Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2014. All Rights Reserved
Living in Earth’s out-of-the-way places, surrounded by prime wildlife habitat (as I’ve always chosen to do), an advocate must eventually make a choice—either stand with your wildlife friends, or join in the “fun” (made increasingly more popular by repulsive “reality” shows like Duck Dynasty and so many evil others) and go around shooting everything you see.
I made my choice long ago and decided the only way to live in such a wildlife-war-torn area is to have as little to do with the people as possible. To quote Sea Shepherd’s Captain Paul Watson, referring to his native land, coastal New Brunswick, Canada (where clubbing baby seals is the local pastime), “Love the country, hate the people.”
Author Farley Mowat, another selfless Canadian animal advocate in league with Captain Watson, ultimately came around to that same sentiment in A Whale for the Killing. The 1972 book is an autobiographical account of Mowat’s moving to Newfoundland because of his love for the land and the sea, only to find himself at odds with herring fishermen who made sport of shooting at an 80-ton fin whale trapped in a lagoon by the tide. Although he had started off thinking folks around there were a quaint and pleasant lot, he grew increasingly bitter over the attitudes of so many of the locals who, in turn, resented him for “interfering” by trying to save the stranded leviathan.
Mowat wrote, “My journal notes reflect my sense of bewilderment and loss. ‘…they’re essentially good people. I know that, but what sickens me is their simple failure to resist the impulse of savagery…they seem to be just as capable of being utterly loathsome as the bastards from the cities with their high-powered rifles and telescopic sights and their mindless compulsion to slaughter everything alive, from squirrels to elephants…I admired them so much because I saw them as a natural people, living in at least some degree of harmony with the natural world. Now they seem nauseatingly anxious to renounce all that and throw themselves into the stinking quagmire of our society which has perverted everything natural within itself, and is now busy destroying everything natural outside itself. How can they be so bloody stupid? How could I have been so bloody stupid?’”
Farley Mowat ends the chapter with another line I can well relate to: “I had withdrawn my compassion from them…now I bestowed it all upon the whale.”
Having recently finished reading, Give a Boy a Gun, by Jack Olsen (author of the pro-coyote/anti-trapping book, Slaughter the Animals, Poison the Earth—an appropriate addition to his numerous other true-crime works), I’m still puzzled by that book’s similar underlying question: How could so many people be so stupid as to think so highly of Claude Dallas Jr., a killer whose crimes included poaching, trapping out of season and the shooting of two Idaho Department of Fish and Game agents? Apparently the majority of people in cattle country there think nothing of the prolonged suffering of a bobcat, coyote or trappers’ other non-human victims, and accept people at the shallowest of face-value (except game wardens out to uphold the few laws animals have on their side).
In civilized society we’ve been brought up not to hate other people. Tolerance is the buzz word and that’s supposed to go for everyone, even if they choose to kill the animals you care about. It’s not like animals are people, right? Well, that’s debatable; besides, there’s only so much tolerance to go around. I love the wilderness and the wild things who live there. But can you really love something, without at the same time, hating those who threaten its very existence?
Every morning I’m reminded how much I hate the local duck and goose hunters, for example. At first light this time of year, before I can even think about how much I love living where flocks of migratory geese spend the winter, the sound of shotgun fire rings out to remind me of those whom I hate—the ones who make sport of killing creatures more noble, magnanimous and intelligent than they could ever hope to be.
If it’s not okay to hate the people who kill your friends for sport, who can you hate? And don’t think for a second that hunters, no matter how the schmooze, don’t hate you or anyone who might be out to spoil their fun by trying to ban contest hunts, or otherwise exposing their sadism.
Idaho’s ongoing Predator Hunting Contest and Fur Rendezvous, organized by a group ironically calling itself “Idaho for Wildlife” (more appropriate names would either be, Idaho against Wildlife, or Extremist Idahoans for the Destruction of Wildlife) claims as part of their second mission, “To fight against all legal and legislative attempts by the animal rights and anti-gun organizations who are attempting to take away our rights and freedoms under the constitution of the United States of America.” Apparently somebody is confusing the Second Amendment with the right to kill non-human animals for sport.
Now, you may have grown up to songs with lyrics like, “Come on people now, smile on your brother, everybody get together, try to love one another right now,” or just heard phrases like, “feel the love,” “love thy neighbor” “blah, blah, blah.” Bullshit! If your neighbor is out mowing down coyotes or wolves for fun or cash prizes—or blasting into flocks of geese for sport—they need to know how deeply you hate them.
But hate is such a negative emotion; it’s not good for your chakras, or whatever they say. Well, sometimes the animals need our outrage, our lividness, our hate. It’s a war, after all, and the other side is winning, partly because we resist the urge to embrace our hatred. How can you fight a war and not feel hate for your enemy?
