Sport, Not a Sport
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Monthly Archives: July 2014
No Cheers for Trophy Hunting
>While most of these hunts may have been legal, they certainly were not ethical. Many of these hunters claim to be “pro-conservation,” but they clearly are not “pro-animal” as in the end their trophy kill is no less lethal or brutal than poachers who are similarly robbing the planet of their wildlife.<
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-flocken/no-cheers-for-trophy-hunting_b_5551404.html
by Jeff Flocken
This week, a 19-year-old Texas college cheerleader caused a stir when she posted photos online of her posing with imperiled African wildlife that she had hunted. An elephant, a lion, a leopard and a tranquilized white rhino — which she claimed was conveniently in need of being knocked-out for research purposes — all being propped up and posed as dead or unconscious trophies for her photo collection. Not surprisingly, the onslaught of comments overwhelming condemned her bloodthirsty escapades.
This is just the latest in a series of high-profile incidents where a trophy hunter attempted to flaunt their participation in this killing sport — under the unlikely guise of conservation — and it backfired. The King of Spain, Donald Trump’s sons, the CEO of GoDaddy, aspiring TV hunt-show host Melissa Bachman and the winner of the Dallas Safari Club auction to kill one of the last black rhinos in Namibia, are just a few examples of animal killers who found out that they are in the small majority of our population that are willing to tolerate killing charismatic and endangered species for sport.
While most of these hunts may have been legal, they certainly were not ethical. Many of these hunters claim to be “pro-conservation,” but they clearly are not “pro-animal” as in the end their trophy kill is no less lethal or brutal than poachers who are similarly robbing the planet of their wildlife.
In this modern day and age, saying that we have to kill something in order to save it is just no longer acceptable. There are ways to help communities in Africa living among (and, sometimes in conflict with) wildlife, that does not necessitate killing the animals. IFAW and other wildlife conservation organizations and animal protection groups are working with local communities on-the-ground every day find real solutions.
Elephants, great cats, rhinos are all struggling to survive in the face of shrinking habitat and unsustainable exploitation. There are fewer than a half million elephants left in the wild, less than 35,000 lions in Africa, and only around 5,000 black rhinos left. As their populations decrease, they unfortunately become more valuable as a trophy. Setting a price tag on the head of magnificent animals because they are rare and worth more dead than alive is the same philosophy that is driving the insatiable markets behind wildlife poaching.
Luckily the world is finally paying attention to the horrific global wildlife trafficking problem. But how can we be incensed and shocked by other nations illegally killing their wildlife for money in order to survive, when we knowingly watch Americans dump piles of money to go and kill these same animals for mere sport?
It’s easy to see why this young woman and the others like her have stirred up such great emotion. Trophy hunters personify an ugly stereotype of Americans who travel abroad and pay to do whatever they want. This is not how I, as an American, want to be seen or known around the world. Hopefully, the small number of Americans who still revel in this kind of vainglorious exploitation and killing of living things for fun will disappear before all the animals do.
Jeff Flocken is the North American Regional Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
Happy Fourth – Think Of The Wolves!
Humboldt County Board of Supervisors Puts Contract Renewal With Wildlife Services on Hold
EUREKA, Calif.— One day after a broad coalition of national animal and conservation groups urged the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors to terminate its contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, the board assented to a citizen request to delay consideration of contract renewal for at least a month in order to reevaluate the issues.
At its meeting on Tuesday, the board had scheduled a vote on the county’s annual renewal of its contract with Wildlife Services, a federal program that kills tens of thousands of native wild animals in California every year. But on a citizens’ request submitted by local wildlife rehabilitator Monte Merrick, the board decided to remove the renewal item from its consent calendar, delaying it at least another month as the county considers the issues raised by Merrick and the coalition.
“I am elated that the board has agreed to consider whether to renew its contract with Wildlife Services,” said Merrick. “Wildlife Services is increasingly controversial and there are better options to address wildlife conflicts.”
The coalition groups sent a formal letter asking the county to undertake an environmental review and ensure proper protections — as required under California state law — prior to hiring Wildlife Services to kill any additional wildlife. Last year, in response to a similar letter from the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Sonoma County’s Board of Supervisors opted not to renew the county’s contract with Wildlife Services and is now conducting a review of its wildlife policies. Marin County cancelled its contract with Wildlife Services 14 years ago and implemented a nonlethal predator-control program. As a result the county has seen a 62 percent decrease in livestock predation at one-third of the former cost.
Since 2000 Wildlife Services has spent a billion taxpayer dollars to kill a million coyotes and other predators across the nation. The excessive killing continues unchecked despite extensive peer-reviewed science showing that reckless destruction of native predators leads to broad ecological devastation. The indiscriminate methods used by Wildlife Services have killed more than 50,000 “nontarget” animals in the past decade, including endangered condors and bald eagles. The program recently released data showing that it killed over 4 million animals during fiscal year 2013 using a variety of methods, including steel-jaw leghold and body-crushing traps and wire snares. These devices maim and trap animals, who then may take several days to die. In 1998 California voters banned several of these methods, including leghold traps.
