Lögberg-Heimskringla - 19.10.1990, Blaðsíða 3

Lögberg - Heimskringla • FöstUdagur 19. október 1990 • 3
lcelandic Content
On page 8, we feature an interview with Magnus B. Magnus i
which was published in the Morgunblað last July. Emil Bjarnason
has undertaken the English translation of the interview. In a
letter accompanying the translation, Emil points out that it
differs slightly from the original in two or three places where
Magnus had asked for some minor clarifícation.
/Ve done enough killing
Translated
by
Emil
Bjarnason
Contlnued from our last Issue.
Delicious Muskrat
“First of all, we were seeking furs.
Larger animals, such as caribou and
bears were shot but others were caught
in snares or traps, steel traps. It is a
sore point, an emotional matter, when
one speaks of animal hunting. Traps
are undeniably brutal hunting gear
and Greenpeace, Paul Watson £md such
devils have taken advantage of that.
People are shown pictures of foxes or
other animals that are left to writhing
and tortured in traps. No hunter with
any conscience allows such a thing to
happen. In the first place they have no
desire to torture animalsneedlessly.
Apart firom that, they would get little
for the pelt if it had been handled that
way. Half dead and tortured animals
attract ravens and wolves which help
themselves to the flesh. And little
would be paid for the fur if it had been
handled so in the trapping. When we
used traps, we were never so far away
that we could nothear when an animal
got caugh t. The trapping of fur bearing
animals is brutal but is it not equally
brutal to hook a salmon and tug and
play it for hours for sport alone?”
But aren’t the inspectors at fault,
are not many animals supposed to be
protected?
“They have protected beavers and
their numbers have multiplied. Some
animals have diminished in number
but that is not on account of hunting,
but because the forests have shrunk.
It is nothuntingthat is the danger, but
rather that we are laying waste to the
habitat of the wildlife. Here in Iceland
you are planting trees but in Canada
they chop them down and plant little
in their stead.”
What animals did you prefer to
hunt?
“Mainly furbearers, wildcat, lynx,
mink, fox, otter, beaver, and hxmdreds
of muskrats.”
Did you eat these animals?
“Muskrats were eaten. You shud-
der but it has a good flavour. The hind
legs of the lynx are also excellent espe-
cially cooked with beans. On the other
hand we never ate mink nor weasels.”
But didn’t you hunt larger game
with rifles?
“Caribou, elk and bears, that is to
say, brown bears, not grizzlies.”
Isn’tit extremely dangerous to chase
bears?
“Yes, it is best to be cautious and not
let go of your gun until the fatal shot,
which should preferably be the fírst.
To tell the truth I have not shot many
bears. I remember when a young bear
entered our tent and got into the sup-
plies. The next night I lay in wait for
him and shothim. He cleared out, and
I after him. It was not more than a
hundredandfíftyfeetto where he
lay wounded. He had snatched some
moss and stuffed it into the wound to
stop the bleeding, just as a man would
have done. Then I gave him the fatal
shot. I felt as if I had killed a man.
“The danger was not in the big
beasts, rather flies and bugs that could
make one sick, far from medical help.
One had better be pretty strong in
those areas.”
Was there no danger of wolves who
travelled in packs?
“Wolves rarely eat you. One time
though they came near to starving me
todeath. Ihadkilled an elkandputthe
meat on a platform to keep it from
animals. But I hadn’t reckoned with
the fact that the snow drifted at this
place, and the wolves used it to their
advantage. Learning from that, they
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tracked us to our next cache and there
plunged onto the platform. They did
this three times. When we got back,
there was nothing left of the supplies
we had being relying on for ourselves
and the dogs. Then I could have shot
the beasts — if only I could find them.
I had to return to the hunting supply
shed for provisions. That held us up
considerably with the hunting.
“Otherwise I have little fault to find
with the wolf, he is intelligent. The
best and cleverest animal I ever owned
was a dog that was three quarters wolf.