Yet it shouldn’t be seen as desperate words coming from some lone, animal-loving whacko. As long as the laws are on their side and they think society shares their view of animals as objects, they’ll be encouraged to keep up the killing.
In other words, “Come on people now…Everybody get together, try to hate coyote hunters right now. Right now. Right Now!
Exposing the Big Game 
Come on people now, frown on your brothers!
People who torture wildlife are not my brothers
Sometimes tough to admit.
Jim, These words from conservation Great Elder Martin Litton, who, as you know, died at 97 a few weeks ago, echo yours. Embrace the hate, it is inspiring and energizing; just has to be used to the right way.
“Mr. Litton understood that unimpassioned bureaucrats will generally do no good, especially if operating from a long distance and pressured to please those they are supposed to regulate.
Litton said: “People always tell me not to be extreme. ‘Be reasonable!’ they say. But I never felt it did any good to be reasonable about anything in conservation, because what you give away will never come back—ever.”
While being interviewed for A Fierce Green Fire, he described his fight to halt dams in the Grand Canyon with this classic line: “My attitude was always, be unreasonable. I mean, let’s not be nice. If you don’t have any hatred in your heart, what are you living on?”
One of your best blogs yet! Lately I find myself telling other activists to come on along and jump on the hate wagon, stop trying to politely work with the politicians or decision makers. It doesn’t work. Another thing Paul Watson said was,
we go to the very people who started the insanity and ask politely if they will please stop it. I have taken my gloves off. This is a war!
Oh my god, Jim, this may be the best thing you ever wrote, and that’s saying a lot! I have come to all of those same conclusions years ago. Like before you can even think about how much you love living among wild animals, gunfire reminds you of how much you hate those that harass and murder them. I think I am going to be quoting from this for a long time to come. This also reminds me of one of the best articles I’ve ever read in my life. A friend of a friend wrote it for a local newsletter in Australia decades ago. It’s called, “Don’t tell your anger.” You’ve inspired me to dig it out, type it up, and post it. I will do that soon. Thanks again, Jim. This is brilliant!
I feel your pain and continually struggle with what the right stance is and what face to show to the world. Do I despise what they do? Absolutely. I try to separate their actions from their persona (ie, hate what they do and try not to hate them), but I confess that my resolve is weak and I am tested so often. I do not believe that convincing these people of the evil of their actions is possible, but I do foresee the day when most of them stop because what they do has been deemed illegal. If I can find any charity in my heart, I think these people act this way because they are broken people and act from a twisted, broken place inside. I can easily go into a rage when I think about their actions — and I do routinely go into a rage — but what I want more fervently than anything is effective action. I think it’s possible to challenge hunting and trapping “traditions” on every level and that it is our collective responsibility to do so — and to get the attention of the scores of oblivious people who have no idea what’s going on. Let’s let anger be our fuel. Let it burn bright and make us unrelenting and ever-more-effective in our criticisms and demands on behalf of wildlife.
If you can create a perception in their minds that they are marginalized, wrong, and that real society reflects values opposite to theirs, that is a step.
Since most people want to be valued by most people, the pleasure killers (double entendre intended) have trumpeted that THEY are for such things as freedom, while denying freedom to ALL but thrill-killers like themselves.
While I relate to the author, looking up this morning before full light to watch the amazing grace of certain birds flying into the wind without moving more than a few feather adjustments, and hearing the calls of the remnant geese during the killing season decreed on them by the “wildlife” agency, I remember the huge flights that occurred just before that policy was put in place.
Distressing was this autumn, when a scientific lecture on certain wetland grasses was given, a student (Female) raised her hand and asked, “why don’t they just shoot them?”
I have seen the bleeding coyotes motored off vast federal lands by ranch children, and turned against this sociopathic and utilitarian culture long ago. I know a dead wolf who trod this land, and for him anticipate the return of his kind, and I watch eagerly for the cracking and crumbling of asphalt and concrete when I must myself tread the environments taken and encased in concrete death by human evil.
There is a term by which you can identify those who have chosen to embody such evil: “outdoors.” No matter what they claim to know or love, they regard outside of a door to be other than their home. To my loves, relatives of the Earth and Sky.
Amen, Brother Jim! One of the silliest aphorisms ever spoken is the one about hatred and violence “accomplishing nothing.” No doubt penned, and parroted, by political rubes with a seriously deficient knowledge of human history and never themselves having been personally threatened with annihilation by a murderous foe,. Widespread hatred and violence, directed at apex wildlife predators around the globe, has brought us to the cusp of wiping these animals off the planet. There isn’t going to be time enough for the Age of Aquarius to magically intervene and make all these bad men reasonable and compassionate. The same sort of hatred and violence employed by the coyote and wolf killers needs to be turned around, in a sort of political jujitsu, and directed against the persecutors. Steven Best has a name for it: “extensional self-defense.” To paraphrase Seneca: “Extremism in the defense of the innocent is no vice; and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
Amen to that too. The Age of Aquarius came and went and things have only gotten worse for wildlife.
