Last month I recived an email from an anti hunter that read as follows:

From: Cheryl Meyer [mailto:meyer.cheryl@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: 09 February 2012 12:03 AM
To: info@ct-safaris.com
Subject: ??

I recently became aware of your organization and am wondering why you're so proud of what you do?? Don't you know these magnificent animals are dwindling in population and you promote that by offering your customers the opportunity to kill them?

I don't really understand how you sleep at night.
Cheryl Meyer-Conley
Houston, TX 77043

I did not think much of it as I do receive "hate mail" on occasion and ususally do not bother to respond...

As it were; I did have some extra time on my hands and decided to write back to "Cheryl"... Never heard back from her (small surprise) until I received an email advising me that my business was a topic of discussion on LinkedIn...

Well I logged onto the website, read what they had to say and shared some of my thoughts with the mob. (THIS TROPHY HUNTING CRAZE IS WORSE THAN POACHING)

I have to admit that I was somewhat surprised by the responses... Instead of receiving more hate mail and hostile online responses, it appears that (at least some of) those who were contributing to the discussion started seeing some reason and whilst they did not become "overnight hunters" they seem to respect my (as a hunter's) opinion... I even got some private emails in support of "my" cause...

For many years I have refrained from engaging in correspondence with antis regarding what is love and dear to us as hunters - primarily because it's always been deemed as a hopeless cause explaining to anti hunters what we are about. The response I received in the thread I've mentioned gives me hope though...

Well Done Chris! I read most but not all of the comments and applaud you for remaining civil and providing factual reasoning while in the line of fire. That is something that both anti's and hunters have a hard time doing.
As hunters and conservationists, the only way we will win the game is by engaging the anti's in the same manner as you...its going to be a long fight though.

Have not looked at that yet, will have to see if I can find it, still trying to figure out how to use LinkedIn.

From experience I have found out that some that wear the mantle of the Anti-Hunter are not as dedicated, same with some Vegans, as they try to pass themselves off.

You might not completely convert them, but you can open their minds and get them to thinking.

Well done there Mr. Troskie.

Great job for engaging in conversation and backing it up with facts.

There is a saying "each one, reach one, teach one" and you have done that.

Well done Chris.

Outstanding job Mr. Troskie.

Your matter of fact and straight forward apporach was fantastic and you gave those "anti unters" a bunch of fantastic information to sort out, and they seemed a very reasonable bunch for antis.

You just may have changed the way some of them think.

Thank you Sir for your effort.

.

awsome keep up the great work

Hi Chris!

Good job! Enjoyed the post.

Best,

jpj3

Well done Chris...

Awesome Chris, its kinda hard for the the anti-brigade to realize that we actually have a deep love and Respect for the game and wildlife we pursue.

Good for you Chris. Glad that you pointed out that Linkedin was in involved in this. A sad state of affairs for that web connection!

Chris: Very well done!

Thanks much for all the comments.

In fairness to LinkedIn - I don't think that they are "involved" in this per se. This was a thread that got started by a private uninformed individual in the "Wildlife Society Group".

I'm new to LinkedIn and find the site a little difficult to navigate.

The page that I was originally referred to (and first responded to) starts here

Now we all know that there are many rabid anti-hunters out there who will never see reason or at least accept and respect our views... And these are the people whom it makes no sense to engage into any form of discussion...

What I found interesting was that many of the respondents to the thread were seemingly really just uninformed and apparently were / are of the opinion that we hunters just walk out there and shoot everything on sight without consideration to the impact it has on wildlife or adhering to hunting laws.

Anyway; it was nice to see how logical reasoning and facts played a role in educating (at least a few) uninformed anti-hunters.

quote:

Originally posted by ChrisTroskie:
Thanks much for all the comments.

In fairness to LinkedIn - I don't think that they are "involved" in this per se. This was a thread that got started by a private uninformed individual in the "Wildlife Society Group".

I'm new to LinkedIn and find the site a little difficult to navigate.

The page that I was originally referred to (and first responded to) starts here

Now we all know that there are many rabid anti-hunters out there who will never see reason or at least accept and respect our views... And these are the people whom it makes no sense to engage into any form of discussion...

What I found interesting was that many of the respondents to the thread were seemingly really just uninformed and apparently were / are of the opinion that we hunters just walk out there and shoot everything on sight without consideration to the impact it has on wildlife or adhering to hunting laws.

Anyway; it was nice to see how logical reasoning and facts played a role in educating (at least a few) uninformed anti-hunters.

quote:

CT
"And as for earlier comments of it being acceptable to hunt for food but not for the trophy of the animal I ask: "What is the difference (other than moral) whether an animal is hunted for its horns or for its meat?" Ultimately the animal is killed... And if you think that meat from trophy hunted animals is wasted you have it wrong... The key difference is that as opposed to hunting young, immature or female animals as meat hunters typically do, trophy hunters are in search for mature males of the various species which are past breeding age"

CT it seems the antis are not the only ones tht are uninformed, judging from the meat hunter quoted below!

quote:

Thomas N.

In case you did not study this 160+ comment thread, you may have missed the part where I label myself as a meat hunter and that trophy hunting has no appeal to me since I see/saw trophy ahimals as prime specimens with the biiggest of the attribute that characterizes their trophy quality, and that killing these animals removes them from the population before the full benefit of their contribution to the genetic fitness of the species can be realized. To me that is part of the difference between hunting for horns or for meat. Taking specimens which are past breeding age would indeed mitigate my genetic concern.

Chris, you failed to address the real concern of Thomas N. the meat hunter! His concern is that trophy hunting takes the “BEST” out of the gene pool before it has spent all it breading into the population. I would ask him if he thinks the taking of young animals for meat doesn’t allow ANY breading at all from the meat animal. This guy seems to think because an animal is of trophy class the they were born that way while the spike buck he is taking is just substandard not just young. He seems to not realize that the trophy animal was also one of the inferior when young as well, but has reached the age where he already passed his genes on, and his offspring are continuing that passing the genes on down the line.
So what I’m getting at is the antis can be forgiven to some extent, while a guy who is a hunter but simply close minded cannot!

I tried to sign on to that website but it would not accept my E=mail address as valid, I have no idea why.

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