Audie Cole's opportunity

[Purple bruise]

I grew up hunting and fishing my whole life. I would not say that I approve of slaughtering thousands of doves and it really is not at all sporting in my estimation. That being said, I have some (3) doctor friends of mine that go down to Argentina each year for those same types of "hunts"/slaughters. I certainly would not partake in it but I will say that millions upon millions of doves migrate each year into the southern parts of Mexico, Central America and South America. If you read about it you will discover that all of these migrating birds do devastate crops through out the region. My friends that do these hunts tell me that they (The hunting resort) does give the doves to lots of really poor people that readily take them and eat them. I am not sure what other hunters do with the kills but I do know what my friends do.
Do I think less of my friends for killing all of these birds, certainly not anymore than Jarred Allen hunting pigs that are run down by hunting dogs and then stabbed to death by the hunters. Sure it seems more sporting than shooting birds with a shotgun but which is a crueler death?
I think that it is pretty cruel to slaughter young lambs, raise veal (calves) in a box, raise chickens in small pens, kill suckling pigs etc. etc. But I do not think any less of the people that eat or raise all of those animals but you could argue both ways.
After all of my "rant" I will conclude by saying that I do not think any more or less about Audie Cole because of his dove killing, I only want/care about him succeeding as a Viking.

[mansquatch]

I realize the bird thing has zilch to do with his ability to play MLB, but what else is there to talk about right now?

[dead_poet]

I realize the bird thing has zilch to do with his ability to play MLB, but what else is there to talk about right now?

In case of bird attack, unleash Audie Cole.

[Purple bruise]

Start him vs. Eagles, Falcons, and Cardinals?

Do not forget the Seahawks and Ravens

[mondry]

I grew up hunting and fishing my whole life. I would not say that I approve of slaughtering thousands of doves and it really is not at all sporting in my estimation. That being said, I have some (3) doctor friends of mine that go down to Argentina each year for those same types of "hunts"/slaughters. I certainly would not partake in it but I will say that millions upon millions of doves migrate each year into the southern parts of Mexico, Central America and South America. If you read about it you will discover that all of these migrating birds do devastate crops through out the region. My friends that do these hunts tell me that they (The hunting resort) does give the doves to lots of really poor people that readily take them and eat them. I am not sure what other hunters do with the kills but I do know what my friends do.
Do I think less of my friends for killing all of these birds, certainly not anymore than Jarred Allen hunting pigs that are run down by hunting dogs and then stabbed to death by the hunters. Sure it seems more sporting than shooting birds with a shotgun but which is a crueler death?
I think that it is pretty cruel to slaughter young lambs, raise veal (calves) in a box, raise chickens in small pens, kill suckling pigs etc. etc. But I do not think any less of the people that eat or raise all of those animals but you could argue both ways.
After all of my "rant" I will conclude by saying that I do not think any more or less about Audie Cole because of his dove killing, I only want/care about him succeeding as a Viking.

As an animal lover I can understand people being upset at the amount of birds killed, however in this case what it really is, is a form of pest control. In this case Birds, or Doves, happen to be cute so there will be back lash, but when it comes to a farmers crops it's no different than a locust swarm and no one has a problem with all the inadvertent killing pesticides do in the farming industry for mice, insects, etc.

Think about it, in order to see that many targets and even obtain that many kills, the abundance of birds in the area has to be gigantic.

From the article it certainly doesn't sound like it was that fun, and I'm sure Cole or Purple Bruise's friends aren't thinking in their heads "Man I just want to murder hundreds of birds, how can I do that?" It sounds much more like people who like to hunt try it out, have fun at first, then it get's more annoying than anything but you're there trying to help so you go on. Hence the line about his shoulders hurting and not wanting to do it anymore.

No one said it was "hunting" btw, and I doubt anyone comes back thinking "oh yeah I'm such a good hunter." Do you guys get upset when they try to curtail Carp or Zebra Muscles? No, because they're a pest that will destroy the eco system, it's for the greater good.

