I recently returned from a safari in South Africa where my daughter and I hunted a few animals. I emailed 3 pictures of our successuful hunts to friends and family in the States. Some of the pictures were forwarded by them and somehow they ended up on Maria's email. Maria responded to that with the followingher spelling and punctuation)

"These pictures were fowarded to me , I dont know why. How could you people kill these beautiful animals, its terrible, you should be ashamed of yourselves. There are people like me who totally disapprove of this and I will foward these pictures to them."

I thought about an appropriate response and then changed my mind and sent her this:

Dear Maria,
I am sorry you are offended by the photos. There is no doubt that these are indeed beautiful animals. I have the hightest degree of respect and admiration for them. I don't think you will understand that, but if you give me a brief moment of your time, I will explain why I hunt.
I grew up on a farm and ranch where I learned where food came from. We raised crops, cattle, chickens, hogs, etc.
Every winter we would butcher our own beef. Each summer we would butcher chickens for self consumption and sell a few to the neighbors. These animals had a value as a food item and had a cash value so that we could make a living. Our grasslands had value because the cattle grazed the grass and we could sell the cattle. Not always for a profit, but we made the most of the resources we had available. This utilization of the resources was only sustainable because we invested time and money back into the farm.
The animals you saw in the photographs were taken in Africa by my family and myself. Why would the people of Africa allow hunting of these animals? The answer if for the same reasons that we utilized animals on the farm. I paid a fee to hunt these animals. This generated money for the outfitter. He has at least a dozen employees that make a living working for him. They tend to have large families so there are many African natives who are depending on this resource to provide them a means of subsistence (financial and high protein food). Every bit of the meat from every animal that was taken (even the lioness) was processed and utilized. I watched as they cleaned the stomach and intestines. There simply is no waste.
Through proper management the older, less productive animals are harvested by hunters. The hunters pay fees to hunt these animals. The money thus generated gives financial value to the wild game animals. When the locals have a financial stake in the wildlife, it is taken care of and protected from poachers. Without this value, (as we have seen in Zimbabwe), the herds are decimated by poachers, there in no income derived from the wildlife, the food supply is no longer self sustaining, and the local population suffers (again, as we have seen in Zimbabwe).
In South Africa and Namibia, where hunting is an important industry, the herds are prospering and the animals taken during the hunting season are replaced by the younger animals of the herd. This resource is self sustaining, provides much needed employment, provides much needed nutrition to the local population, and makes all wildlife financially valuable and worth protecting. And yes, wildlife has great aesthetic value as well. Unfortunately, aesthetic value alone will not protect wildlife (as we have seen in Kenya). Kenya has lost much of it's wildlife population since closing the country to hunting in 1977.
When an animal is taken by a hunter, it's flesh is utilized, money is generated that is put back into the local community, value is placed on the animals by the locals, conservation of the wildlife becomes a priority, and wildlife flourishes.
I see by your email address that you are a nurse. I would surmise that you have dealt with death and dying in your workplace. I have done so many times as well. I choose to live life to it's fullest as you never know when the last day with your spouse or children will be. The greatest possessions I have are the experiences and memories of cherished moments. The photographs that you find objectionable will be reminders for me of the greates moments I have shared with my family and friends.
Respectfully,
Michael Blach
President SCI Treasure Valley Chapter

Nicely done. Your words probably won't sway a committed anti since hunting is "just wrong" and no amount of common sense works against that argument. But, nicely done indeed.

I get these unsolicited emails from time to time, people land on my website and then send me similar mails. Depending on the mood I am in, and the tone of their emails, I either give them the same logic, or I tell them that if they are so concerned about the animals, they should stop breeding forthwith.

Nice explanation. Do you really think this 'anti' will actually take the time to think about it. After all, these folks always react emotionally and never think of the practical or logical aspect of wildlife management. Not being critical--- but I have never been able to get through to one of the bunny huggers.

Excellent text!
Although I doubt Maria will appreciate it.
Especially the beginning about killing cattle & chickens.

I do appreciate the fact that you didn't ask why the h*ll she'd forward the pics to people who are offended by them.
The logic surpasses me; but I doubt asking this would have been simply pointless.

Bravo to you for a well thought out and intelligent response. i would have just told her to F--K OFF!!!!!!

I would have sent her more pic's of the gutting of these fine animals you shot. Anyone that would spout off like that does not have a clue.

Great response, I hope your reasoning triumphs over her emotionalism. At least maybe it will make her think and that is the first step. I might have added that the animals whose pictures she saw were so beautiful to me that they now adorn my living room walls.

Mike,

Great response. Others might not have had that much patience with her. People sometimes are so clueless about the wild and aniamls. We were passing some safari pics around at lunch one day at work and one of the onlookers asked how we got the animals to lay down so we could take pictures with them. I had no guns in the pics and the very dead animals were tastefully posed. She actually thought my trophies were living animals!!!

