Ok, so I am usually pretty tolerant of people. (Notice that I did not say folks here. Folks do not bother me. People do.) I can accept their opinions. I can deal with their quirkiness. I am usually ok with whatever people choose to do as long as it does not affect me. You do your thing. I do mine. We get along fine. BUT....but occasionally, people irk me to no end and I have to call them on the error of their ways...even if it is a public plea that falls on deaf ears. I will have said my piece and then I let it go. This post is one of those public pleas.
The other day, Mark and I were trying to catch some hardhead catfish to use as crab bait. There is this unsaid rule about the Bayou that we do not kill anything that we cannot use is some way. The catfish are considered to be "trash" or "nuisance" fish by most folks but I still insist that they have a right to live...unless, of course, we use them for something. In this case, if you want to catch crabs, you need bait and it seems that crabs have a penchant for catfish. So, catfish are caught, cut and used in the crab pots. If you recall, I recently had a rant about someone putting a fish clip through the gills and out the mouth of a catfish then released it. The poor catfish was suffering so much with that clip attached to it that Mark worked diligently to remove the clip without hurting the fish any more than it already was. The fish was then released as we figured it had already suffered far more than it should have. But, another catfish brings today's rant. This one was being cut for crab bait when Mark realized that it stomach held something a tad strange. Something hard and blue was embedded in the fish's gut. He removed the object to find that the catfish had swallowed a beer bottle cap. That cap would have created just as many problems as the aforementioned clip. The fish could not digest food and pass any excrement due to the beer cap causing a blockage. The fish suffered. Yes, before someone throws it at me that we killed the fish, it is far more humane to kill things instantly to be used as food or, in our case, to catch food than it is to do something stupid that causes suffering. The blockage would have caused a slow, painful death.
Now, people! Use a bit of commonsense! Why pollute the waters with any objects such as this??? These are the same waters that you fish in, boat on and swim in so why would you toss your trash overboard? Are you that stupid that you cannot understand what you are doing? Sure, this was one beer bottle cap but it caused suffering. And, my (not) friends, you are probably one of the whiners that complains about the waters of the Gulf Coast being polluted yet you find it ok to toss your trash overboard. Not so smart. So...just don't. It is the law to have a covered container with you to hold your trash so it can be disposed of properly. Throwing it in the water is not proper disposal. Sometimes, I wish I could smack people up side the head and maybe knock some sense into them. Yeah, I know...I know...but things like this really irk me. Sometimes, I really do not like people.
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