“Humboldt County has a chance to be a leader in California wildlife management by eliminating their contract with Wildlife Services,” said Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “Nonlethal predator control has proven to be more humane, more cost-efficient, and more effective — it’s simply the right thing to do for the county.”
“We are glad to see that Humboldt County is pushing the ‘pause’ button on its relationship with Wildlife Services,” said Tim Ream of the Center for Biological Diversity. “We hope that the county will do the wise thing and terminate its relationship with Wildlife Services altogether.”
“Humboldt County has an opportunity to do what’s right here by reviewing their contract with Wildlife Services and shifting towards a nonlethal program that is ecologically, economically and ethically justifiable,” said Camilla Fox, Project Coyote founder and executive director, who helped develop Marin’s nonlethal program. “We pledge our assistance to the county toward this end and urge the Board of Supervisors to emulate the successful Marin County Livestock and Wildlife Protection Program that provides non-lethal assistance to ranchers.”
“The last thing the county that is home to such special places as the Lost Coast and Redwood National Park should be doing is allowing Wildlife Services to trap and kill its native wildlife,” said Elly Pepper, an NRDC wildlife advocate. “Using nonlethal methods to balance its incomparable natural beauty with its critters is a much better use of county residents’ money.”
“It is time to put aside the unchecked assumption that wildlife conflicts can only be solved via Wildlife Services’ draconian, outdated killing methods,” said Tara Zuardo, wildlife attorney at the Animal Welfare Institute. “We salute Humboldt County for stepping back to reevaluate its options — a move that will hopefully lead to more humane, less costly and more effective methods of wildlife management.”
Supplement: Stop the execution of Siberian wolves
Apologies! Here is the link to sign the SIBERIAN WOLF PETITION:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/440/858/869/stop-the-slaughter-of-3000-wolves-in-siberia/
There is also a second petition to sign as wolves are being targeted worldwide
Petitioning To the Parliament of Latvia
Stop killing wolf pups and shorten wolf hunting season in Latvia
Petition by: Mareks Vilkins; Valmiera, Latvia
Latvia is the only European country where hunters kill not only local wolves but also those who are coming in from Estonia, Russia, Belarus and Lithuania.
The wolf hunting season in Latvia goes on for almost 9 months (July 15 – March 31) and hunters are killing 2 months old pups and pregnant wolf females.
The killing of wolf pups was a dominant feature of the last wolf hunting season – from July 15 till October 5 hunters killed 113 wolves and 74 of them were pups (in whole season 292 wolves were killed).
Management goal is to have 200-300 wolves after the…
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Reproductive rights, civil rights…and animal rights.
Click image for details on Circles of Compassion
Kathleen Stachowski Other Nations
Supreme Court decisions and national anniversaries can put one in an expansive mood, though applying social justice issues to nonhuman animals is always the logical next step for some of us. After all, slavery, commodification, discrimination–the evils we’ve visited upon our own and have attempted to banish–are still just business as usual where our nonhuman animal sisters and brothers are concerned.
The recent Supreme Court ruling that for-profit employers with religious objections can opt out of providing contraception coverage under Obamacare is one such instance. By chance, I came across the image above the day after the ruling was announced and was reminded–again–that, while expressing anger and dismay over the intrusion of employers’ beliefs into women’s personal reproductive decisions, most women, in turn, give no thought to the suffering females whose reproductive eggs and lactation products they…
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Kendall Jones: Just another Pretty Psychopath
In way, I suppose we could feel sorry for Kendall Jones and people like her. Although
she’s old enough to follow her daddy’s example as a conscienceless trophy hunter, she may too young and inexperienced in the ways of the world to understand how men really see her. Girls like that must not get that males— especially during hunting season, when their blood is up with the urge to kill—don’t really see them as equal hunting partners. They objectify them just as the girls objectify the animals they target.
On the other hand, as a cheerleader in Texas you’d think she’d be used to being leered at, drooled over and thought of only as an object. It would appear that killing animals and taking trophies of her own is a classic case of the mechanism known as transference of victimhood. (Transference of victimhood is a common coping mechanism for those who have been abused themselves or for those who feel their 
over-inflated egos have not been stroked enough.) Men have used this mechanism for as long as the human species has existed, taking out their aggressions on “their” women or anyone else they think they can pick on. Serial killers and other misogynists kill or attack random women as surrogate victims, to compensate for their perceived inadequacies.
Sport hunters, out hoping for a trophy set of antlers to boost their flagging self-esteem, objectify not only the animals, but also the women of a given area. Pretty young girls are seen as “fresh meat” and a beautiful woman is a potential conquest.
In trying to please their daddies, young girls sometimes want to be like them, though most aren’t obsessed with killing every beautiful animal they see and trying to pass it off as “conservation.” Perhaps, after years of intensive counseling, Kendall Jones will grow out of it. Until then, let’s hope she continues to bury her mothering instincts. The last thing this world needs is a brood of trophy-hunter wannabes out trying to impress their murderous mommy.
Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson
BREAKING: Facebook removes hunting photos of Texas teen that raised ire
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-texas-hunting-facebook-20140702,0,2940032.story
Reuters
July 2, 2014
DALLAS (Reuters) – Facebook has removed some photographs of a Texas teenager posing with freshly killed animals she hunted during a recent safari in South Africa that had been criticized by users as inappropriate, the company said on Wednesday.
Kendall Jones, 19, a cheerleader at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, set off a social media storm after she posted a series of photos of animals she killed, smiling in one picture as she hugs a lifeless leopard hanging limply from her arms.
Facebook said some photos were deleted from her page because they violated its policies regarding animal images.
“We remove reported content that promotes poaching of endangered species, the sale of animals for organized fight or content that includes extreme acts of animal abuse,” the company said. It did not provide specific information about the photos removed.
Comre Safaris, a company in South Africa that organizes licensed hunts, said the number of animals killed by Jones fell within a quota set by the country’s wildlife department.
Jones defended her actions, saying in a Facebook post she took inspiration from former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, a hunter and conservationist.
“How can it be possible that someone can love the earth, and take from the earth in the name of conservation? For some folks, they’ll never understand. For the rest of us … we were born that way. God Bless Teddy,” Jones said.
But criticism was heavy, with one post branding the hunts barbaric garnering 20,000 comments. More than 130,000 people signed an online petition asking Facebook to remove Jones’ photos, saying they promoted animal cruelty.
“You can see the thrill in her expression and eyes from these photos that she enjoyed the KILLING of these animals,” read one post.
Many cash-strapped African governments allow a small number of big game animals to be killed each year, using the money from the sale of hunting licenses for conservation.
The hunts are held under international guidelines meant to ensure they do not adversely affect overall species numbers.
Animal rights campaigners outraged as Texas cheerleader poses in dozens of photos alongside the rare animals she hunts on African safaris
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2675807/Animal-lover-outrage-blonde-Texas-cheerleader-smiles-dozens-photos-alongside-rare-big-game-hunts-African-safaris.html
- Kendall Jones, 19, is posting the photos on Facebook, where some believe the shots should be taken down
- Jones has posted shots of herself posing with dead elephants, hippos and lions among others that she’s killed across Africa
- Jones claims her kills come after a ‘fair chase,’ but thousands are demanding that Facebook remove the posts
- Jones is a cheerleader at Texas Tech and is gunning for a reality show about her African adventures
Global animal lovers are up in arms over a teenage Texas girl’s love of killing big African game, so much so that they’re even demanding she be banned from posting pictures of herself smiling alongside her trophies online.
Nineteen-year-old Kendall Jones claims photos of dead hippos, elephants, lions and other beasts on Facebook are a testament to her hunting skills and dedication to game preservation.
But critics are appalled by the teen’s beaming social media and are calling Kendall sick and depraved for killing the rare animals and boasting about it online.
Scroll down for video
Conserving by killing? 19-year-old Texas cheerleader Kendall Jones really likes to kill rare animals in Africa. While she pays for her legal hunts, her critics says she’s not the conservationist she claims to be
Loves to hunt: Jones faces criticism over her claims that she’s a conservationist. The Texas Tech cheerleader’s smiling poses alongside dead rare African animals have won her particular ire
An online petition to force Kendall to remove her page because it promotes animal cruelty had gained over 40,000 signatures in just a week.
‘For the sake of all animals,’ reads the petition as it implored animal lovers to sign, ‘especially the animals in the African region… where hunters are going for fun just to kill an animal!’
Jones, whose Facebook indicates she ‘is looking to host a TV show in January 2015,’ maintains she is doing what’s best for the preserves, where there isn’t always space for even threatened species like elephants or lions.
‘Controlling the male lion population is important within large fenced areas like these,’ Jones writes. ‘Funds from a hunt like this goes partially to the government for permits but also to the farm owner as an incentive to keep and raise lions on their property.’
Jones’s photos show her posing with bagged zebras, hugging a dead leopard, and smiling beside elephants she’s killed.
One particular photo, in which she’s posing alongside a an extremely endangered rhinoceros, has her critics especially steaming, but the Texas Tech cheerleader says it was alive and well.
‘The vet drew blood, took DNA samples, took body and head measurements, treated a leg injury and administered antibiotics. I felt very lucky to be part of such a great program and procedure that helps the White Rhino population through conservation,’ she wrote.
Big 5: Jones says her first kill was a rare African white rhino, part of her quest to bag the Big 5 African game animals (rhino, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and lion)
and if you haven’t read enough about her yet, here’s a link to all 226 articles that come out today: https://news.google.com/news/story?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&ncl=dud2BbJ6yB4ChAMWM48-BLgzTe7YM
Exposing the Big Game 