SALMON, Idaho –
Ask any of the people in Salmon and they’ll tell you there’s nothing they like more than a good hunt.
“It is really a way of life,” said Salmon resident Billijo Beck.
But lately that way of life has come under scrutiny after a local outfitter announced a wolf derby in which hunters will be given cash prizes for killing wolves.
Several in the town of 3,000 say they’ve received threatening e-mails and Facebook messages from all over the world.
“There was one that they were gonna hang our entire family by a noose,” recalls Jen Larson, who says she began receiving threats after she and her husband’s diner, the Savage Grill, became a derby sponsor.
“Wanted to burn the business down with us in it. Make sure we were in it,” said Dave Larson.
“Some rock and a flaming arrow needs to fly through that sign,” reads one message, referring to the Savage Grill’s Native American logo.
Another reads, “Sick [expletives] like you need to be removed from the planet. I hope a pack of wolves eviscerates you and leaves your worthless carcass to die slowly, painfully and alone.”
We tracked down one of the people behind one of the threats—a man living in Canada who identified himself as a Native American elder but wouldn’t give his name.
He insists he didn’t cross any line by sending the messages.
“They’re beautiful and you can’t eat the meat. Why do they want to shoot them?” he asked.
But hunters say they’re doing nothing wrong.
“If you look up the definition of murder, it’s defined in human terms. Not in animal terms,” said Beck.
They say the wolf derby will continue despite the negative response.
“It’s mostly out-of-state people who don’t have a clue what we do here or how we live here,” said Dave Larson.
The Lemhi County Sheriff’s Office would not confirm whether they’re investigating the threats.
The wolf derby will take place Dec. 28 and Dec. 29 in Salmon.
Copyright 2013 NPG of Idaho.
Exposing the Big Game 
In all fairness they do deserve it for threatening the lives of wildlife.
If the whole town is behind it, pray for a freak F-5 tornado to drop down and destroy the town and the businesses and kill the sponsors of the derby! The only way these backward people will learn is if the ‘finger of God’ crushes any attempt at going ahead with this derby, they need powerful ‘instant karma’. I, as an Abenaki on my mother’s side, am offended by the business name and stand behind the elder in Canada, most seriously, their sign needs to be destroyed!
No, death threats are not only wrong but they make the rest of the advocates for wolves lose credibility. It only works against wolves in the long run. These threats are reactive and ineffective, not proactive.
And what “proactive” measures, exactly, can you confidently suggest will deter this killing derby? The only thing wrong, that I can see, with such threats is that they start to lose their deterrent value if never followed-up with robust action.
Have to agree, talk-action=shit. And all who are sending messages are the least of their worries, it’s those who say nothing, And being a pacifist and holding a sign saying “hey let them live” will not save one life, not one. We need no more tears for the dead only action for the living.
Well, for one thing there are no measures with instant results that will deter this derby. You can’t allow hunters the privileges they have had for so long and suddenly decide you don’t like something and expect them to not do it. I would suggest non-hunters make a more earnest effort to become part of the management process. The non-lethal kind. Funding for wildlife management is hurting. It is possible that they will start to look outside hunting licenses and fees to supplement it. When that happens we need to not only be willing to help pay for wildlife management but we also need to make it clear that our assistance means our input will be considered. Hunters have say in wildlife management because they pay for it. A minority, who accounts for 10…maybe 15% of the nations population holds authority over 100% of our nations wildlife. And this has been the management model for decades, almost a century. We need to change that model and having someone kill a hunter over a derby, which is what you seem to be suggesting, will not change a blasted thing anymore than bombing abortion clinics has helped the pro-life movement. I have grown up in this country and I know the mentality here and I am telling you that online petitions, blogs, death threats, and such won’t do a thing to help these animals. A full out movement to try to end hunting won’t work either. You might as well try to rid America of Walmart or McDonalds. But demanding that the rest of us have an opportunity to be actively involved in the management process would work. Wildlife watchers account for 2-3 times the population compared to hunters. If we were given the same opportunity as they have been given, we wouldn’t be able to get rid of them, but we could mitigate a good deal of these types of things. Promote better human-animal conflict resolutions. Reclaim the refugees that have been turned to hunting grounds. More protection for recreational users when out on public lands. We could get some of that. But too many of you want it all. All or nothing. Well, I have been sitting here with nothing for too long. Either get with the program, or I suggest getting out of the way and let us get our foot in the door. Quit making it harder for those of us who want to try.
