July 1st, 2011 -American Trophy Hunters - The Lies that Hide the Cruelty
Submitted by canned on Sun, 07/10/2011 - 16:48
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First published on Technorati

I am in awe at the success of the hunting industry’s invasion and occupation of the field of conservation. This enables them to exclude real conservationists, who think that conservation should be about protecting wildlife, by referring to them dismissively as ‘bunny huggers,’ ‘radicals’ or even ‘extremists.’

One strategy employed by the hunters is to get ‘prestigious’ entities and celebrities to make grandiose claims in support of the ‘sport.’ Same tactic as the tobacco industry. Not surprisingly, since propaganda is designed to confuse, it is apparent that many people who are intuitively opposed to hunting are confused by the pro-hunting arguments. This impedes efforts to get the sport banned. However, none of the claims made by the hunting fraternity to justify their cruel ‘sport’ bear intelligent analysis. There is a good expose of the hunting arguments in Mathew Scully's book ‘Dominion’ and also on our website www.cannedlion.org/
We find it a common failing among environmental journalists and wildlife documentary film makers that they do not do their homework on this complex issue, leaving the trophy hunters free to make extravagant claims which are left unchallenged. For example:
Hunters claim: the captive breeders are boosting numbers of wild animals, so they must be conservationists. Answer: once you remove the animals from their natural environment and place them into factory farms or fenced camps, to breed living targets, what you have is a straightforward commercial operation. Wild animals are now no longer wild - they have become alternative livestock, being farmed. They are not part of a functioning eco-system. Being proud of boosting the numbers of these miserable prisoners is as absurd as boasting about our huge prison population, and claiming that the increasing number of prisoners proves that we are a healthy society.
Hunters claim: Give it a value and it will be preserved ie the only way to save African wildlife is to systematically hunt it. Answer: That is as absurd as arguing that it is only whaling which will save the whales. This false argument was made all the time and never once challenged by conservation authorities. Indeed they actually endorse this nonsense! Any intelligent person will know that the only way to save Africa’s wildlife is to extend the area under conservation and then protect it rigidly from rich whites (hunters) and poor blacks (poachers.)
Hunters claim: Hunting is kinder than the slaughter of livestock at abattoirs. Answer: Really! Do hunters seriously contend that farmers should be allowed, out of tender concern for the welfare of their animals, to ambush their sheep and cattle with bow and arrow from hides placed next to water holes. The infliction of pain and death for fun on unoffending animals is, as the hunters themselves concede, offensive to 98% of the population.
Hunters claim: fair chase makes trophy hunting ethical. Fair chase is an illusion dreamed up by public relations experts to support a wealthy industry. There is little or no fair chase when all animals are hunted in fenced camps, using trackers, radio communications, high powered rifles and telescopic sights. Take the rule that to be ethical, a hunter must walk at least three hundred paces from his vehicle. What a silly, pointless rule. The animal still suffers and dies, the loss to biodiversity the same, whether the hunter has walked two or four hundred paces. The rule is there to enable propagandists to import the notion of fair chase in to the field of biodiversity protection, where it has no relevance.
All sport hunting – killing and hurting animals for fun - is intrinsically cruel, un-Christian, un-Islamic, un-Buddhist and should in my view be criminalised. After all it is illegal under the Animals Protection Act to beat a dog or a donkey. Do hunters seriously contend that lions and elephants feel less pain than dogs and donkeys? One could quote a statement from the Koran such as: "a kindness to an animal will be judged in Heaven the same as a kindness to another human being."
‹ July 17th, 2011 - Wildlife Terrorism

Take that you cruel beggars!

WTF........
I repent for my sins........... I repent for my sins....... I stepped on an ant today and sprayed its brains on the pavement. Now I need to sacrifice a chicken ... err i mean apple.... to ask for forgiveness.

after many many years of defending hunting on the internet and in other forums against the anti hunters I came to the conclusion that anti hunters do not care about the truth , science , or actualy even about the wildlife . They have an opinion which they believe is correct irrespective of proof contrary to their belief , this arrogance of opinion is more important than the truth or species and was summed up by one anti hunter who boasted as lound as she could " I would prefer to see all the elephants die in Botswana rather than one be shot by a hunter " , this cleared my vision . Their opinion is more important than the species. You cannot argue against this mind set .

