Is Hunting Legal

[churchill]

This last week we have had a group coming up every afternoon to shoot anything that moves in the wooded area in front of our house , Ban Tai . Now everything has been killed and they have moved on to the next area .

Are there any rules or licences needed for hunting / guns

When I filmed them they looked very nervous .

[MSingh]

I'm pretty sure there are rules against hunting to a certain extent ( the big Monitors in Lamai were " suppposed " to be protected ), but like a lot of Laws that get broke on the Island, having them & then implementing them are 2 entirely different things..

[mattias33]

There must be some laws offcourse. On the other hand, i have to hand it to you churchill, you do have a lot of guts filming people with guns while they are doing something (possibly) illegal. If this is Thais doing this you might want to stop your little hobby though. .

[Boater]

what where they hunting???

[MSingh]

There must be some laws offcourse. On the other hand, i have to hand it to you churchill, you do have a lot of guts filming people with guns while they are doing something (possibly) illegal. If this is Thais doing this you might want to stop your little hobby though. .

I used to Stone the Poachers in Lamai who were illegally hunting the Monitor Lizards in the River even after i used to repeatedly phone the numbers provided that asked in poor English to call if you saw it..

I could swear i used to hear them say " Pee, Pee " ( Ghosts ) as the Stones rained down..

They stopped, i think, in the end...

Maybe because they caught them all though..

[churchill]

"what where they hunting??? "

squirrels mainly .

[churchill]

Duplicate post

Edited March 6, 2009 by churchill

[Gatorade]

There must be some laws offcourse. On the other hand, i have to hand it to you churchill, you do have a lot of guts filming people with guns while they are doing something (possibly) illegal. If this is Thais doing this you might want to stop your little hobby though. .

I agree with Mattias, would have thought there would have been laws. It would have been a good idea to have called the police, although gunfire seems commonplace on Samui these days. If they were using rifles it might be worth remembering that a bullet can still be lethal at around 2 Kms and I wouldn't really give too much credit to their marksmanship standards.

(Perhaps it was a Thai animal care group trying to frighten mosquitos away from Beckhams place to prevent the mossies from being killed).

[MSingh]

One thing though that we should all remember, myself included even though i hate poaching, is that there are a lot of people on this Island who can't aford to go to Tesco & buy a pack of Ham, or got to a Seafood Rest & order a plate of Prawns..

Like Bushmeat in Africa, people have to & will eat & if they have no money, what & where are other solutions than this exact subject that we're talking about ??

[BigC]

just ask a policeman. i am sure hunting is legal in some areas and thais can obtain gun lisences but not many of the guns with liscence are alloud to be carrried outside thier land. they have 3 stage in gun lisences. 1 is something like u can own a gun but not use. 2 is u can own a gun and use it on your property and carry down to the range.( not loaded on route ) stage 3 is where u can carry under your belt but it is very hard to obtain even the basic of liscences hence why people like dirty guns. And forang cannot own a gun legally. or carry their wives gun around as if it was their own. or they might find themselves in the monkey house.

[MSingh]

just ask a policeman. i am sure hunting is legal in some areas and thais can obtain gun lisences but not many of the guns with liscence are alloud to be carrried outside thier land. they have 3 stage in gun lisences. 1 is something like u can own a gun but not use. 2 is u can own a gun and use it on your property and carry down to the range.( not loaded on route ) stage 3 is where u can carry under your belt but it is very hard to obtain even the basic of liscences hence why people like dirty guns. And forang cannot own a gun legally. or carry their wives gun around as if it was their own. or they might find themselves in the monkey house.

I asked a Policeman once & he sort of huffed, puffed, shrugged his shoulders & then muttered, " Aroi mak mak " to certain Animals i pointed out in a Book !!!!!!!!!

[sbk]

If they had guns and were shooting squirrels its unlikely that they were poor itinerant laborers. I don't see too many of those with guns here on this island at least.

More than likely they were, as my husband put it when asked "locals out to shoot all the squirrels" followed by an eye roll. The squirrels eat the coconuts and many people are unaware that the squirrels also eat the coconut beetle and its larvae (this is the bug that was responsible for the massive die off in coconut trees both on Samui and Phangan a few years ago). So, to avoid losing alot of coconuts (a good size squirrel family can decimate a coconut plantation rather quickly), they kill them. I know that the older locals here will also eat the squirrels so its not a total loss but still. Like many things, its very short sighted.

[MSingh]

If they had guns and were shooting squirrels its unlikely that they were poor itinerant laborers. I don't see too many of those with guns here on this island at least.

