Task Force Formed to Counter Cyber Threats to Hunters
Sportsmen, conservation organizations and outdoor personalities met at the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance (USSA) headquarters yesterday to develop strategies to counter the recent increase in cyber-attacks on hunters.
The group makes up the Hunter Advancement Task Force with most members sharing a common theme of having been targeted by animal rights activists through social media.
“This is a great opportunity to start developing ways to hold those responsible for the recent wave of cyber-attacks against sportsmen accountable,” said Nick Pinizzotto, USSA president and CEO. “The task force is not only working to stop direct attacks on hunters but also discussing how best to educate the public on the vital role sportsmen play in the conservation of all wildlife.”
Attendees included outdoor television personalities Melissa Bachman and Jana Waller, Colorado hunter Charisa Argys along with her father Mark Jimerson, Doug Saunders of the National Wild Turkey Federation, Bill Dunn of the National Shooting Sports Foundation and John Jackson of Conservation Force, Dennis Foster of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, Tony Schoonan of the Boone and Crockett Club and Mark Holyoak of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Other attendees included USSA President and CEO, Nick Pinizzotto, Evan Heusinkveld, USSA vice president of government affairs, Bill Horn, USSA director of federal affairs, Michelle Scheuermann of Bullet Proof Communications and author Michael Sabbeth.
Bachman, a television producer and host, found her life and career threatened after posting a photo of an African lion she harvested to her Facebook page last year. Almost immediately, Bachman came under attack from anti-hunters around the world. Bachman also found herself the target of death threats that “hit way too close for comfort” when anti-hunters showed up at her office.
“Regardless of your beliefs about hunting, Americans can all agree that threatening someone’s life is simply unacceptable.” said Bachman.
Other members of the task force have also had personal experiences with cyber-bullying including Waller who has had not only threats to her life, but also to her career. Waller, the star of Skull Bound TV, found herself having to defend her livelihood after an anti-hunter called her show sponsors to accuse her of poaching.
“The whole issue of harassment is so important,” said Waller. “I am scared it is going to deter people from standing tall and proud as hunters.”
While attacks on outdoor-celebrity hunters have been going on for years, average hunters have largely avoided the wrath of the anti-hunting community. Earlier this year, however, Charisa Argys was thrown into the spotlight when a picture of her legally harvested mountain lion appeared online. The image brought a flood of criticism and threats not only to her, but to family members as well.
“Just because some anti-hunters in Europe went ballistic over a legal hunt, this issue is going to be associated with me for the rest of my life,” said Argys. “It is never going to go away. It’s going to be there forever. It could affect my job prospects and my life.”
This initial task force meeting was just the first of many to develop short and long-range strategies to protect hunters from cyber harassment.
“In the short term we are developing aggressive legal approaches to pursue both civil and criminal legal actions to prosecute anti-hunting harassers.” said Bill Horn, USSA director of federal affairs. “In the long term, we would like to cultivate strategies to provide additional legal protections for hunters who are finding themselves the target of cyber bullying.”
Pinizzotto added, “What this group discussed today and the ideas generated are a terrific first step in protecting hunters now and in the future. We have some of the brightest minds in our industry working on this critical issue. I look forward to continuing this discussion and adding additional key groups and individuals to the team in the coming weeks.”
Exposing the Big Game 
I had to stop reading when I got to this: “‘Regardless of your beliefs about hunting, Americans can all agree that threatening someone’s life is simply unacceptable.’ said Bachman.” I was utterly dumbstruck. Do they even LISTEN to themselves? Don’t they see the tragic irony? Are they completely disconnected from reality? YES, threatening someone’s life is unacceptable. TAKING someone’s life is even worse. That’s WHY they’re being threatened in the first place! Can they actually be even stupider than I thought they were?
Even hunter’s “brightest minds” can’t figure out that the violent killing they do ends the lives of innocent animals. Do non-humans count for nothing in their minds?
THANK YOU.