Scriptus, you just have to show us better arguments than those. When was the last time that whales destroyed a villagers crop, or that villagers encroached and transformed their "wild" domain to survive? I'm mean really.

Unchristian? Hogwash.

These are the same people that wish that mankind didn't exist (except for maybe themselves) so that animals could be "happy".

quote:

CRUEL AMERICAN TROPHY HUNTERS

Sign me up. I am one and damn proud of it! Hunted Botswana twice and did not notice the government or population refusing my money!

And its them Damn bunny huggers that are causing animals to die of old age

Let's see......I am a wild animal. I know that my chances of dying of old age is slim. Something is going to kill me......should I prefer to die from:
-a snare (and possibly eaten alive)
-posioned arrow (and possibly eaten alive
-being eaten alive
-starvation
-wild fire
-disease
-a single bullet

quote:

Originally posted by Wink:
Scriptus, you just have to show us better arguments than those. When was the last time that whales destroyed a villagers crop, or that villagers encroached and transformed their "wild" domain to survive? I'm mean really.

Unchristian? Hogwash.

These are the same people that wish that mankind didn't exist (except for maybe themselves) so that animals could be "happy".

Wink Old Chap, not so much me, just letting all see what is facing the hunting fraternity, and there is a whole month's supply where that came from. And they make merry whilst we argue and bicker amongst one another.

I had a guy once ask me how I could shoot an elephant. I answered him that they won't fall down unless you shoot them!

Awhile back I decided that it was time to take sides. The majority of the people are becoming pablum munching don't make waves, vote for Obama because we had slavery 150 years ago, don't offend Bambi, regret that the United States might be superior to other countries, etc., morons.

My lib ex-sister-in-law told me I did not have a politically correct thought in my head. Yep.

I decided to take sides.

Politically incorrect and proud of it.

Un-Christian?

See sig line

I guess with some of the comments I have just read on this thread,some of these guys just don't understand. This is Africa. If there is NO $'s the game will certainly be WIPED OUT!!! It's as simple as that. Take the land invasions in Zimbabwe for instance. In anybodies wildest dreams could he/she comprehend the MASS slaughter that took place in this country.. Where were the "Bunny Huggers" for the wildlife then? As far as I know the people who at least tried to save the wildlife were hunters. I can't remember sitting one night in the bush trying to curb the poaching with a none hunter to try stop this mass scale slaughter.
I must add. In support of you (None hunters). Shooting animals when they come down to drink water is a NO NO in my book,but that's just me, as is cadged animals. That is not what hunting is all about, and yes some of the "hunters" who participate in these activities are not true hunters, but collectors.
This argument will carry on forever ,but unless there is money put into wildlife welfare in Africa in particular, the wildlife is on the road to complete destruction. Right now the people doing this as far as I know are mainly HUNTERS or folks who understand the benefits of hunting.
Elephants destroying villages crops "Is very real" We not talking about Whales. If there is no compensation given back to villages after their entire crop has been wiped out (Their food for a year) I will put my last dollar the elephants future will be looking very bleak. The villages will at least get some return (That is if the money is not channelled into some king pins pockets in charge of the area before it gets to the people who really deserve it) on the trophy fee, sale of the hide, ivory and of course the meat that will feed their families.
Are hunters necessary for the survival of wildlife... Yes they are!

Is this a club I can join? How many animals do I have to murder to pledge?

Maybe have a patch like the motorcycle gangs for the back of a jacket with an Elephant skull and lettered "I murder Animals for Fun."

Rich

Some folks are uninformed, some are ignorant and some are just plain stupid. If they are uniformed or ignorant they just need to be shown the errors in their beliefs. If they are stupid there is no arguing with them.

I actually enjoy debating these people, in an ongoing effort to educate them. Let's just take a look at one sentence below from the article posted in the initial post.

"There is little or no fair chase when all animals are hunted in fenced camps, using trackers, radio communications, high powered rifles and telescopic sights."

1) "little or no fair chase"+++absolutely incorrect statement regardless of any subjective definition one would apply to fair chase.

