US hunter criticised over picture with dead lion in South Africa
theguardian.com, Friday 15 November 2013
An American TV presenter has been condemned for tweeting a picture of herself standing over a dead lion and boasting that she hunted it on safari in South Africa.
More than 3,500 people signed an online petition calling for the self-declared “hardcore hunter” Melissa Bachman to be banned from returning to South Africa.
The Minnesota-based celebrity posted a photo of herself smiling next to the body of an adult lion after a hunt at the Maroi conservancy in the northern Limpopo province. The caption read: “An incredible day hunting in South Africa! Stalked inside 60 yards on this beautiful male lion … what a hunt!”
The style is a familiar one for Bachman, who has previously been photographed with what appears to be the carcass of a bear. She is no stranger controversy, having been removed as a contestant on the National Geographic show Ultimate Survival Alaska last year after more than 13,000 people signed a petition criticising the inclusion of the “heartless trophy hunter”.
Her lion tweet has provoked another angry backlash. One Twitter user, Gaye Davis, asked: “If it was beautiful why kill it?” Tim Flack, a South African, commented: “People like @MelissaBachman hunting lion in SA is everything that’s wrong with our hunting industry.”
A petition on Change.org urges the South African government to bar Bachman from the country. It says: “Melissa Bachman has made a career out of hunting wildlife for pure sport. She is an absolute contradiction to the culture of conservation, this country prides itself on. Her latest Facebook post features her with a lion she has just executed and murdered in our country.”
Supporters of hunting in South Africa argue that it raises funds from wealthy tourists which are then ploughed back into conservation efforts.
Lourens Mostert, game farm manager at the Maroi conservancy, confirmed that a lion was killed and said the hunt was legal. “If it isn’t right to hunt these lions, why does out government legally give us permission?” he told the Times newspaper. “This is not the only lion that has been hunted in South Africa this year.”
The barrage of criticism prompted Bachman to make her Twitter account private. Her personal bio reads: “I’ve been an avid hunter my entire life & now I’ve turned my passion into a career as a TV producer, host and writer. I’m a hardcore hunter doing what I love!”
Exposing the Big Game 
Can we ban her from Earth? Stories like this one break my heart. What the hell is wrong with people?! 😥
Fortunately most people aren’t like her.
I am afraid that many humans are, indeed, like her. Take for instance, in this country, we have the statistics to prove that the majority of people not hunt (95-96% or more). Only a small minority hunt and trap. But, the problem is, most of the majority simply do not have much concern over hunting–they may just accept it as a “necessary evil” or believe in the myth of hunting as a “management tool.” So, hunting, trapping continue, with many Game Depts. encouraging, promoting hunting to women and youth. The general public is just either not too concerned about this issue–or they believe the propaganda from the hunting agencies, and don’t make any noise against it.
Yes, those are the only two reasonable scenarios.
Hunters just don’t get it do they?
People like that don’t have the tools necessary to get it
It’s time for the world to wake up. Trophy hunters and poachers deserve to be shot on the spot. Otherwise, they won’t learn.
They do shoot poachers there but take the rich hunters out to kill one animal as a means for big bucks to pay all the game wardens to shoot their own people all year long. I guess selling photography tours is too much work? I’m no expert but Vincent Kennard of The Wolf Army could fill you in, he is very aware of the problem!
Back in the USA, it is crazy that politicians think they need a photo op with a gun and a dead critter to get elected! The sooner that dies out, the better!
That’s right, those politicians are just perpetuating the de-evolution and setting a lousy example. As someone asked in this article: “If it isn’t right to hunt these lions, why does out government legally give us permission?”
agree a million per cent
You may love it you heartless creature,, but the things of beauty that you have killed, and still want to kill does not like it or deserve it,, and there are many many millions of us more human people in this world who also don’t like it…. I suppose you think that because the Camera’s are shooting you on TV you think that is how it feels to your prey… why don’t you get yourself loved by all of us instead of hated,, it would be easy,, just change you rifle for a camera..
well said
Unfortunately, she’s not as unusual as we’d like to think. She’s just one of the pathological “he-man” tribe that comes in both genders and all ages who perpetuate the brute dominance-over-nature philosophy. It’s very old-think, very hick. I know I should fight the impulse to state what I think, but frankly I get some satisfaction out of imagining her gut-shot by another killer, bleeding and moaning as she writhes on the ground, inching closer to her demise. She proudly calls herself a hunter. To me she and all those who share her disgusting philosophy are serial killers, indistinguishable from those twisted antisocial perverts who prey on humans. They are the same.
So true! Cruelty and self-imposed ignorance know no gender. She is white trash.
Reblogged this on Sherlockian's Blog.
I saw that picture. She’s a fucking ugly bitch. Being evil will do that.
What an excuse for a woman. Someone should stick her ugly head on a wall.
She brings to mind the bet in the movie Trading Places where the two rich brothers bet each other one dollar that they could turn ‘a perfectly worthless psychopath into a respectable businessman’ while taking a respectable businessman into a psychopath. Ok, it was a comedy and they didn’t know the difference between sociopath and psychopath in the movie, but it’s true, according to the FBI, that a succussful businessman/woman can profile as a sociopath, depending on how they use their skill set.