Thank you Brother Geoff.
Amen. I’m on your side, Jim, and there is nothing better than hate and anger channeled to the right direction!
Problem is, too much is channeled in the wrong direction.
I feel ‘love everyone, no matter how heinous and despicable they are’ is just another one of those societal and religious lines to keep society in control, to not make waves, and stay dumb and happy. There are just some people whose selfish actions are completely over the top, and I don’t know if they are or will ever be good people either. No amount of understanding or help will change them, and I, as was written above, prefer to give my compassion to victims of them, whether human or non-human.
But one of the biggest problems I have with this philosophy is why can’t we extend this love and forgiveness to all to other living things? It is just reserved for humanity, which is the problem.
Oh I forgot to call them ‘contemptible’ too! 🙂
Great post, Jim! And I’m right there with ya.
I decided long ago that being kind to those who are callously and gleefully killing what we love is absolutely ludicrous. It’s exactly what the destroyers want, for if we stay passive and conciliatory, it plays right into their slimy, blood-soaked hands. Those who destroy life will not stop because we nicely ask them to do so. They never have, and they never will.
I just wish mainstream “conservation” groups would grow a pair and realize that when they compromise with these cruel, sociopathic bastards, they themselves are contributing to the deaths of wildlife and wild places, as well as their own souls. It’s time for us to embrace our hatred for those who kill for fun and profit, for they are utterly unethical and immoral. It is not “extreme” to defend life. The only extremism I see is coming from those who revel in destroying it.
Some of the conservation groups are caving in so that they do not appear to “radical” and “extreme.” If they are so perceived, they will not get the big money and membership they want. So they ask for donations, play to the middle, have endless lawsuits, and try to keep the majority and the fence sitters happy.
Agree with EVERYTHING you said. Absolutely cannot stand hunters or those who hunt for sport, or torture, trap, maim, murder animals. I wish those assholes just die or shoot themselves.
Reblogged this on Howling For Justice.
What a beautiful piece. I agree with everything you said. I wish there was no need to write it though. Very sad that some “people” think killing is a “sport”.
I have always, from the time I was little, loved animals more than people. Too often have I seen total disregard for any animal by “civilized” people. From the ones who leave their dogs outside all winter, to the ones who deliberately run over squirrels and opossums. So, you are not alone in your “hate”.
[Sigh] Hatred.. it is pretty much overflowing over here…this people.. if it were in my hands… they would burn… they would suffer every wrong they have inflicted upon all the innocent creatures that they have slaughtered. ..so yes, I came to love America. .but I came to loathe the retards who reside in it…
I love this! This is real, these animals had a life! To me, it is a normal response, to hate these very sick and dangerous humans. I do not understand any activist for the animals, to want to negotiate with cold blooded murderers! whats to negotiate?(SW) How many have to be murdered and tortured before we stop and get angry to declare a war! Society has taken a wrong turn at some point to even think these people should not be jailed for their sociopathic killing of animals, and humans when they think they can get away with it. So it is our responsibility to change that course, sometime before these freaks of nature kill every last animal there is! We can afford to be peaceful and loving with other humans when we stop murdering.
Reblogged this on Moral Dilimia and commented:
love this! This is real, these animals had a life! To me, it is a normal response, to hate these very sick and dangerous humans. I do not understand any activist for the animals, to want to negotiate with cold blooded murderers! whats to negotiate?(SW) How many have to be murdered and tortured before we stop and get angry to declare a war! Society has taken a wrong turn at some point to even think these people should not be jailed for their sociopathic killing of animals, and humans when they think they can get away with it. So it is our responsibility to change that course, sometime before these freaks of nature kill every last animal there is! We can afford to be peaceful and loving with other humans when we stop murdering.
Yes I do hate what they do to the animals. They are sick and cannot, for the most part ever be made well. We will continue to fight what we hate and that is murder and torture with the intent to cause animals to cease to exist. Maybe another person can find it in their heart to forgive the killers but I can’t. I have had several conversations with these sick, uneducated, sorry excuses for humans. They are totally lacking in compassion and humanity. They can make me extremely angry and I have to walk away and leave it alone for a time. I don’t like the fact that they can push my buttons so easily. I guess that is because I feel so strongly that what they do is so wrong. People say to try to change their minds by being nice to them. That speaking your mind makes them kill more. Well I do disagree. We are the voice for the animals. I will continue to take the killers on any way that I can. They are going to kill and torture as often and as much as they can any way. They are, as I said, SICK.
