Stuff You Should Know - Is knife hunting the fairest way to hunt?

Episode Date: July 30, 2008

Fair chase is the idea that a balance should be struck between the hunter's ability to kill prey and the prey's ability escape. Take a look at our HowStuffWorks article to learn more about knife hunting, and whether or not it's the fairest way to hunt. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit bona.com slash Bona Clean. In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami. The cartels, they just killed everybody that was home. Setting an aspiring private investigator on a collision course with corruption and multiple murders. The detective

agency would turn out to be a front for a drug pilot who would claim he did it all for this CIA. I'm Lauren Brad Pacheco. Join me for murder in Miami. Talk about walking into the devil's den. Listen to Murder in Miami on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, a staff writer here at HowStuffWorks.com. With me is my fellow staff writer Charles W. Bryant. How are you, Chuck? I'm here, Josh. I'm feeling good and glad to be here with you. I'm glad you're here, too, Chuck, and I don't know if you know this or not, but as a special treat, we are trying something new here on Stuff You Should Know. What's that? We're actually running a language module, a recorded language module, subliminally

for our listeners. So you out there in podcasts, so I can just kick back, relax, and prepare to learn Russian without lifting a finger. Well, Chuck and I talk about the topic of knife hunting. Do you know anything about that? No. Good. See, it's working already. Well, let me tell you about knife hunting, Chuck. Arguably, it's the fairest way to hunt. And this is based on an article I wrote. Is knife hunting the fairest way to hunt? Which is pretty subjective. And I was a little worried about me bringing my own opinions into it, because I don't hunt. True, but that's kind of an open and shut case, if you ask me. Maybe so. And luckily, though, there is a principle out there among hunters and wildlife managers. It's called the principle of fair chase. Right.

That there needs to be a balance between the hunter and the prey. Yeah. I mean, you can go out and spend tens of thousands of dollars. You've got your ATV. You've got your really super duper camo. You've got your incredible scope. Right. You're up in like 30 feet up in a deer stand. Exactly. There's a laundry detergent that removes any odor whatsoever from you. You can put bucklure around. There's feeding sites. There's all sorts of things you can do to an unsuspecting animal to raise your advantage to where it's not even sport anymore. It's just blood sport or target practice with live animals, right? Right. Now, the principle of fair chase, as you were saying, is basically trying to strike a balance between the deer or whatever you're hunting, I guess.

It doesn't matter what you're hunting, you know? So, yeah, it applies across the board. Right. And you can't give a deer a gun. No, you can't. And frankly, I think that'd be a really bad idea after all we've done to them with our cars and with the hunters. Right. Don't give them cars or guns and we'll be fine. Right. What fairer way to hunt is there than hunting with a knife? All right. I think that would be the only fair way to hunt. That or bare hands? Yes. Yeah. Obviously, bare hands. Going toe to toe with like a bear. Dude, actually, you're at a disadvantage. Yeah. You know, there's no fair chase. Fair chase should be balanced in your favor at that point. And frankly, I mean, probably all you're wearing is a loincloth,

so everything's going to hurt extra bad. Right. A soiled loincloth at that. Oh, definitely. So, do you know much about knife hunting? Not personally from experience, but, you know, I know you and I were talking about this a lot when you wrote the article. One thing I did want to talk about first, though, was this thing you found about internet hunting, which thankfully was shut down soon after it started, but... Yeah, this is like the opposite spectrum of fair chase. Complete opposite. This guy in Texas launched a website where you could hunt remotely from your computer and it was literally attached to a gun. You had a camera and you could look out on the

wild range and see something, pan over to it with your mouse, click it, and the gun would fire. And lawmakers shut that down, you know, too sweet, thankfully. Yeah, which is, I frankly applaud that. Me too. Apparently it wasn't just animal rights people, hunters as well, like sportsmen's groups, where like this has to go away, this can't be good. Yeah, which is good to know. Yeah, so we've got internet hunting ban. I don't think you're going to see any bans on knife hunting based on questions of fairness.

No. And it's mostly used for wild boar. Yeah, which is kind of, I mean, I'm no hunter, but I think that'd be kind of cool personally. Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, they're about, they get up to 750 pounds, six feet long. There was one that went around on the internet and I actually went onto Snopes and it was verified. There was one that was, I think, 11 feet long. Right, what was the name of that one? They called it like Jurassic Pork or something like that.

And so I was like, obviously this is a fake. I went onto Snopes and they were like, no, we verified it. It was part of an AP article. Right. And was that killed with a knife? It wasn't. It was shot with a pistol and it turned out that it had been a family pet that was sold to this hunting preserve like two days before the guy shot it. Oh, that's kind of sad. Yeah. But so we've got knife hunting and basically what it is is you send dogs out to go run after some hogs who hide in the brush and they are startled.

They're generally tranquil and they're not aggressive towards humans. But if you startle them, they will run. Right. And when they start running, you want to kind of get in between them and wherever they think they're going. Right. And when they get close enough, you actually push this, you know, 700 pound board of the ground and stab it and stab it to death and it still results in the death of an animal.

But if we're talking about whether or not knife hunting is fair, then arguably it's a lot fairer than being up in that tree. Yeah. I would say if you have the fortitude to leap from a bush on top of a 700 pound pig and stab it to death, then I'm not going to get in your way. Right. And there was this one hunt who actually happened in 1976 with this guy in Florida, who not only knife hunted, he used throwing knocks. That was crazy. Yeah. It was crazy.

I'll have to forward you the link. It's pretty interesting. And while I'm forwarding to Chuck, you guys should go read is knife hunting the fairest way to hunt on howstuffworks.com and stick around to find out what famous person celebrated her 30th birthday on July 25th, 2008 and why you should know her name right after this. Stuff you should know is brought to you by Visa. We all have things to think about. Like say, what's the best site to buy a new leather jacket or whether to buy the three

or six megapixel camera. But thankfully, we don't need to think about online fraud because for every purchase you make, Visa keeps an eye out for fraud with real time fraud monitoring. And by making sure you're not liable for any unauthorized purchases. How's that for peace of mind? Safe, secure, Visa. Chuck, do you know her name? I don't know her name.

Do you want me to tell you? I know why she's famous. Okay. Well, it's Louise Joy Brown from Manchester, England. You want to tell the people about her? Yes. I believe she was the first person conceived in vitro, which is Latin for fake baby. Is that right? No. It's actually Latin for within the glass. Nice. Okay. Well, more commonly, people refer to in vitro fertilization as test tube baby making.

Within the glass. Yeah. So if you want to know all about that, all you have to do is type in how in vitro fertilization works on howstuffworks.com and presto. You'll be informed. Happy birthday. For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. Let us know what you think. Send an email to podcast at howstuffworks.com. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? In 1980, cocaine was captivating and corrupting Miami.

The cartels, they just killed everybody that was home. Setting an aspiring private investigator on a collision course with corruption and multiple murders. The detective agency would turn out to be a front for a drug pilot. Would claim he did it all for this CIA. I'm Lauren Bright Pacheco. Join me for murder in Miami. Talk about walking into the devil's den. Listen to Murder in Miami on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 1968, five black girls were picked up by police after running away from a reform school in Mt. Megs, Alabama. I'm writer and reporter Josie Duffy Rice. And in a new podcast, I investigate the abuse that thousands of black children suffered at the Alabama Industrial School for Negro children. And how those five girls changed everything. Listen to Unreformed on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.