No Good Reason

Why do people hunt?

I understand that some people hunt to provide meat for themselves and their families. But what is the pleasure to be found in killing an animal for 'fun' or 'sport' or as a 'trophy'? I just read that in California's 2016 bear hunting season, 1,063 black bears were killed (grizzly bears were driven to extinction in California in 1922).

Another article noted that yet another mountain lion kitten had been shot and killed. Big game hunters pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the privilege to kill an endangered African elephant or non-breeding rhinoceros or giraffe or male lion, all for bragging rights and so they can display the head or body of the murdered animal in their house. And that brings them pleasure?

If these people are so proud of what they do, why do they refer to the killing as a 'harvest'? Harvesting is what is done to corn and wheat and strawberries. Let's be honest here, hunters. You are killing, not 'harvesting', animals.

And don't give me that BS about saving the species by killing it. Really? That's the best you can do? Or how about the lie that big game hunting in Africa benefits local communities? Sure, the outfitter in South Africa or Zimbabwe and his employee rake in big bucks, but how much of that cash actually reaches people in the local community? When I go on safari in Africa, my money does benefit local people -- the drivers, guides, cooks, trackers, housekeepers and everyone else who helps keep the camps running and the guests looked after. 

Here's another favorite excuse: population control of predators. With the numbers of mountain lions, grizzly and black bears, and wolves, lions, cheetahs, leopards and other predators decimated by habitat loss, poaching and hunting, and human intrusion into the animals' habitats, do people really believe these species' populations need to be controlled by hunting?


How about the claim that hunters like to be part of nature and they love the animals they kill? Or they like the challenge? Right, shooting a lion that was raised by humans from birth and set 'loose' inside a fenced area so it can be slaughtered in a canned hunt is a real challenge, isn't it? 

I like to be part of nature, too, which is why I travel to Africa and to Yellowstone several times every year. And I, too, love the challenge of finding wild animals, but when I leave, the animals are still alive. If I'm lucky, I have captured the animal in its natural habitat by using my digital cameras and my skills as a photographer. And the animals survive to live another day.

I am sickened on an almost-daily basis when I see yet another photograph of a human, usually smiling stupidly, proudly posing with the dead body of a giraffe or zebra, lion or elephant, grizzly bear or wolf, that he or she has killed. And when I see a photograph of a man who probably weighs 400-500 pounds posing with the beautiful male lion he shot, I know for a fact that this obese person most certainly did not track this wild animal on foot before slaughtering it. He undoubtedly was driven up to the lion by a guide in a 4-wheel-drive vehicle before shooting it. Some sport in that, huh?

The bottom line is, these animals are killed either for profit or for personal enjoyment. So-called 'sport hunting' is decidedly not a sport, but a euphemism designed to make it seem more socially acceptable, much as is calling the killing of wild animals a 'harvest.'  

For another look at the hunting of predators, check out this article from 2014: frfhttp://www.jhnewsandguide.com/opinion/columnists/the_new_west_todd_wilkinson/we-hunt-predators-but-we-can-t-say-why/article_2c0adcf0-9705-5a62-990c-4bdd7af8dbf8.html 

Stop the Slaughter

STOP! JUST STOP!

I cannot bear to read about any more wild animals being slaughtered by disgusting 'hunters' with high-powered rifles, poison arrows, traps, snares or any other torture devices.

From the Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Daily newspaper: "Witnesses say hunters in Grand Teton National Park drove a herd of elk from a no-hunt zone and toward an awaiting firing line Wednesday." One of my guides on a recent visit to Yellowstone National Park reported a similar scene occurring in that park in the recent past. This isn't hunting; it's slaughter.

In Salmon, Idaho, the annual wolf and coyote killing derby resulted this year in the deaths of 30 coyotes. The states of New Mexico and Nevada, and the province of Alberta, Canada, are among many locales where these disgusting kill fests are held. In the Canadian province of Saskatchewan in 2010, 71,000 coyotes were slaughtered.

In Africa, elephants and rhinoceros are being slaughtered for their tusks and horns at an alarming rate to satisfy the insatiable lust of the Chinese for ivory trinkets and rhino horn aphrodisiacs. The possibility of these magnificent species going extinct in our lifetime is very real.

In the US, the Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Service's agency is annually responsible for the slaughter of millions of animals at taxpayer expense. According to the Sacramento Bee, "Wildlife Services is a federal agency that operates in secrecy, using brutal traps, poison and aerial gunning to kill thousands of animals, with accidental victims that include federally protected species, family pets and injured people." The Washington Post reports that Wildlife Services killed 4 million animals in 2013. The total included 75,326 coyotes, 866 bobcats, 528 river otters, 3,700 foxes, 12,186 prairie dogs, 973 red-tailed hawks, 419 black bears and at least three eagles, golden and bald. And all of this murder on a mass scale is paid for in large part by you and me and other unwitting taxpayers.

What will it take before we rise up and demand an end to this ecological genocide? I do not believe that there were 4 million cases of 'problem' animals reported to Wildlife Services by our oh-so-important cattle ranchers. Do prairie dogs pose a significant threat to the holy cattle in this country? And what about eagles and nearly 1,000 red-tailed hawks?

And frankly, I don't care what 'threat' wildlife may present. Who are a small group of people to decide which animals live and which will be killed? Is the life of a cow more important than the life of a bear, a fox or an eagle?

It is time to reign in this renegade agency, or better yet, eliminate it. It is time for more states to ban forever 'coyote calling' (that is, coyote killing) contests, and all contests whose sole purpose is to kill large numbers of predators for fun or valuable prizes such as a case of cheap beer. It is time for the United States to join the growing list of countries that bans the import of ivory and rhinoceros horn. It is time to restore ethics to hunting. Anybody who hunts should be required to consume the animals killed. Hunting for 'fun' or 'sport' is a sick perversion and needs to be banned.

There are non-lethal means of protecting this country's sacred cows from the occasional predator. Some enlightened ranchers have learned to co-exist with wildlife, even with large predators. Until the slaughter of American wildlife stops or is greatly reduced, I will continue to boycott beef and wool products. I encourage others to do the same.