The Conservation hunting debate

What is Conservation hunting?

The concept of conservation hunting is the use of recreational hunters to control feral (pest) animals. The main types of feral animals in Australia are rabbits, feral goats, foxes, feral cats, wild dogs, wild pigs, cane toads and camels. These animals cause billions of dollars worth of damage to both farm land and the native Australian environment every year. The shooting associations across Australia have been lobbying to gain greater access to National Parks and forests to hunt these animals. It has been long debated whether recreational hunters should be part of the feral animal control plan. Other methods of feral animal control include poisoning, trapping and professional aerial culling. It has been argued that recreational hunters are inefficient in feral animal control. This is because traditional hunters have a mind set of hunting only selective animals for food and trophies.

I had a discussion with a old hunter about this issue and how this is affecting the public's perception of recreational hunters. When I mentioned about conservation hunting the old hunter believed that I meant that we limit the kill to make sure that there are always feral animals to shot. This is the old way of thinking and I believe that it is counter productive to the cause of getting access to more hunting areas. If the public believe that recreational hunters will have minor impact on the feral animal population they will not get the support required. 

I believe that an education program should be created for recreational hunters to help them understand the importance of proper conservation hunting. Only once the recreational hunters understand that the only good feral is a dead feral, they will be taken serious as a part of feral animal control.  

How to lose weight - "put down the fork fatty"

About 1 month ago I started to realize that I had out grown my life and it was starting to hurt. You know you've got a problem when your bathroom scales stop measuring at 120kgs and when you get on the needle goes all the way back to the start. Great I am 3kgs! Sadly, no I am not I am 123kgs, damn.

At work I have to wear an equipment belt. This belt weights at least 8kgs and everything on the belt dug into my stomach and sides when I sat down. If I ever fall into a river I have no doubt I am going straight to the bottom.

Lucky for me the last two times I fell in to the local river the water was only up to my knees. Unlucky was the fact that I was crossing the river with a couple hundred on lookers watching.

Anyhow in the past I have lost weight through diet shakes, exercise, subway diet etc etc. They work but all have the disadvantages like the diet shakes that are expensive and taste awful or the subway diet that requires going to a sudway store to buy lunch everyday.

But my own diet I have had the best results. In 20 days I have lost 8kgs. I call it the "put down the fork" diet. It is easy and simple. Eating more fruit and veg and less white bread, potatoes, and fatty crap. Here are some example of things that are not healthy:
#eating a family block a chocolate everyday;
#eating a bowl of ice cream with cream and chocolate sauce everyday;
#eating a hand full of choc chip biscuits after dinner everyday;
These are examples of things that I actually ate everyday. Looking back I can not believe that I am not as big as a house.

Here are some examples of what I am eating in the "put down the fork" diet:
# Muesli was dried fruit
# whole grain bread
# Vite weat bisuits
# Logicol spread (lower cholesterol absorption)
# Ryvita rye crispbread
# chicken caesar salad (home made)
#lots of green apples and vegetables  

In 2008 I started a work out program at the gym. I got two lots of advice one from the gym manager and one from a know it all friend. The gym manager told me that 70% of getting healthy is eating right and only 30% is exercise. The know it all friend's advice was to exercise hard and eat what ever I wanted because the exercise would burnt fat. The latter advice was wrong. But in my wisdom I worked out hard and got minimal results. Why, because I was not eating properly. I lost enthusiam and gained the weight I lost and then put on even more. In 2008 my starting point was 115kgs and at the beginning of September 2010 I started my new program at 123kgs.

This time around I have been losing weight quickly by eating right and doing only minimal exercise.