Refuges for Killing and Fishes as Trophies and Tools

by Stephanie Ernst · 2009-07-27 07:57:00 UTC
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A sharp-toothed, large, prehistoric-looking species of fish called the alligator gar made it into two news stories in recent days, both of them concerned with how people can "benefit" from alligator gars, by killing the gars themselves or by using the gars to help them kill other fish species--all, of course, for good clean fun.

I'll comment on the second story in a later post, but first, there's this story out of Missouri, which is bothersome on multiple levels: "Young Alligator Gar recently stocked at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge." A group of 275 young alligator gars has been "stocked" in the so-called refuge because, biologists believe, they will act as scavengers and clean the water of "invertebrates and dead carcasses." But why do state biologists want the gars to fill this role? So that "sport fish" populations will rise. We're not really worried about "a clean and healthy water system," as the Missouri Department of Conservation is cited as saying near the end of the article--our priority is increasing the number of "game fish" so that people can enjoy killing them more often and in greater numbers, and in a refuge:

Mingo National Wildlife Refuge has 21,592 acres and is the largest remnant of bottomland hardwoods remaining out of an original 2 and one-half million acres in the Missouri Bootheel, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The refuge is located between Puxico, Mo., and the Duck Creek Conservation Area and is known for its hunting, fishing, and nature photography opportunities.

We need a new name for these places when they're known not for being a place where animals are safe from humans, but where animals are offered up to humans for killing. Really, let's define "refuge" via Merriam-Webster, shall we?

1 : shelter or protection from danger or distress

2 : a place that provides shelter or protection

"Protection." Call me crazy, but I tend to think that such protection in a refuge is supposed to be for the protected's benefit. You provide someone refuge to protect that being "from danger or distress," not so that they can be caused danger and distress and be killed.

As for the alligator gars being transplanted and used to help humans unnecessarily, cruelly kill other fish for fun? They'll be prey too once they've served their purposes and grown big enough to be trophies, after an agonizing death by crossbow:

"It is my dream to come out here one day and catch one of these full grown, huge Alligator Gar," [Missouri Department of Conservation Fisheries biologist] Kennedy said.

Always good to know what government biologists' ultimate goals and priorities really are.

Stephanie Ernst wrote the original Animal Rights blog at Change.org until December 2009. She can now be found at Animal Rights & AntiOppression.
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