Once again, our voices are drowned out by the “raucous huntin’, shootin’, killin’ cartels who believe that violence is the answer – when it shouldn’t even be a question” – See more at: http://freefromharm.org/videos/educational-inspiring-talks/philip-wollen-australian-philanthropist-former-vp-of-citibank-makes-blazing-animal-rights-speech/#sthash.X6YZ87At.dpuf
Thanks for the link
We need to FIGHT them until we win! The vast majority of people are sickened by trophy killing! This is a battle Many of these sick people are very rich. Hunting has a conservative money-backed history and they are fighting back against the outcry. Time to UP OUR EFFORTS! BAN TROPHY HUNTING! Sign all the petitions, call your lawmakers, make a cry out on social media!
AGREE! We need billboards too to at least counter the Bass Pro Stores that have upped their efforts trying so hard to make the public think hunting is “normal” I am in N. Cali, and I pass one of their electronic billboards everyday.
Seeing all those notable individuals gathered together in a room under one roof, the only thought that comes to my mind is: Timothy McVeigh, where are you when we need you?
Dick Cheney would have been there too, but he was hiding in an undisclosed location.
Maybe someone should send these asswipes some of the cyber bullying and threats hunters have done to people!
GOOD point! I was called a “fat cunt” by Mark Martineau on my Instagram account.
Hilarious. These people think nothing of brutally killing defenseless animals, and yet are ‘scaredy cats’ when they get called out on their bad behavior. There are plenty of cyber attacks, death threats, and real violence against animals rights activists, environmentalists, and wolf advocates.
I guess these authoritarians are against free speech – because if they have a call-in television show, or post their killings on social media and open forums, they will get responses. They don’t like the responses they are getting, because the majority of people do not support them. Awwww.
How many ‘bright minds’ are out there I wonder, five? That and greasing the palms of a few favorite
whorespoliticians will get the job done.“Bright minded hunters” *laughs till I pass out* nothing bright about these creeps or their supporters.
Hunting’s brightest minds. There’s an oxymoron if ever I heard one. They need to add Ted Spewgent to the task force in order to complete their stellar lineup.
Nice thought, but I think we’ve heard enough out of him lately.
OMG – here is a perfect list of idiot troglodytes. The best part of this article is the fact that the anti hunting crowd is so strong and have massed together to expose the despicable activities by these so called hunters (I use the term lightly because what they do is not hunting – it’s a cowards way of killing a defenseless animal). And guess what – they didn’t need to sit around a table to figure out how to do it. That’s because they know the difference between right and wrong. They also know that conservation is NOT what these twits are doing – they are ridding the planet of animals at an alarming rate. I am so proud to be part of a group who are going after these rabid killers..
A few things to address, hunters. First, stop referring to everyone who cares about wildlife and is sickened by your cowardly, pathetic ways as “animal rights activists”. They (we) are all just normal human beings who happen to care about the welfare of animals. Just because decent, compassionate humans have a different set of values and ethics than those who kill animals for no reason does not make them extremists or “activists”. How about instead of referring to you as hunters, we’ll refer to you as “animal killing Nazi psychos”? Probably wouldn’t like that much eh?
Second, stop hiding behind the word “legal”. ““Just because some anti-hunters in Europe went ballistic over a legal hunt….”. Yes, cowardly trophy/sport killing of unsuspecting animals may be legal in some countries but it doesn’t make it right. Skinning animals alive is legal in some asian countries but its still a despicable act.
Finally, cut the “conservation and preservation of wildlife” crap. Its BECAUSE of you “hunters” that so many animal species are in danger of becoming extinct. Ya ya, you blame it all on poachers, but if you looked at it logically instead of defensively you’d see that poaching takes only a very small percentage of any particular species. The majority of animals of any given species that are close to or already extinct were killed by hunters “legally”. The big problem is it seems hunters are too stupid to know when to stop before a species is wiped out completely. Ya’ll figure hey, as long as its legal, lets keep killing until someone else puts an end to it. That’s an extremely selfish attitude. But what can we expect from people who make themselves out to be heroes by hiding in a bush and killing something 100 yards away that doesn’t even know you’re there. Do you hide in the bush to attack children as they walk past too, manly men?
“what can we expect from people who make themselves out to be heroes by hiding in a bush and killing something 100 yards away that doesn’t even know you’re there…” — exactly!
