July 27, 2012

"[T]he only thing preventing these giant swamp rats from destroying all of Louisiana are our very own Rat B*stards and their crafty hunting tricks...."

It's the new reality show — "Rat Bastards" — with "larger-than-life characters in extreme situations, facing down these rodents with everything from hunting weapons to dynamite."
Nutria are considered such a problem in Louisiana that the state offers a $6 bounty on each tail. Ray said the money is nice, but he calls that program it waste of good meat.

"I catch'em, kill'em and put them in the pot. They are darn good eating," Ray said.
 Here's Ray:



Can we get a reality show where Ray barges into that NYC art show "Tomorrow We Will Feast Again on What We Catch" and takes over the cooking and serving? Let it be one of the competitive shows where we eliminate contestants one by one. Each week the least interesting human being goes home. We could have a Heidi Klum-like arbiter of interestingness who, along with 2 other judges, would assemble the 3 least interesting contestants each week, critique them, and ultimately select one to be told "I'm sorry — you bore me — goodbye."

But who could be the judges of interestingness? Who specializes in that? I mean other than bloggers....

22 comments:

ricpic said...

I know what today's theme is but I ain't sayin'; that way no one will ever figger it out 'cause it's so subtle, NOT.

edutcher said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
edutcher said...

Interesting to speculate on where this will lead.

Irene said...

I recall Nutria fur coats were common in the 1960s.

Ipso Fatso said...

My daughters are named Nutria, Viagra and Velvetta. Just sayin.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

A bounty for the tail? Well that is just dumb unless they are also harvesting the fur.

Nutria fur makes fabulous coats.

However, I do understand the need to get rid of the pests. We have an are in our locality called "The Rat Farm". Back in the 50's or even earlier, the idea was to raise muskrats for fur. The critters escaped and are a constant and dangerous nuisance burrowing into river banks and levies. We have had devastating flooding caused by their burrows.

Shanna said...

A bounty for the tail? Well that is just dumb unless they are also harvesting the fur.

The government just wants to know you killed the thing, it doesn't care what you did with the body.

madAsHell said...

Doesn't look like he has missed many meals either.

alan markus said...

"Nutria" is something I haven't heard about since the early 60's: I remember some guy at church trying to convince my father to invest in raising them. I think we even ate a sample. Privately, my dad said he wasn't going to spend money on "glorified rats".

ndspinelli said...

Ray's one of the guys Tiny Bloomberg fears.

ndspinelli said...

George Costanza tried to replace a mink hat w/ a Nutria hat. That was my first intro to Nutria. This is my second. Seinfeld and Althouse, quite eclectic.

ndspinelli said...

DBQ, A few of my friends would trap muskrats on the Pequabuck River in Ct. They had to check their traps every morning because those critters would knaw off their trapped leg if they didn't. They sold the pelts to a furrier from Hartford who would drive a circuit in central Ct. buying pelts, mostly from kids. I had a morning paper route but trapping wassn't my cup o' tea.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

A bounty for the tail? Well that is just dumb unless they are also harvesting the fur.

The government just wants to know you killed the thing, it doesn't care what you did with the body.

What I meant was, if all you are going to get is the 6$ for the tail and don't do something with the fur which is much more valuable.....the trapper is dumb.

Curious George said...

"ndspinelli said...
George Costanza tried to replace a mink hat w/ a Nutria hat. That was my first intro to Nutria. This is my second. Seinfeld and Althouse, quite eclectic."

Pretty sure it was a sable hat. "Co-stanz-ah!"

Michael said...

DBQ: The state pays the $6 when you prove you have killed the nutria by handing over the tail. The trapper keeps the pelt and sells that on.

The nutrea were introduced originally to eat a water lilly that was introduced and which was choking the waterways. Fucking w/ mother nature is never good.

Samrobb said...

A bounty for the tail? Here's what immediately came to mind...

Shortly before the Patrician came to power there was a terrible plague of rats. The city council countered it by offering twenty pence for every rat tail. This did, for a week or two, reduce the number of rats—and then people were suddenly queueing up with tails, the city treasury was being drained, and no one seemed to be doing much work. And there still seemed to be a lot of rats around. Lord Vetinari had listened carefully while the problem was explained, and had solved the thing with one memorable phrase which said a lot about him, about the folly of bounty offers, and about the natural instinct of Ankh-Morporkians in any situation involving money: "Tax the rat farms."

Kev said...

(the other kev)

We should be listening to this guy. By the end of a second Obama term, rats will be considered a delicacy for most of us

ndspinelli said...

Curious, "You are correct, sir." Said like the great Phil Hartmann, imitating Ed McMahon.

Smilin' Jack said...

It's the new reality show — "Rat Bastards" — with "larger-than-life characters in extreme situations, facing down these rodents with everything from hunting weapons to dynamite."

I hope they'll have the appropriate disclaimer at the end--"A whole bunch of animals were harmed in the making of this film."

John henry said...

$6 a tail? Sounds like an opportunity.

If I lived there I would grow nutria, and kill them for their tails.

this actually happened in a small town in Italy a few years ago. They had a lot of snakes and put a bounty of them. Pretty soon people were raising snakes in their basements.

John Henry

JAL said...

Looks like one of those guys mayor Bloomburg was talking about?

JAL said...

Looks like one of those guys mayor Bloomburg was talking about?