You might also want to consider that the majority of people who live in these areas view themselves as extremely independent and removed from the rest of society. Death threats will only validate that idea and make them believe in their own sovereignty which will make them more prone to operate outside of the boundaries. They will use these things to justify poaching and others in these areas who might have looked negatively on poaching will now feel as though it is necessary for them to protect themselves.
Well I think there is much wisdom in what you say and you’ve obviously given the matter a lot of thought. But the bottom line is this: peaceful, limp-wristed attempts by the 5% of the population passionately opposed to hunting to wrest political control over wildlife and wild-lands from the 5-10% of the population passionately in favor of hunting and to engage in the debate the other 80-90% of the public who largely don’t give a damn HASN’T WORKED! If it had, we wouldn’t be in this endless loop where wild animals like wolves get ruthlessly exterminated, circa 1880-1940; then get rehabilitated, become iconic symbols, and get re-introduced, circa 1970-2000; and then are subject, once again, to the same malevolent efforts at extermination. The anti-hunting movement wasn’t born yesterday; John Muir, Grey Owl, Fred Myers, Joseph Wood Krutch, and Cleveland Amory among others were strongly advocating and agitating for it long before I, and possibly you, were even born. It just never seems to succeed in achieving a permanent fix. How come? Maybe because those who forget the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them… And excuse me, but the anti-abortion movement in this country, which has always been a distinct minority until very recently, has been so successful at pushing its agenda and making legal abortions difficult to obtain in many areas precisely because it embraces extremist tactics (or at least seldom convincingly dissociates itself from them).
So, what indeed may be needed is a paradigm shift in the tactics employed by anti-hunters to undermine hunting. It starts with the recognition that most members of the hunting fraternity are, at heart, thugs. And that these thugs have managed, through a variety of underhanded means, to undermine the intended purpose of the nation’s wildlife “refuges”, to suborn the very government institutions that were supposed to keep a lid on them, and to turn the iron fist of the state (through “hunter harassment” laws) against those who disapprove of their behavior. And as I’ve said before on this website, you don’t bring a “Please don’t kill the animals” placard to a street fight and expect to walk away victorious. There are those who sincerely advocate for the “soft approach” in the Pollyannaish hope that eventually these hunter/reprobates will evolve and see the light. But the hour is now very late and given the rapidly deteriorating state of the natural world and the tenuous grip on existence of many of its wild inhabitants, we don’t have a few thousand years to wait around and hope that these retards evolve a moral conscience.
The way you get the public’s and the media’s attention focused on a subject, any subject, is to do something dramatic, and a couple of dead hunters might be as good a start in that direction as any.
And what exactly to you think would happen after you have grabbed the media’s attention with dead hunters? That suddenly that 80% of the population that is unaware would decide that we should end hunting? Is this a plan John Muir would have suggested? It is not the hunters tactics, signs, thug-ness or any of those that gives them pull in this. They are worked into the management system. Even if the rest of the population became aware of these issues they have no avenue to make changes. Forget the soft-handed approach and the extreme tactics….what worked for hunters would work for the rest of us. We need to infiltrate that system. The conservation paradigm needs to be changed. Why waste time trying to engage the percentage of the population that doesn’t give a damn. There is a percentage that is not anti-hunter but are wildlife advocates and would not need any push to engage if they had that option. And I would bet there are more of them than hunters and anti-hunter combined! People like the idea that if they are interested in something they have a way to be invested so the public would more than likely support an amendment to wildlife management that allowed more input. And better yet, the wildlife agencies want the money from non-consumptive users. They are aware that hunting is declining and insufficient to fund them and that wildlife watching is rising and is a potential source of funding.