/rant

I hope Cole can become a solid player in the NFL, that would be a pretty good story. It sounds like the kid's doing alright though, if he can handle Singeltary and that relationships working out I'd say that's something! I wouldn't be too worried about Cole beating out a 1st or 2nd round prospect, especially if both end up being good players. All the draft round's mean is that one guy has a slightly better chance of panning out in the pro's then the other, it shouldn't entitle them to anything special and has been mentioned, Russell Wilson is a good example of why you play the best player, not the highest pick or salary. The nice thing about LB is that there are 3 spots for it and maybe one of their skills would align enough to slide on over to the outside.

I do recall a preseason game with cole having 2 pick 6's I think, granted against another teams 3rd string QB it's not exactly determining he'll make it but it can't be a bad thing either.

[Purple bruise]

5,000 doves? Doves?!?! ...for what?

Real tough dude, real tough.

This guy has character issues--of another kind.

Try not to be so judgemental. If he is playing in the NFL I would guess that he is a "tough dude" and would kick your a$$ in a nanosecond

[losperros]

Try not to be so judgemental. If he is playing in the NFL I would guess that he is a "tough dude" and would kick your a$$ in a nanosecond

Unless MelanieMFunk was armed with a shotgun and Cole was only armed with maybe a couple doves.

Although one never knows. More people die each year from dove attacks...

[dead_poet]

As an animal lover I can understand people being upset at the amount of birds killed, however in this case what it really is, is a form of pest control. In this case Birds, or Doves, happen to be cute so there will be back lash, but when it comes to a farmers crops it's no different than a locust swarm and no one has a problem with all the inadvertent killing pesticides do in the farming industry for mice, insects, etc.

Think about it, in order to see that many targets and even obtain that many kills, the abundance of birds in the area has to be gigantic.

From the article it certainly doesn't sound like it was that fun, and I'm sure Cole or Purple Bruise's friends aren't thinking in their heads "Man I just want to murder hundreds of birds, how can I do that?" It sounds much more like people who like to hunt try it out, have fun at first, then it get's more annoying than anything but you're there trying to help so you go on. Hence the line about his shoulders hurting and not wanting to do it anymore.

No one said it was "hunting" btw, and I doubt anyone comes back thinking "oh yeah I'm such a good hunter." Do you guys get upset when they try to curtail Carp or Zebra Muscles? No, because they're a pest that will destroy the eco system, it's for the greater good.

Thanks for that perspective. I'll assume that's what he was doing. It'd be nice to have more details about his trip if that's, in fact, what he was doing.

[Purple bruise]

Unless MelanieMFunk was armed with a shotgun and Cole was only armed with maybe a couple doves.

Although one never knows. More people die each year from dove attacks...

He wouldn't have a wing or a prayer in a fight.

[Cliff]

As an animal lover I can understand people being upset at the amount of birds killed, however in this case what it really is, is a form of pest control. In this case Birds, or Doves, happen to be cute so there will be back lash, but when it comes to a farmers crops it's no different than a locust swarm and no one has a problem with all the inadvertent killing pesticides do in the farming industry for mice, insects, etc.

I wasn't thinking about cuteness ... it just struck me as super weird to spend your free time doing that. If it's all about pest control I can understand that ... but the article didn't make it sound like that.

Think about it, in order to see that many targets and even obtain that many kills, the abundance of birds in the area has to be gigantic.

I figured they were all caught and released specifically for this "hunt". I was thinking like mass quale hunting.

From the article it certainly doesn't sound like it was that fun, and I'm sure Cole or Purple Bruise's friends aren't thinking in their heads "Man I just want to murder hundreds of birds, how can I do that?"

Actually, that's exactly what the article made it sound like. Starting from the very first line. From the article;

Since the Vikings season ended with a playoff loss in Green Bay in January, linebacker Audie Cole has made sure to mix in some fun and leisure into his offseason activities.

