On farm-raised Texas white-tailed deer freak trophy bucks and my thoughts and position about GM organisms / Sobre venados cola blanca trofeos fenómeno de granjas Texanas y mis pensamientos y posición sobre organismos genéticamente modificados.

 This is a natural, wild, white-tailed deer with the typical antler size and shape of a mature 3.5 - 4.5 years old buck coming from the center of its natural historic geographical distribution.

(Photo taken from the internet copyright by: https://animals.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/641853/)

And this is a Texas farm-raised, captive, genetically modified (by selective artificial breeding and probably by genetic modifications via genome or the genes that command antler size and shape in this species) 3.5 - 4.5 white-tailed deer buck.

(This photo was taken from the computer screen of a video available in Carbon TV http://www.carbontv.com/videos/0_ymjcx72x ).
You can see more of these poor freak animals here:

http://www.highrollerwhitetails.com/BUCK%20PAGES/SUNRISE-TX-WHITETAIL-BREEDER-JAMES-BUTLER.html

Is that weird? Yes

Is that pretty? Not to my standards of beauty

Is that ethical? Most likely not

Is that natural? Hell, no!!

I have been working, studying and writing about white-tailed deer for almost 30 years. I have never thought that I would get old enough -or sad enough for that matter- to see something like this. That we humans would ever achive something like this via selective breeding and genetic manipulations with a wildlife species. It really freaks me out. Very, very much.

To me this is the epitome of what genetically modified organisms (GMO) mean: Sad un-natural things.

This poor thing can barely hold the weight of those huge antlers on the top of its head. It moves in such a weird manner meaning it would be imposible for him to run out off a predator or to search for shelter in the bush. The straw of frozen semen from this buck, cost $4000 US Dollars one doze. Yet, his off-spring would be sold (for tens of thousands of US dollars) to yet another kind of freaks: Self-called rich "hunters" that will buy them to "hunt" them after releasing these tame beasts in their private ranches, kill them and then hang those huge, hideous un-natural antlers on top ot their fire-places...with pride. A weird and very disturbing sense of pride, indeed.

It is really sad what we humans can do to beautiful natural things. That is what GMO means to me: sad stories about our true human nature: greed, avarice and selfishness.

It doesn't matter if it s a GM white-tailed deer in Texas, a soy bean in Campeche, a tomato in the UK or a bacteria elsewhere. All GMO are as un-natural as this white-tailed deer buck. It doesn't matter if the science behind GMO is relevant or not to humanity, reliable or not, even if it is dangerous -to humans- or not. To me the only thing that matters is that GMOs are NOT NATURAL AT ALL, period. The only difference here between this monster GM buck and a GM tomato, a soy bean or a bacteria is that the last ones do not have huge tree-shaped, monstruous antlers to freak us all out.

GMO are not a matter of science, economics or even ethics: it is a matter of true, authentic biophilia.

Perhaps we should respect and cherrish nature, not play god with it?...Perhaps...just perhaps