It lay there, quiet, innocent, unmenacing -- just another mountain peak in a state with lots of mountain peaks. Oh there were rumbles every now and again, but no one took them seriously. Then one day the "cork" blew out and the pent up energy destroyed hundreds of square miles of timber, taking many lives. The devestation was shocking to those who had grown up around her base. No one could ever have foreseen the way the landscape would be changed forever in the Idaho wilderness.

That's how I see the whole Cecil thing and the enviro-whackos who we pretty much ignored for so many years. Oh, there were rumbles and noise, but no one ever thought they could do any real damage. Well, the cork has been removed and the result could well be the end of African hunting as we knew it!

Damn it!

Oh, but after the eruption is the slow, sometimes painful, and much longer cleanup effort. At this point, that is our time to right the ship.

In the end, the potential dollars can erode the resolve of the few that think hunting is evil. Hunting will remain, maybe not in all traditional areas, but it will remain. No one pays $50,000 to take a photo of anything that isn't female, naked and human (at least I wouldn't). Photo safaris don't pay the same.

With or without hunting the government has to endure the wrath of the preservationists simply from human encroachment. Preservationists don't care why the animals are being killed, or even if it ultimately benefits the animals, they only care that animals are dying. They will wear out their welcome quickly by jumping on another soap box to beat that drum. They want to make the whole damn nation a park, and that wont' do for Uncle Bob and Co.

Ultimately, hunting puts a little jingle in government's pocket. They respond to that. Trust in the greed of man. The government will take money from enviro-tourism and from hunting tourism. They are not about to lose an income stream.

That might be the most cynical thing that I have ever written.

Jeremy

Whatever you do...stay way from Foxy Loxi.