The part about his shoulder hurting came off to me more like "it would have been nice to kill about 5000 more ... but our shoulders hurt so bad we didn't want to pull the trigger anymore".

“It was unreal,” he said. “I think we wound up shooting 5,000 doves in 4.5 days between 10 guys. You never stopped shooting. Your shoulders hurt and you get to a point where you don’t even want to pull the trigger anymore.”

No one said it was "hunting" btw,

The article did ...

And yes, Cole even accompanied his college roommate down to Mexico on a dove hunting trip.

and I doubt anyone comes back thinking "oh yeah I'm such a good hunter." Do you guys get upset when they try to curtail Carp or Zebra Muscles? No, because they're a pest that will destroy the eco system, it's for the greater good.

I certainly would hope they don't think that. Because it's very lame if that's the case.

It could be that Cole was trying to be eco friendly and trying to help protect the enviornment against the birds. That's not how it came off though. The article portrayed it as something Cole and his buddies did to have a good time.

Again, I'd like to point out that I'm not particularly offended ... I just find it very weird for people to think of something like that as fun.

[Mothman]

No one said it was "hunting" btw, and I doubt anyone comes back thinking "oh yeah I'm such a good hunter."

I doubt it too.

The article referred to it as hunting:

And yes, Cole even accompanied his college roommate down to Mexico on a dove hunting trip.
“It was unreal,” he said. “I think we wound up shooting 5,000 doves in 4.5 days between 10 guys. You never stopped shooting. Your shoulders hurt and you get to a point where you don’t even want to pull the trigger anymore.”

I wondered when I read it if perhaps the "hunting" was a form of pest control and after doing a little research, it sounds like some Mexican farmers do indeed consider the birds pests. However, I'll stand by what I said earlier: it doesn't sound like hunting. It sounds like slaughter. Maybe that's what it is and maybe it's even necessary. I don't know but it certainly sounds awful.

[Eli]

If he'd said, "Man, we must have shot a million birds", would you guys work that out to 100,000 birds per man? Dove hunting has a long and storied history, particularly in Texas, where the opening of the season is damned near a state holidy. And they're damned good eating.

[mondry]

To cliff and Jim, I understand, the only reason I really made my post is because I thought what the article WRITER wrote and what the article says was being projected as Cole's thoughts / opinions. The article says it was a hunting trip, the article says it was fun, and I'll admit I didn't read the rest of the article at the link but from the quoted stuff here I didn't see Cole specifically say it was fun. He says it was "unreal" which could mean a number of things. If he said something like "it was great, I can't wait to do it again!" my concerns would be significantly higher.

These things tend to be exaggerated as well, was it really 5000? Or did the group get maybe 500-750 and it felt like 5000? Not that that makes it any better but we just don't know.

Not quoted here but Boon's comment is one example of what I'm getting at. I'm not trying to say it's right, all I'm really saying is I don't think Cole is this evil dude from this one experience.

[PurpleKoolaid]

They do the same thing all over the world, for different pests. I dont believe in killing animals just for fun. But when that animal has become a pest, its different. I know in SD they used to round up all the hunters they could if they found an overabundance on male phesants. They were allowed to kill more birds per limit. But they still had to clean and eat them. I dont know if this still goes on.

[Mothman]

If we could slaughter mosquitos with guns however...........

LOL!

I appreciate the perspectives on this and although, as I said, I was disappointed when I read about Cole's "hunting" trip this morning, I didn't take the numbers mentioned literally and I recognized from the start that culling an overpopulation might be a factor.

My main point was that, whatever the trip was, it certainly doesn't sound like hunting or fun to me.

For what it's worth, I doubt Cole and his pal made this trip out of concern for Mexican farmers and the problems they have with doves so in all likelihood, it was recreational in nature. A quick search for "dove hunting mexico" will show that there's no shortage of places advertising such trips so even if the culling is necessary, the idea of making a special trip to blast away at doves for a weekend doesn't sit well with me at all. That's just me...