Many times they are not behind a bush (that would be too dangerous) they are sitting in a land cruiser – and kill the animal – which is behind a fence. The animal has been drugged or is people friendly, so there is no ‘hunt’.
Somehow, these seven sisters I took from the RMEF website describing the seven sisters of the North American Wildlife Conservation Model seem germane.
Sister #1 – Wildlife is Held in the Public Trust
In North American, natural resources and wildlife on public lands are managed by government agencies to ensure that current and future generations always have wildlife and wild places to enjoy.
Sister #2 – Prohibition on Commerce of Dead Wildlife
Commercial hunting and the sale of wildlife is prohibited to ensure the sustainability of wildlife populations.
Sister #3 – Democratic Rule of Law
Hunting and fishing laws are created through the public process where everyone has the opportunity and responsibility to develop systems of wildlife conservation and use.
Sister #4 – Hunting Opportunity for All
Every citizen has an opportunity, under the law, to hunt and fish in the United States and Canada.
Sister #5 – Non-Frivolous Use
In North America, individuals may legally kill certain wild animals under strict guidelines for food and fur, self-defense and property protection. Laws restrict against the casual killing of wildlife merely for antlers, horns or feathers.
Sister #6 – International Resources
Wildlife and fish migrate freely across boundaries between states, provinces and countries. Working together, the United States and Canada jointly coordinate wildlife and habitat management strategies. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 demonstrates this cooperation between countries to protect wildlife. The Act made it illegal to capture or kill migratory birds, except as allowed by specific hunting regulations.
Sister #7 – Scientific Management
Sound science is essential to managing and sustaining North America’s wildlife and habitats. For example, researchers put radio collars on elk to track the animals’ movements to determine where elk give birth and how they react to motor vehicles on forest roads.
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“We have some of the brightest minds in our industry working on this critical issue.” “Industry”? Whoops. Certainly he meant “sport,” Number 2 sister might not like the idea of industrial hunting. Sister #6 might argue that crazies in Europe have the same right to go ballistic over hunting of unique North American species, the same as our little children sen milk-money to save tiger and lions. Sister #5 might argue that a trip to Africa to kill an animal for its meat seems a stretch, and sounds more like a trophy hunt. Sister #2 argues that it’s a commercial industry because of so many hunting ‘packages’.
Unfortunately, Sister #7 disappeared years ago, and is presumed dead by hunting groups and F&G Agencies. Some believe she was choked by a radio collar; others speculate she was wearing her radio collar when she drove out of Yellowstone, and was killed by a licensed hunter. Yet others say a hunters’ group contracted Wildlife Services to get rid of the annoyance. Wolf-humpers, deer & elk haters. and predator-pimps claim to see Sister #7 on occasion in the scientific droppings of field-research biologists, but as biologists never bring back the targets of their research, they are not as believable as an honorable and heroic hunter that says, “I saw a rare ghost grizzly, and here’s its pelt to prove it!”
Most of the Sisters believe we need to work on the laws through legislatures, and that we need to work to find a new. equitable funding mechanism so that tree huggers become the dominant financial funding of wildlife agencies.
What an eloquent post! Sister #7 I believe is being held hostage with duct tape over her mouth. But she’s trying to get free!
Excellent comment essay! Thank you BobMc!
Time for Anti-‘s to challenge the existing structure of F&W/G. Facts against our Civil Rights, are that this is a PUBLIC agency being run by a small percentage of a “special interest group”, the so called “conservationists” do not and should not use hunting licenses to fund our managing and saving our Wildlife. There are many subsidies from public funds that support this mis-managed agency. Proven research by many, but one that I have seen for myself is by Peter Muller, this research proves Wildlife Watching has and will generate 7-10 times the revenue for that dept, than “hunting” does. Hunting, as is this “Task Force”, is antiquated, barbarically cruel and is sociopathic in nature.
You are so right. The USFWS and all state Fish & Game agencies need a COMPLETE overhaul. Please check out this page on Facebook, dealing with exactly that…. https://www.facebook.com/groups/915223568557792/
PURGE ALL HUNTERS FROM CONSERVATION!