More than likely they were, as my husband put it when asked "locals out to shoot all the squirrels" followed by an eye roll. The squirrels eat the coconuts and many people are unaware that the squirrels also eat the coconut beetle and its larvae (this is the bug that was responsible for the massive die off in coconut trees both on Samui and Phangan a few years ago). So, to avoid losing alot of coconuts (a good size squirrel family can decimate a coconut plantation rather quickly), they kill them. I know that the older locals here will also eat the squirrels so its not a total loss but still. Like many things, its very short sighted.

Ok sbk but the moral of the Story is the same, even if they are killing them because they eat the Coconuts ( they do eat them too like you said ) they are killing them because, in their eyes, it's affecting their livelihoods..

Short sighted as you say but that appears to be very common here..

Edited March 9, 2009 by MSingh

[madjbs]

Certain squirrels are seen as pests in many parts of the world, including the UK, where you can legally shoot them with no problems.

If there are too many of them and they are damaging the crop which people survive off, there is nothing wrong with shooting some of them to keep the numbers down.

[MSingh]

Certain squirrels are seen as pests in many parts of the world, including the UK, where you can legally shoot them with no problems.

If there are too many of them and they are damaging the crop which people survive off, there is nothing wrong with shooting some of them to keep the numbers down.

True but on the other side of the coin, some of them keep the numbers of these Weever Beatles ( is that what thye're called ) down which ruin the Coconuts here..

Edited March 9, 2009 by MSingh

[churchill]

Certain squirrels are seen as pests in many parts of the world, including the UK, where you can legally shoot them with no problems.

If there are too many of them and they are damaging the crop which people survive off, there is nothing wrong with shooting some of them to keep the numbers down.

The owners of the land do not farm or use the coconuts at all , the land is left wild . The hunters were not the owners and shooting I assume for food .

[Rooo]

Certain squirrels are seen as pests in many parts of the world, including the UK, where you can legally shoot them with no problems.

If there are too many of them and they are damaging the crop which people survive off, there is nothing wrong with shooting some of them to keep the numbers down.

The owners of the land do not farm or use the coconuts at all , the land is left wild . The hunters were not the owners and shooting I assume for food .

I have seen them next to my house here on Samui, collecting trapped squirrels ,putting them in a cage & I presume being sold to restaurants.

[mistresserika]

One thing though that we should all remember, myself included even though i hate poaching, is that there are a lot of people on this Island who can't aford to go to Tesco & buy a pack of Ham, or got to a Seafood Rest & order a plate of Prawns..

Like Bushmeat in Africa, people have to & will eat & if they have no money, what & where are other solutions than this exact subject that we're talking about ??

There are no poor indigenous Samui people. If there are any poor people, they are probably the so called 'hill tribe' people who peddle their crap in the towns at night. Or maybe the Issan building workers, but then again they are not poor in respect of what they used to earn before coming here.

[MSingh]

One thing though that we should all remember, myself included even though i hate poaching, is that there are a lot of people on this Island who can't aford to go to Tesco & buy a pack of Ham, or got to a Seafood Rest & order a plate of Prawns..

Like Bushmeat in Africa, people have to & will eat & if they have no money, what & where are other solutions than this exact subject that we're talking about ??

There are no poor indigenous Samui people. If there are any poor people, they are probably the so called 'hill tribe' people who peddle their crap in the towns at night. Or maybe the Issan building workers, but then again they are not poor in respect of what they used to earn before coming here.

I take it you haven't spent much time in the Interior of the Island ??

& you can't tell me that some people on this Island don't hunt because they have to, irrespective of if they earnt more here, there or wherever..

Also, for actual Locals & non locals, hunting their own food is a way of life & culture, i can't imagine before we came ( which wasn't that long ago at all ), people cared too much about Squirrels or whatever being hunted, for whatever reason..

& let's be honest, Animal welfare in this Country, a Buddhist Country, is little or non existent...

Edited March 10, 2009 by MSingh

[PoorSucker]

Certain squirrels are seen as pests in many parts of the world, including the UK, where you can legally shoot them with no problems.

If there are too many of them and they are damaging the crop which people survive off, there is nothing wrong with shooting some of them to keep the numbers down.

The owners of the land do not farm or use the coconuts at all , the land is left wild . The hunters were not the owners and shooting I assume for food .

I have seen them next to my house here on Samui, collecting trapped squirrels ,putting them in a cage & I presume being sold to restaurants.

I've seen them sold as pets at local markets.