WI: The Americans Imported the Hippos Into the Mississipi?

Alanith

Dave Howery said:
and considering that they are monstrous pests, hunting them is going to be unlimited. An unfettered ivory trade just might do them in...
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Exactly. No dollar will be spared on wiping them out, and anyone proposing to 'reintroduce them for the hunting experience' is liable to get lynched.
 
Mad Bad Rabbit

Mad Bad Rabbit

Alanith said:
Exactly. No dollar will be spared on wiping them out, and anyone proposing to 'reintroduce them for the hunting experience' is liable to get lynched.
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Were they there before ACW ? The North might find them useful in denying shipping to Southern states, and pass laws protecting them. Can't let New Orleans steal New York's trade.
 

Alanith

Mad Bad Rabbit said:
Were they there before ACW ? The North might find them useful in denying shipping to Southern states, and pass laws protecting them. Can't let New Orleans steal New York's trade.
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Yeah, the moment someone is tried on slaughtering the hippo that ate his pregnant wife and three children and found "Not Guilty" those laws lose all impact. I mean for gods sake, the men enforcing these laws are going to be locals, equally pissed off at the damn things, and they'll probably be tried locally unless you insist on hauling every hippo poacher all the way up to New York. There's no way in hell you'd get a conviction. The more likely exchange between Fish and Game Officer and Poacher is "Oh hey Bill! How's it going? Caught anything yet?"
 
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TonyA

Just imagine; The Houma football team moved one step closer to a state title when they took the measure of the St. Barts team, easily, 27-7. The River Horses may need to make room in their trophy case for something other than their endless repetitive BAR team trophies.
 

eltf177

Alanith said:
[snip]Yeah, the moment someone is tried on slaughtering the hippo that ate his pregnant wife and three children and found "Not Guilty" those laws lose all impact.
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Agreed, they're a menace and once innocent people start dying anyone trying to pass laws to protect them won't stay in office long.

This level of thinking is almost as bad as the congressman in one of the zombie threads saying that the undead have the same rights as the living and you just can't go around shooting them...
 

TonyA

eltf177 said:
Agreed, they're a menace and once innocent people start dying anyone trying to pass laws to protect them won't stay in office long.

This level of thinking is almost as bad as the congressman in one of the zombie threads saying that the undead have the same rights as the living and you just can't go around shooting them...
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This may or may not be true, but, zombies are nominal human and hippos are "animals", and animals without money have more advocacy in their corner than people without money in the modern USA...
 

eltf177

TonyA said:
But, can they carry a tune?
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Hang your head in shame!

But other animals have the capability of carrying anthrax including sheep. Or are you saying it exists in the wild population and may get introduced if infected animals get brought in? If so that could be very serious and dangerous...
 

Father Maryland

Alanith said:
Yeah, the moment someone is tried on slaughtering the hippo that ate his pregnant wife and three children and found "Not Guilty" those laws lose all impact. I mean for gods sake, the men enforcing these laws are going to be locals, equally pissed off at the damn things, and they'll probably be tried locally unless you insist on hauling every hippo poacher all the way up to New York. There's no way in hell you'd get a conviction. The more likely exchange between Fish and Game Officer and Poacher is "Oh hey Bill! How's it going? Caught anything yet?"
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More like "Need anymore dynamite? or whiskey?"
 

Alanith

TonyA said:
This may or may not be true, but, zombies are nominal human and hippos are "animals", and animals without money have more advocacy in their corner than people without money in the modern USA...
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Again, the problem is that in large part in the early US, the people enforcing a conservation law are going to be the people with first hand knowledge of what horrible monsters Hippos are. Strong incentive to look the other way. Likewise, you've got an entire jury who ALSO probably considers Mr. Poacher a goddamn hero. Good luck convicting him. Now IF the hippos survive up to the modern day somehow, they might be able to get more effective protection, but I just don't see it.
 

fellick12

Ikny said:
In short, in 1910 America had a meat crisis, in that there wasn't enough for the growing population. Some people, including notable adventurers, came with the idea of bringing hippos to ranch and also control the hyacinth plant issue.

What would happen if this occurred? Would people died from hippos creating a greater danger in the water?
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Yes
 

Mark E.

eltf177 said:
Agreed, they're a menace and once innocent people start dying anyone trying to pass laws to protect them won't stay in office long.
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Import them in 1850 or import them in 1900. Once they become a menace (and they will), they will be quickly hunted into regional extinction, given their rather long reproductive cycle.
 

manav95

Banned
The hippos spread throughout the South and cause massive devastation to Southern farms and plantations. They also kill many people who are unprepared to deal with these ferocious herbivores. The terrible pest forces whites and blacks to put aside their differences and band together to hunt these hippoes down and kill then. The resulting success causes the end of Jim Crow laws and overt white supremacy in the South by 1950. And the civil rights movement then explodes across the North as blacks over there demand their rights too.
 
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