There are many types of videos on YouTube that I now watch simply to relax. There's that car-detailing channel (The Detail Geek); there's the carpet-cleaning channel (Mountain Rug Cleaning); there are the many bladesmithing, wood-turning, and restoration channels I watch... and then there are the channels that appeal to my darker side: the rat-hunting and squirrel-shooting channels. I'm now subscribed to the rat buster (yes, written lower case), a gentleman in the UK who visits farms with his airgun (also spelled air gun) and takes out rats by the dozens and hundreds. Most of his kills are pretty matter-of-fact, and the guy tastefully moves on to the next kill without lingering morbidly on the carnage.
I did, however, just watch an American squirrel-killing compilation video that was just kill after kill—slo-mo shots of squirrels being slammed in the head by airgun projectiles ranging from .177 to .22 to .25 caliber to 7.62 mm (about .30 caliber). While I normally embed the videos I refer to, in this case, I'm just going to link to the squirrel vid and leave you the option to click. If the humane killing of pests (and whether a squirrel qualifies as a pest has a lot to do with where you live and how dense the local squirrel population is) bothers you, then by all means, don't click. If you're OK with the drama of Mother Nature, then click away, baby.
I've seen plenty of shot animals, but one slightly disturbing thing that kept happening in the squirrel video was that the impact of the projectile's entrance into the squirrel's brain would occasionally produce a fleshy pressure wave that would, at times, cause one of the squirrel's eyes to be evulsed (pushed forcibly out of its socket). And I'm not sure whether this is worse, but every once in a while, the pellet would enter the squirrel's head right through an eye, resulting in a mighty splash as the eye exploded on impact. Nasty, but fascinating in a ballistics kind of way. For me, grim satisfaction comes in knowing a pest has been eliminated; I don't take joy in the killing of just any cute, random animal.
If you watch the squirrel video and listen to the voiceover, you'll see and hear references to a "table for one," a clever setup used by the squirrel-hunter to lure squirrels to an easy kill. I found the concept amusing: the "table for one" looks as though it could be in a dollhouse.
You are one sick mofo. And, no, I did not click on the link. Your description was enough.
ReplyDelete(By the way, I don't have any problem with the humane killing of pests--but I also don't need to watch squirrel's getting shot in the head.)
The squirrel guy apparently lives in an area with an unbelievably dense squirrel population. The little bastards are thus a dime a dozen where he is. So on some level, I'm just enjoying watching that population get trimmed.
ReplyDeleteFair enough. Your description made it sound like we get gruesome, up-close shots of squirrels getting blown to bits, though. That seems... unnecessary. But that's just me, I've never really been into gore.
ReplyDelete(Ah, look at my adorable little misplaced apostrophe in my first comment. Poor guy must have gotten lost.)
Well, it's definitely a series of nonstop headshots, but aside from the evulsed eyeball here and there, there are no cranial explosions, i.e., nothing being "blown to bits." Of course, I get that you may be using that turn of phrase hyperbolically, in which case... yeah, maybe that's exactly what the video shows.
ReplyDeleteThe guy actually makes a remark about YouTube rules re: the showing of bleeding. According to him, YouTube's OK with bleeding from a wound if the image is shown in black and white. Go figure. (I assume the rule doesn't apply to cinematic depictions; I've seen plenty of in-color bleeding in TV and movie clips.)
I do wish Blogger included an edit function for comments. I have a lot of stuff I'd redo or outright take back.
ReplyDelete