@Big Sky Native;
You are correct in the longterm way to affect change in State management of wildlife. To do this you have to send the Governor packing and elect a pro-wolf and wildlife Governor to appoint new people to the board that manages wildlife. When the state has a con-con, people must demand to have their say and be able to vote on wildlife issues. Create a board of recreational area users so that non-consumptive users can control public roads and camping areas and set up rules that keep hunters half a mile from any road, trail or campground while they are actively hunting. Put real teeth in the rules so the ones who are psychos get put away for a long, long time! Understand rules don’t stop poaching. Prison does.
OK, you guys. Good luck with that plan. Maybe you can inspire me by providing an example of where it has worked in recent memory: a single Senator, Governor or President elected on a strongly pro-wildlife platform. Might be possible to find one from Rhode Island or Delaware where essentially no wilderness exists. The electorate is almost entirely pro-wolf in New Jersey, where none occur; but majority sympathy for black bears or deer, that do live there, is another story. So, hope you’ll understand if this time around I don’t hold my breath until your plan succeeds.
Geoff, politicians are like high price call girls. The first thing they need is money to buy what they really want. For politicians, that would be votes. Then the real goal, power. The environmental movement in the 60’s made possible the ESA and the EPA. It also made it too difficult to build a nuke plant. The lesson to take away from this is we need a powerful movement. We need to educate the public.
As for public disobedience, every movement has shadow members who carry out covert activities but if caught must distance themselves from the movement and not be on any membership list. I’m not talking about deadly force, that will ruin the movement and should never be used unless you are fighting for your life! If you want to shoot something so bad, put a few slugs into the engine blocks of their big $50k SUV’s and pick-up trucks. Don’t forget the tires, they cost big bucks now! Especially if you see a ‘dog box’ for hounds on the back, then you know you are dealing with really evil people. Make sure it is not for sled dogs, those appear larger and there will probably be some kennel name on the truck door. Sled dogs of the Northern Breeds will not hunt for anyone but themselves or pack mates, not humans. Most people who run sled dogs are just out exercising their dogs and having fun. Very few are running a trapline. For the simple reason that if their dogs step on a #5 wolf trap, they are done for as sled dogs. Sorry for rambling. The best way to punish a rich man is to make him poor. I stopped a condo project in the woods by messing up their heavy equipment at random times and days. I was just a kid at the time. Time is big money and flat tires cost time. Jet fuel in the diesel tanks will put that machine out of comission.
There is room for all parties at the table who want the same goal. Not everyone fits the mould. Some must not be seen. It takes more balls to go behind enemy lines, knowing nobody is coming to get you than it does to just have a hunting accident in the woods!
Well Geoff, since your plan is so much better tell me how that works out for you. Oh right…you don’t intend on implementing it do you? Quit bashing others plan when you have no intention of carrying out one of your own. Fighting kill mentality with kill mentality.
And thank you Melody. A board of recreational users is exactly what I would like to see happen. Right now the boards are composed of hunter and ranchers. No representation of non-hunter users at all. To get some other people on those boards would be a fantastic first step in balancing out the use of public lands and protecting other users from things like their dog being shot. Hunting season here pretty much means the rest of us end up staying home.
Defining murder in human terms alone, is similar to how America used to define “citizen” as only white male landowners.
