killing butterflies for fun???

[Paul Cherubini]

David Smith wrote:

> Would someone please explain why I should be bothered 
> that a tiny proportion of the population thinks that I
> should not do what I am doing. Espescially when they 
> are wrong!!

The reason some people here are disturbed about Joseph
Sugar's 'collecting is immoral' viewpoint is that it creates a social
stigma against collecting just like Jeff Glassberg's viewpoint that
"collecting is a primitive urge' (or something to that effect).

Havn't you been harrassed by onlookers when they see you swinging
a net in the field? I don't mean the redneck cowboys who think
you are a sissy, but the Audubon and Sierra Club types that pull up
to you, roll down the windows of their Vans and Sport Utility Vehicles
and scold and shame you for disturbing Gods most beautiful creatures.
(and then they drive off slaughtering twice as many butterflies than
people who are willing to drive compact cars).

At the very least they will demand to know why you are collecting.
and you better have a good reason.  I typically make up  some excuse 
like "I'm collecting specimens for professor so & so".  My other trick 
is to use a tan colored net that blends in with the color of our tan 
colored hillsides so they won't notice me to begin with.
Or if I collect a night I use a black net. 15 years ago collectors did 
not face this kind of harassment.

So in sum the problem is extremism. Extremism has worked its way
all the way up to the highest reaches of the United States Dept. of
Food & Agriculture. For example, in Feb. this year, Dr. Wayne F. 
Wehling decided to make it illegal to drive from North Carolina to South
Carolina with a live Mourning Cloak butterfly in your car.  His
reasoning is that Mourning Cloaks are "insufficiently abundant" in
South Carolina to allow Mourning Cloaks from other states to
be released in South Carolina.  However, the Carolina Butterfly
Society has documented hundreds of Mourning Cloak sightings
thoughout South Carolina 
http://membersites.nwbombers.com/dalkena/MCCC.jpg

Once again, who would have ever dreamed of restricting interstate
shipments of our most common 
http://membersites.nwbombers.com/dalkena/maps.jpg
butterflies 15 year ago? But thanks to individuals who made extremism 
fashionable, there are probably now a good number of people who 
support the viewpoints of Dr. Wehling and Dr. Glassberg.

Paul Cherubini
Placerville, Calif.

 
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