2) "trackers"+++that's what hunting is, tracking, so to cast dispersions on the use of a tracker is pointless. It a fine art going back to cave man times.

3) "radio communications"+++ridiculous to say, because thee's an implication here that the animals have a GPS detection radio collar on it, and we follow the sonar beep to find the prey.

4) "high powered rifles"+++that term itself is a media term and one which should never be used. When people write and talk in the media they just say stupid things like "retrace their steps." The simple word is trace. They also say, "advance warning". It's just "warning". They also say "two twin boys". It's just twins.
They also say "high powered rifles". It's just rifles. There is no such thing as a low powered rifle. I remind them that thousands of people are killed every year because of "high powered vehicles."

5) "telescopic sights"+++meaning binos and tube scopes for guns? Yes, and so what. I would say to this person, those tools are used to make a clean efficient kill to eliminate the suffering, that you somehow think is inflicted upon the animals. I would also show them some of my kill shots, and beg them to tell me at what point in the instantaneous death was there ever any suffering, even on a cape buffalo. Then I'd point it out to them, that the fatal shot was carried out with usage of a double rifle, a non scoped, non telescopic-sighted rifle.

6) "all animals are hunted in fenced camps" +++the biggest lie of the entire article.

That's just one sentence. I actually have sat down with many antis, and pointed out such factors and changed their minds about hunting. They're just ignorant, of the real facts. I wouldn't call them stupid.

Scriptus: In the future just send these guys my way. I take it as an honor to debate these misguided individuals...over a nice steak dinner, of course.

quote:

Hunters claim: the captive breeders are boosting numbers of wild animals, so they must be conservationists. Answer: once you remove the animals from their natural environment and place them into factory farms or fenced camps, to breed living targets, what you have is a straightforward commercial operation. Wild animals are now no longer wild - they have become alternative livestock, being farmed. They are not part of a functioning eco-system. Being proud of boosting the numbers of these miserable prisoners is as absurd as boasting about our huge prison population, and claiming that the increasing number of prisoners proves that we are a healthy society.

Not stupid? Not so sure.

The quote above reminds me of the woman from "Friends of Animals" (the name alone makes me shake my head) on the recent 60 Minutes piece about Texas game ranching.

She admitted that she would prefer to see the extinction of the scimitar horned oryx, the addax and the dama gazelle rather than see them captive bred.

How can one argue with such maniacal stupidity?

quote:

Originally posted by Safaris Botswana Bound:
after many many years of defending hunting on the internet and in other forums against the anti hunters I came to the conclusion that anti hunters do not care about the truth , science , or actualy even about the wildlife . They have an opinion which they believe is correct irrespective of proof contrary to their belief , this arrogance of opinion is more important than the truth or species and was summed up by one anti hunter who boasted as lound as she could " I would prefer to see all the elephants die in Botswana rather than one be shot by a hunter " , this cleared my vision . Their opinion is more important than the species. You cannot argue against this mind set .

This has been my experience as well.

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana Moja:
Scriptus: In the future just send these guys my way. I take it as an honor to debate these misguided individuals...over a nice steak dinner, of course.

Please invite them all to join a new group: People for Eaten Tasty Animals.

Just read another bit of drivel. I guess we ignorant, evil meat eaters should stop resisting and join the leaf eaters....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/won...edatory-humans.shtml

This only happens when people dont have enough other things to worry about. These anti-s did not grow up getting eggs from a nest or going rabbit hunting and skinning one out and ejoying the camp fire roast or fried rabbit. Nor have they skinned out their sons first deer. They just went to McDonalds and Starbucks and said to themselves that we hunters have to be doing wrong as they dont eat Fido whcih is their only possible interaction with an animal.

Beings that hunting and fishing has been going on since the beginning of time I am going to stay with that. They found dove bones in some of the earliest archeological digs. How in the world did they get these doves anyway. But I digress ......... the antis cause may change to something else whether save the tress, or save whales, or no air polluting cars and gasoliine, or etc etc , or they may just get hungry one day. Probably come around fast then.

Seriously I tell them that the American way and ideals hves been based on the hunter- provider theme since day 1. That generally opens a new thought and they go away munching a meat snack and a carrot stick with their martini. LOL. They are too intellectual for us backwoods boys!