Ok, trying to put this in historical perspective. You know how the saying goes, ‘it only takes one bad cook…’ well, I knew this chef who worked for a famous political family in Massachusetts… actually, I was friends with his brother. Anyway, this one cook got fired in the morning on a broiling hot day. But they told him he had to work that night. Stupid and arrogant and feeling entitled to push around someone they considered a lesser human. Hmmm, sounds like an asshat but actually this guy was running for president! Well, he’s been dead for years so it’s time for a funny revenge story. The politician wanted dessert baked for his evening meal. So the cook made chocolate brownies. Not any chocolate brownies, this batch had had a special ingredient. Lots of choclate ex-lax! The politician had a speech to give after dinner. It was probably the quickest political speech in history? For a couple of days, he was crapping his brains out, camped out in the bathroom, unable to make campaign stops. And for the first time in history, a politician wasn’t full of shit! 🙂 So it doesn’t take a caped super-hero to stop an event, just a yummy, irrestable brownie.
Oh I sure as hell hope this story is about tie-my-dog-to-the-roof-of-my-car-and-drive-cross-country-asshat-shitface-waste-of-human-life-Capitalist Romney!!!
LOL! 🙂
Sorry, no, I wish it were too! But I have to tread lightly on this one. Although the politician and his wife have now passed on, they still have relatives who have not. I am sure no real harm would come to the cook, but he might get his ass kicked? I would not want that to happen because of something I said. But if you know your Massachusetts political history, I am sure you could figure this out! You have to go back to the 1960’s and early 70s. An “S” was married to a “K”. The “S” was running for nomination for president. He didn’t make it. Not because of the events of the story. He just wasn’t that good at politics, which was kind of the family business that he married into.
My point of telling the story was to tell those who wanted to take the violent road, that if you use your head, a hunt can be foiled with something as simple as a stack of warm , delicious, homemade chocolate brownies with a ‘FREE, help yourself’ sign, left on the sign-in table by a cute little girl in pink camo. Nobody would question it. It’s like donuts at the cop-shop. Free coffee would make them eat and poop more. 🙂 Nobody has to get really hurt but if they’re camped out around the outhouse, they are not killing animals. I would laugh my ass off if someone actually pulled off foiling the whole hunt with ‘catered treats and coffee’ with a note on NRA stationary (they send out so many begging letters, that is easy to get) just saying ‘ from your friends at the NRA’. It doesn’t have to be brownies, in fact, better if it is muffins or donuts in authentic chain store boxes. 🙂 Again, I stress no one gets hurt, they are just too preoccupied with using the facilities to go hunting! We have to think like this rather than use violence. Killing wolves will be the result as revenge if we physically harm the asshats. We need to have them think some huge chain store forgot to change their fry oil. That it was an accident. Remember, everything is on camera now a days, take precautions.
The legal peanut gallery says I have to say ‘This story is for entertainment purposes only’. 😉
Haa! Haa! Gotcha. 🙂
This comment is for entertainment purposes only: ricin would be a more just choice than Ex-lax. But your point is taken and, once again, you offer excellent practical suggestions on how to sabotage a planned kill-fest!
I am a former pastry cook so I will get started on those brownies. 😉
You go, Girl!:-)
🙂
They have no right to complain, I hear worse from the wolf haters everyday
Yes, I will never forget some of the horrible things they’ve said but it has been really the things they have done to wolves that make them vile and deserving of threats that are vague enough not to be criminal but not so vague that they ever feel safe again. Actually, I have a few friends who are normal guys to most people but genius, inventor geek types with an evil twist when it comes to messing up people who hurt innocent animals. Personally, I find if somebody is an animal abuser, they are a human abuser, too. And they are really hinky about their ‘stuff’, the more it costs, the more they fret about it. If they think their trucks might never run again, that might keep them home?
“It’s mostly out-of-state people who don’t have a clue what we do here or how we live here,” said Dave Larson.
Correction: ITS ALWAYS! Every damn time i try to speak for wolves in front of these sick killers, i end up being a Chicagoan or someone from a big city.
They do deserve death threats, they do deserve to be afraid of being killed, but they don’t deserve the actual “threat”, no living things deserve that.