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Mike,

Great response. Others might not have had that much patience with her. People sometimes are so clueless about the wild and aniamls. We were passing some safari pics around at lunch one day at work and one of the onlookers asked how we got the animals to lay down so we could take pictures with them. I had no guns in the pics and the very dead animals were tastefully posed. She actually thought my trophies were living animals!!!

Mark

obviously there is no treatment or cure for stupidity.

I get these kinds of letters every week, sometimes more than that..I answer everyone of them and explain what we do and why we do it..Surprisingly I get a positive response and an apology about 95% of the time, or no reply on ocassion and every once in awhile its Mr. Green Genes and he retorts with anger and I ignore it from that point on....I suspect all booking agents get a lot of these..

Mike,

Kudos on the tempered response to the email. It's refreshing to see people settle a dispute without resorting to name-calling or profanity (I'm guilty, too). Did you get a response to your message?

jdollar:

I had nearly the identical experience with pictures! My buff had collapsed after staggering across a small waterhole. (It was early May in Zimbabwe and there were such waterholes everywheres) The first shot had really killed him but he had enough vitality -even after an insurance shot that nicked his heart (I saw the heart after butchering) to make me have to shoot him a third time as he started to get up as we approached. (To his credit, the PH said he was dead, but I saw space between his belly and the ground and at about 8 feet distance shot him in the neck. I paid for not listening to my PH. In pictures, I had to hold the buff's head up by gripping a horn -because the last shot broke his neck) He died by settling down as if he was a cow in a pasture. One of the pictures I took was of him from the back. I was asked why I wasn't afraid to approach so closely - like you - never realizing that some people think such pictures are taken of live animals. (I took the picture at about 30 feet) I always liked the comment of a fellow worker - "He looks like the size of a Volkswagen!" That was an intelligent comment!

Anti-hunters are everywhere!

On Saturday, one of my daughters relayed her experiences on a recent drive-through safari where she took her children.

She and my 8-year-old grandson and my 2 year-old-granddaughter toured the park on the open back wagon accompanied by a tourist group with thick Long Island accents.

As the animals (gemsbok, eland, zebra, etc.) walked up to the wagon (begging for feed that people purchase to give them) my grandson would get so thrilled and then he’d say, “Hey mom. Papa Jim has one of those!â€

The matriarch of the Long Island group leaned in and snidely asked, “Oh, does your Papa Jim have his own safari park?â€

My grandson replied, “No. On the wall!â€

The woman was shocked and huddled closer to her kids up in the front of the wagon, maybe to keep them safe. She probably held her hands over their ears.

My daughter says her little family outing went downhill from there.

This self-righteous, non-southern woman thinks it a far better fate for the creatures to be kept in a minimal acreage enclosure dodging a steady flow of fume-spewing vehicles overloaded with the likes of her using them for entertainment.

I have no delusions that Maria will change her attitude about hunting, but just maybe, for a short time, she will put a small amount of thought into hunting and I hope her perspective will be affected, even slightly. It is my hope that she forwarded my reply along with the photos to her anti hunting friends and that just maybe, one of them will conclude that hunting really has a place in this world.
I have not received any response from Maria yet. (My house hasn't been fire bombed anyway)

Thanks to all of you for the kind response.

Michael
(saving the world by converting 1 anti at a time)

Although a great letter with the outcome of sustainable sport hunting it doesn't quite explain why you want to kill these lovely animals.
I for one do it because I love the experiences including the adventure , the pa suit of the quarry , camping, watching game (and not just from a vehicle) and learning about the animals and their home and more.
Oh yes and they often taste great.

That's nothing compared to the doozies I get. I can think of at least a half-dozen death threats in the last 6 months. I only respond to the ones who sound halfway sane. When I do respond, I try to make it a calm, reasoned response.

I congratulate you for your thoughtful and reasoned response. I can seldom summon the patience to communicate such a thorough response to those that harbor strong feelings toward subjects about which they know so little.

But, Bambiitus can, in fact, sometimes be cured -- or at least controlled -- by patience and reason such as you display. We should all learn from your example.

I guess I am just lucky, I live in rural Pa and most (99.9%) people only ask if they can bring others to enjoy my office.

I have received a couple of e-mails like this. For some reason they all came from people in England? Most ended with “Because of people like you, my children and grandchildren will never see these animalsâ€.

One part of me wants to say “Because of people like me, your children and grandchildren will always be able to see these animalsâ€, and try to reason with them.

Another part of me wants to say “Your children and grandchildren will always be able to see these animals……Hanging on my wall!â€

I don't know which way to go, so I just delete them.

In response to the Anti-Hunters I have but two things to say:

#1: My wife, a dedicated Democrat, just signed up to take the Hunters Safety Course in two weeks.

#2: Hunting makes it a whole lot easier to eat the animal than not. Trying to fork a live buck generally doesn't end well for either party!

The last time an Anti-Hunter gave me any crap I emailed them this:



All I said was "It was good, right?"

Glad you had more patience than me to write tha response. Good luck!