And that brings me to the third scenerio. If one is say, old and frail and they know there is a sociopath in a political or business position, who brags about killing animals… the last thing the unarmed, frail person is going to do is rock the boat of the sociopath! Many I have encountered in life seem to awaken with thoughts of ‘getting even’ with those they see as the enemy. Karma and the law are not enough for some sociopaths and most psychopaths. They want blood, their ‘pound of flesh’ so to speak. So they ‘vent’ on animals, usually predators, who they see as anything from an ex spouse, who took their kids, the judge who signed the court order, all the way up to various government officials. Very few actually follow through with it with humans, although any Battered Women’s Shelter has many stories of those that did. What gets brushed under the shrink’s rug as a codependent, dysfunctional relationship, is a controlling sociopathic business man, rising star politician with a wife who suffers depression. This ‘house mouse’ woman doesn’t dare rock her husband’s boat by speaking out against him or his ideas. She is not allowed freedoms we take for granted like having a bank account, a driver’s license or the right to vote for who she wants. The daughters of such controlling men are at risk for living what they learned, especially if they were the child that could do no wrong in her father’s eyes, the one who was groomed to be like him, taken hunting at an early age while male siblings were left home. Never punished, never made to live within normal boundaries and given anything she wanted. Praised for killing animals at an early age. This is where those women with entitlement issues come from. And where the abused wife and siblings, frightened for their very lives also can come from, even the very same house. Because sociopaths love to play games with other people’s lives, even their own kids! That’s not an excuse for bad behavior, just one way that girls are groomed to be killers.
Good observation. Nothing encourages wrong behavior more than early praise.
My mom said the same thing! At least when she was in her right mind. I will tell you that she loved all animals, refused a mink coat even back in the 1950’s, did not trust people and never, never harmed an animal, not even a mouse. She was the neighborhood crazy cat lady and got kicked out of elderly housing for leaving her window open for her pets, including skunks, raccoons and various other critters to go up on her window sill and munch on cat food. She also had pet swans and ducks that she fed at the town boat landing. It was the only thing that made her happy beside seeing her grandkids once in a while. As crazy as she ever was, she was able to catagorize innocents from those who were potentially not. Her tragic story ended well. She spent her last years medicated properly in the county rest home and fed well. Her last three years were happy ones with human company that didn’t judge her or harm her and she was warm and comfortable. Sometimes I would bring a wolfdog to visit her. Even heavily medicated, she knew all their names. Underlying her mental illness was an angel who rescued unwanted animals. All of her daughters also rescue domestic pets. I am the only one who rescues endangered animals, habituated wolfdogs, from dying owners. They are the most endangered creatures because when they end up in the ‘pound’ the get the needle.
I would like to add that I am glad my dad skipped town when I was a toddler, my mom had a nervous breakdown and went into the funny farm for a few weeks and the State made my grandparents take custody of me. I was rewarded for good grades only. Brought up in a sober household and my only luxuries were a dog, a camera and freedom to explore miles of woods and waterways. I was only allowed one dime to make a phone call home if I got hurt. When I got all A’s on my report card, they bought me a bicycle which my grandfather totally dismantled and laid out in order on an old sheet. I had to learn how to assemble it before I could ride it! And maintain it too! I used to help my grandfather in his ‘fix-it shop’ fixing radios, tv’s and whatever. I got a penny for each tube that I tested and logged in his notebook. My grandfather, were he alive now, would have been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome and had a genius IQ. He had no people skills and spent his hours in the basement, as a scientist/repairman. I loved him very much because to me, he was the ‘normal’ one. When I worked as a wrangler at the age of ten, I earned my own horse and he taught me Native Horsemanship, although they didn’t have a word for it in those days. Life was good for a poor kid with deadbeat parents! I worked as a wrangler every Summer. I took photos when I could afford to. By 16, I got hired as a professional photographer. My grandmother passed away and I took care of my grandfather, who was deeply depressed. His sister moved in and changed his heart healthy diet to tv dinners and got him chainsmoking cigarettes like her. My world fell apart, I became homeless, had to find my horse a good home and headed out with nothing but an old motorcycle, tool bag, and a backpack and guitar. I was 16. I didn’t want to go into the system so I literally ran off with the carnival as a photographer doing posters while you wait. It was a hard life with nowhere to go. This life made me who I am now. I expect nothing after sleeping under trucks or on the floors of carnival trailers. One thing about the carnival, you really get to study psychology first-hand. There were the kids from broken homes running the rides. There were the sociopathic parent figure bosses. There were the perverts, drug dealers, broken down women from the girlie shows and their pimps, side show musicians, and the independents who sold candles, headshop items and t-shirts, the photographers and the signmakers, etc.
I was lucky, although my boss was a sexist pig and cheated on his wife, he treated me like one of his kids. He knew the dangers around every corner and made me dress nice and gave me most of the street smarts I know. He would teach me how to sell to different customers using body language, dress, even racial profiling! I don’t know what he did before he was a photographer but I would bet cash he was a P.I? That works well with the photography skills. Anyway, I worked as a photographer for a while but I got sick of lousy carnival food. I was still under 18 when I ran off with the signcarver, who lived with his father in NH. I thought it would be a nice home and it sure beat sleeping under a truck in the rain! And as soon as I turned 18, I married my husband, to whom I am still married. Some day when all of the people in the rest of the story have passed on or gone senile, I will tell you stories that are darker than a moonless, cloudy night that books are written about, the psychopaths that hide in plain sight and live double lives, playing with life and death in all walks of life, even doctors in the O.R. for whom hospital wings are named. And politicians who raise taxes and the tell impoverished elderly to move if you can’t afford to live here anymore. The same heartless bastards in those happy family photo ops, right up to Mitt Romney announcing his Presidential run in NH on Doug and Stella Scamman’s farm. But I must stop here for now, sorry to leave you hanging! 🙂 Got to attend to wolfies.