I believe it ok to hate the hunters. After all, they don’t care about you or life. They are nothing but soulless zombies occupying this planet with us. If we don’t get angry, they laugh and call us weak. When would you ever sit down and talk politely to someone that the just killed something or someone you loved? It just doesn’t make sense. I have gotten to the point I can’t wait to shoot the hunters and put them through the same torture they put our wildlife through. Because they mean nothing to me. Someday we will have that chance! Thank you for another wonderful article that I will share on my fb pages.
You’re welcome and thank you for sharing.
I spent 14 years in Catholic schools, among other years of education. In the religious schools we were taught that human beings are special creations of God, that no matter how despicable their behavior, how squalid their lives become, they are precious before God and should be loved and forgiven. The Church would never speak out against animal abuse, even that as barbaric as bullfighting.
As a lover of animals and nature and an advocate of justice and mercy for both, I am also an ex-Catholic.
Amen to that.
Hence I no longer go to church and I have no time at all for the religious people of the Earth.
Isn’t come on people now on a kentucky fried chicken commercial? The problem with this stance is that you eventually back yourself into a corner( believe me I know) because this hatred should not only be limited to hunters but to EVERYONE and I mean everyone who hurts nonhuman animals in any capacity. This will include every relative, friend and acquaintance that fuels the demand for nonhuman animal flesh, embryos and secretions. It will include every little kid you see munching on a happy meal. It will include the despair fueled hatred that you feel on every single holiday. It will include every speciecist AR activist condoning the humane myth and eventually it will include yourself. Why should I have high blood pressure and other stress related illnesses?
What I have had to do is funnel that hatred into outrage with a coating of civility. I will NEVER back down and I will always be the voice for other species,but that doesn’t mean a voice inside my head isn’t humming the DK’s lyrics from the song moral majority- god must be dead if your alive.
Sound sage, “hate the deed, not the doer”?
Both
The photograph above showing the slaughtered wolves makes me cry. The photograph reminds me of the Jews who were slaughtered by Hitlers army and those who were slaughtered by so many more leaders of various countries, even yesterdays mass murdering in Paris, France.
I started reading Farley Mowat’s books in the 1970’s, when I lived in Canada, and I turned my back on anyone who killed wildlife for the fun of it. I still have Mr. Mowat’s books and I love to re-read them, especially “Never Cry Wolf”.
One of my closest friends has married a man who loves to go to Scotland to shoot various wildlife, and he shoots ducks, pheasants etc locally. Due to this I rarely see my friend because I cannot accept the murdering of any of Gods creatures.
These murderers haven’t thought that every living mammal, insect and all other forms of life feel pain, have feelings and are made up of most if not more of the organs that make us humans. The wonder of insects with minute hearts, brains, eyes, lungs etc. They are miracles, every one of them.
This is great! I am so tired of the exploiters and abusers accusing of animal advocates of being misanthropic. Yuh think?! What else should we be but misanthropic when we care about the other animals we share this earth with, want to see them unharmed, and left to their own land and habitat and then know that hunters blast them into eternity, researchers destroy them, farmers raise them in terrible conditions, send them on harrowing journeys in trucks to slaughter houses, rodeo cowboys and circus handlers torment them for “entertainment,” and irresponsible pet “owners” abuse and neglect them. We object. That brings out the trolls who proceed to smack their lips over the thought of bacon when they hear about a terrible fire that kills thousands of baby pigs, who show no concern over video tapes of farmed animal abuse, and grin like gargoyles over the bodies of the wolves they killed. Worst of all are the the Bible thumpers who declare that life is good as long as God gave all of creation to human beings, supposedly made in His image, treat as they see fit. This perverted theology and its minions declare animals have to souls, no afterlife, and no justice for the evils done to them on this earth. If that doesn’t make a misanthropes out of us, then we’re doing something wrong!
Reblogged this on ARA United News.
I was thinking about this idea of embracing hate. Why is it that those who are “winning” seem to be the most hateful? That’s when I realized that as a yogini and vegan I’ve been working so hard *not* to hate, not to feel negative, not to let the bad energies take over my life. It’s hard, really hard, to hate someone, even when a troll comes on to my blog and says cruel things to me. I’ve practiced so hard to forgive or ignore that I’ve forgotten how to get angry.
I’m going to share this on my page. Thank you for this post.
You’re welcome. I can’t say I’ve forgotten how to get angry, The trick is knowing whom to hate and when to vent.
Reblogged this on Exposing the Big Game and commented:
If it’s not okay to hate the people who kill your friends for sport, who can you hate? And don’t think for a second that hunters, no matter how the schmooze, don’t hate you or anyone who might be out to spoil their fun by trying to ban contest hunts, or otherwise exposing their sadism.