What sickens me is how they justify their behavior behind so-called “traditions” and their perceived superiority over all other species.
Amen
I’ll second that!
Geoff, thanks for the compliment! Ricin is not a good choice. However, poison ivy juice in the port-o-potty, on the seat and the soap is another good way to put them out of commission to hunt! I got that trick from an ex-CIA dude! Of course as usual, this is for entertainment purposes only. I would add the juice to the door handle, too. 🙂 So if they have the runs and poison ivy on their private areas, they will not be able to sit quietly waiting for a wolf to trot by. Another cheap way is to pour smelly stuff on them like aftershave from the dollar store. A friend puts it inside their sleeping bags. A wolf will smell them a mile away! Any of this stuff is just a prank one hunter might do to another hunter to better his own chances at the prize money! These people are prone to conspiracy theories and suspicious of everyone so if they think it comes from within their own ranks, all the better! BTW, poison ivy vines are full of juice on the trees even in winter. Again I hope eveyone got a good giggle. Life is too stressful, so entertainment is very valuable. 🙂
As far as your direct action tactics are concerned, the ones you’ve outlined in these many posts range from clever to inspired! I’ve not seen any of them described previously in published manuals dealing with “ecotage”, perhaps because many self-proclaimed Earth Firsters don’t see eliminating sport hunting of non-endangered species a priority, or even a legitimate, concern. Any possibility of compiling them all in one manual or fact-sheet for widespread distribution? Of course, it would be strictly for entertainment purposes only. Thanks for all you do!
I will do that soon for you Geoff, for giggles of course, as this is for entertainment only. I will use my Indian name. Jim knows what it is. I am still waiting for a po box or something from Jim to send him money for his books. I give my permission for you to get my e-mail address from Jim.
All the stuff I have mentioned is ‘old school’ with available items. Remember that the fish cops and others have drones and very nice tree mounted cameras. The asshats might look and act stupid but they study the sporting goods catalogs and spend a lot of hard earned money buying stuff to kill. And have the best ATV’s and SUV’s that they can afford. Always assume they have at least as good and advanced stuff as the state does. Sometimes, they are one in the same. You can get disappeared if captured. I would advise you to carry long range hornet spray or bear mace for protection, you will be in the woods, no reason you shouldn’t carry that! It is important what you have on you. They will judge you by that. ,You should pick some sweet fern leaves and boil them into a dark tea in a glass pirex dish. This will help if you catch poison ivy and nobody has to know it is not herbal tea. You put it on a rag and let it soak into your skin and take the itch away. If you need some, I have some. It is the bushy plant with a woody stem that has leaves that resemble pot but it is a darker green. It will not protect you from catching poison ivy but helps with the symptoms. You must not hurt innocents. Small kids and animals. Just stick to your targets. Adult asshats. Sorry to hear EF! Doesn’t considier wolves endangered.
You might want to carry a camera and if anyone questions you, just say you are writing a book and trying to shoot some pictures for it. Don’t carry ID or use your real name. Anything you buy the whole trip should be cash only. Use a cheap throw-away cell phone without GPS enabled. Have someone who can extract you at a predetermined roadside area. Say nothing but ‘lawyer now!’ If you get busted. But I am more concerned of you being captured by asshats.
I will see if I can arrange a meeting with my ex-CIA guy. His mind works like mine, it would be fun to give you some ideas for a hunt sab manual. BTW, if you are forced to capture an aggressor, tie him to a tree so he doesn’t run back to camp, crying like a little kid! Just make sure you let him go afterward!
Do you have any friendly geek friends? You could crash the sponsor’s servers. 🙂 That would be very ‘entertaining’!
Don’t let the judge’s opinion throw you off. Judges are political appointees, it was to be expected. Especially since she was obviously too uninterested to hear the arguments in person, it was over the phone! That’s ok, it is why we make back up plans for our back up plans. Well Geoff, I guess it’s time to make the delicious treats.; -)