He had yellow eyes. The mother was
half wolf. She was our lead dog. She
wandered away late in the winter. Still
later, when I was looking for her in the
same area, I spotted three wolves. I
intended to shoot at least one. Two of
themnoticedmeandtookoff intothe
woods but one tumed around. Just as
I was about to shoot, I recognized the
animal, there stood the bitch. In April, -
she bore one whelp. He wanted always
to hold his head high, and to climb. If
I were working on the roof, up he
came. He had human understanding,
that dog.”
Are animals manlike? You said it
had been like killing a man when you
shot the bear.
“Yes, the wolfis as quick-witted as
a man. The fox is cunning but not as
clever. Man is not superior to those
beasts except for their bmtality.”
U. S. Farmers
Viewpoirit on
Wheat Prices
The following article appeared in
the Minneota Mascot, the local paper
published in Minneota, Minnesota.
Minneota is well known as a place
where a signifícant number of Iceland-
ers chose to settle when they left Ice-
land, but that is not the story here. If
you live in Canada, as I now do, and
read the local papers, I’m sure you will
note a similarity in the plight of the
Canadian prairie farmer. You would
also note that the U.S and the Euro-
pean Economic Community areblamed
for the low wheat prices as they com-
pete for sales to the major wheat mar-
kets of the world. One would think
that the U.S. farmer was the benefici-
ary of these govemment subsidies, but
according to the following article, this
does not appear to be the case and it
leads one to wonder who is the benefi-
ciary:
Who Benefits From Low
Wheat Prices?
Minnesota wheat prices which av-
eraged less than $2.25/bushel on Sep-
tember 5, 1990 have not been as low
since 1973 when September monthly
average prices were at $1.77/bushel.
Who has benefíted from these low
prices? It certainly is not the consum-
ers, because bread prices have not
fallen; and it certainly is not the farmer
because export market share has de-
creased and the price of wheat is below
the cost of production. Tax-payers and
rural communities are not winners
either because the government wheat
programs, which assure reliable sup-
plies of wheat, will be more expensive
and farmers will be spending much
less money in the rural towns they
patronize.
Dave Haugo, President of the Min-
nesota Association of Wheat Growers,
will be carrying a strong message to
niinnisí
í EKFÐASKRÁM YÐAR
members of Congress and the USDA
ofíicials when he travels to the Capitol
city this week. The message? Wheat
prices are too low for everyone and
something has to be done about it.
Under Secretary Crowder will hear
from Haugo that American wheat
farmers produced the crop that USDA
wanted, so now is the time for USDA
to use the Export Enhancement Pro-
gram (EEP) in expanded ways in order
to move the wheat. Haugo believes
that EEP should be used to compete
against countries that have been un-
willing to cut production and have also
been unwilling to store as much of
world wheat reserves as the U.S. has
done.
Haugo will also be meeting with
Cooper Evans, Special Assistant to
the President, in order to discuss the
low wheat prices and the need for
President Bush to make credit avail-
able to the Soviet Union. “The Soviet
Union is the largest customer of U.S.
wheat”, says Haugo. Most of our
competitors have offered them credit
and it is imperative that we too meet
the credit needs of the Soviets.
Another important point Haugo will
address is that the current example of
low prices and losses in the market
share proves that the 1985 Farm Bill
does not always work the way many
people claimed it would. With this in
mind, Haugo plans to stress the need
for income support levels that will be
adequate for the nextfiveyears. Haugo
says, “this means target prices which
absolutely cannot be reduced should
actually be indexed to the amount of
set-aside required. Farm income is
what we need and we’ll have to fight
hard to even maintain what we cur-
rently have.”
The Minnesota Association of
Wheat Growers is working together
with many other Minnesota organi-
zations to send a clear message that
agriculture cannot accept any further
cuts to the farm programs that benefit
consumers, rural communities and the
U.S. economy.
Submitted by L. P. Chriatianson