefully co existing with all the other wildlife on the mountain his last moments were spent fighting for his life and losing that fight. I think that’s ****ed up.
 
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Oh, OK, you're just going off at everyone for no reason today. I won't be hurt then.

Sad about the goat.
 
OlNate said:
Oh, OK, you're just going off at everyone for no reason today. I won't be hurt then.

Sad about the goat.
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Damn, and I thought you’d actually be ok with my position on Bob.
 
People who can't write clear laws, cant get emergency pregnancy attention to women and think that the solution to abortion is paying citizens to rat out each other are not smart enough or humane enough to move a goat.
 
X Factor said:
Damn, and I thought you’d actually be ok with my position on Bob.
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I'm good with your position. Just not sure Mal was saying what you thought he was, to where I'm not sure you were actually disagreeing... hehe Sucks he had to go, and it's a big **** up that they weren't able to move him safely, but the reason behind moving him made sense.

Nobody is cheering the goat's death, basically.
 
Listen. Carefully.
Sucks that they killed the goat. It doesn't seem to be asking much of experienced wildlife officers that they take him alive. I bet they felt awful, making a fatal screw-up, considering what probably motivated their career choice.
But if there's a villain in this story it's the ignorant asshole who released it into the wild. Or allowed it to escape and didn't retrieve it. One of the finest examples of really stupid mistakes being repeated is letting foreign species go wild.
There's a risk that's much more important than you wanting to see Bob wild and free.
 

I live in an area that has taken that stupidity and multiplied it. I forget the exact order of things, but they intentionally introduced a foreign species to this area that was thought to be beneficial. It quickly over ran the place, so they introduced another foreign species to deal with the first one, since it had no natural predators. Then the predator started going berserk and they had to introduce something else.

This happened a couple more times until they started bringing fishers in. Those are miserable bastards. They got so bad that the last thing they brought in was cougars! So now we have cougars.

Not sure when it all stopped, but what a gong show. This is the kind of shit they're trying to avoid. Not doing anything after the species was introduced would have lead to an infestation that would have destroyed the vegetation, resulting in deaths all the way up the food chain. Our lakes have no where near the biodiversity they had before zebra mussels invaded.

So, yeah, sad about one goat... but that goat being removed by any means could have a major positive impact on the local environment. If killing it were the only option it would still be the right thing to do, for the sake of the native species.

That all said, though, it sounds as if the locals had formed a bond with it. Its easy to be pragmatic with no emotions invested. So condolences are appropriate.

I can't help but wonder... and I'm probably going way too deep with this... but given how nicely this serves as an example in a debate around greater good vs individual rights, I'm thinking that this disagreement makes sense, given the ideological differences of the people involved.
 
Not far from my hometown they had to drain a pond in a park because they couldn't catch a fish, called a Snakehead fish, that some jerk released into it. People on this coast occasionally catch Atlantic salmon that have escaped from net-pen fish farms. If they ever start spawning here it could be disastrous.
And I can easily see how a feral goat population could wipe out a local plant species. There's that story of a light-house keeper on a remote island who's cat killed off a species of flightless wren that existed only on that island.
 

Yep, those snakeheads are showing up here too!

So many examples - they made a whole TV show about snake hunters in Florida, hunting boa constrictors and anacondas that got loose from a reptile zoo or farm or something.

It's sad, but if we **** something up, we should probably do our best to fix the situation.
 
CNN has a story about a "runaway penguin" that was rescued at sea off the cost of Japan.

Thank goodness humans saved it from drowning.
 
Allan said:
CNN has a story about a "runaway penguin" that was rescued at sea off the cost of Japan.

Thank goodness humans saved it from drowning.
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Weird stuff going on. A bunch of polar bears were seen far out to sea- one 60 miles from land- off the coast of Alaska.
 

As a boater, how would you like to run these gauntlets? I admit it can be a handy way- if a little anxiety inducing- way to get some bait.

 
RF667799 said:
As a boater, how would you like to run these gauntlets? I admit it can be a handy way- if a little anxiety inducing- way to get some bait.

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Lol... yeah, that's wild, I've seen this before.

Not sure if they're good eating or not... unlikely, given that they're carp. They'd make good fertilizer though.
 
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