Category Archives: Sport Hunting

Mississippians could make hunting a right

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http://www.sunherald.com/2014/09/06/5785114_mississippians-could-make-hunting.html?sp=/99/184/&rh=1

 

 

A pro-hunting amendment to the state Constitution should be a slam dunk in Mississippi, a fiery-red state with hunting roots that run generations deep.

But the National Rifle Association isn’t taking any chances with the Nov. 4 vote on the Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment.

“This is a priority for the NRA and the hunting world nationwide,” NRA spokesman Lacey Biles said. “Years down the road, even a hunter-friendly state might turn the other way. It might be 20 years down the road, it might be 50. That’s the whole point of a constitutional amendment, to protect the future, and a hunting heritage that is rich in Mississippi currently, we want that to be enshrined for generations to come.”

The NRA, he said, takes the campaign directly to its members and tries to reach nonmembers through bumper stickers and flyers, much like a campaign for public office.

“We’ll be doing quite a bit,” he said. “It’s a very important initiative for us.”

He said among the NRA’s tenets is the idea “hunting is a preferred means of wildlife management.”

The amendment won’t affect the state Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks’s ability to license and regulate hunting, its spokesman Jim Walker said. And Mississippi isn’t alone. Seventeen states have right-to-hunt amendments. The earliest was Vermont. It added one in 1777.

Animal-rights activists say they aren’t planning any particular campaign in Mississippi.

“We educate people all over the world about the problems with hunting,” said Ashley Byrne of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has long opposed hunting in general. “The fact is that it is cruel and unnecessary and it breeds insensitivity toward suffering of others, it damages ecosystems and disturbs animal populations.”

PETA and the National Council of State Legislatures agree hunting is on the decline. That, said Byrne, has hunters nervous.

“Hunters are worried because hunters know the popularity of hunting is plummeting,” she said. “The number of hunters is dropping every year. Most younger people prefer environmentally sound and non-consumptive activities to enjoy the outdoors — wildlife photography, hiking and camping.”

The council says there is some competition between hunters and others.

“Sportsmen in many states increasingly feel as if they are the ones outside the duck blind, and they are turning to state constitutions to ensure their hallowed pastime will continue in perpetuity,” the council writes on its website. “Increasing urbanization, decreased habitat, declining numbers of sportsmen, and more restrictions on hunting are common factors in the quest to assert the right to hunt and fish in a state’s most basic and difficult-to-amend document. On land that has been traditionally open to sportsmen, development of farmland and forests, along with pressure from other recreational groups such as hikers and off-road vehicles, is putting the pinch on the available land for harvesting game and fish.”

WFP’s Walker said a few years back, hunting was in a bit of a tailspin.

“Single-family households play a big part in that,” he said. “Competition from, believe it or not, video games and other outdoor sports. People not having a place to hunt, losing land leases, things like that. Young people not getting into the game.”

Mississippi, he said, saw that and actively began recruiting hunters and hunting bounced back.

“We recognized several years ago that if we are going to keep our numbers strong, we’re going to have to go after the youth,” he said. “In Mississippi, our numbers are pretty strong. Our hunting classes are full. Our youth hunts are sold out.”

He said the department has reached out to women, minorities and young people because hunting is important to its conservation program. For example, he said, without hunting, the deer population would be out of control.

“If it isn’t controlled, the population suffers,” he said. “There’s not enough food, there’s not enough land.”

But, he said, it’s OK that people hunt for enjoyment and food also.

“I like the smell of gunpowder,” he said.

 

Wildlife and Wildlands in Danger: Tell Your Senators to Oppose the “Sportsmen’s Act”

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The U.S. Senate will soon be voting on the dangerous “Sportsmen’s Act”, a radical handout to extreme trophy hunting groups.

In a single swoop, this legislation would open millions of acres of public lands — including sensitive Wilderness Areas — to hunting and fur trapping, at the expense of other land users and endangered and threatened species. It would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from even considering the issue of toxic lead ammunition which poisons wildlife and the environment. And it would permit the latest in a series of import allowances for sport-hunted polar bear trophies from Canada, encouraging trophy hunters to escalate the killing of threatened species around the globe.

Your senators need to hear from you right now. Please make a brief, polite phone call today to your senators today…

The so-called “Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2014” (S. 2363) is a devious bill that combines several radical hunting proposals into one package. In a single swoop, this legislation would open millions of acres of public lands — including sensitive Wilderness Areas — to hunting and fur trapping, at the expense of other land users and endangered and threatened species. It would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from even considering the issue of toxic lead ammunition which poisons wildlife and the environment. And it would permit the latest in a series of import allowances for sport-hunted polar bear trophies from Canada, encouraging trophy hunters to escalate the killing of threatened species around the globe.

TAKE ACTION
Please make a brief, polite phone call to your two U.S. Senators, urging opposition for S. 2363. Look up your senators’ phone numbers here. You can say: “I would like you to please oppose S. 2363, the Bipartisan Sportsmen’s Act of 2014.”

 

“Feminist Hunter” Just another Oxymoron

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Completely by accident, I happened upon on another site and found an angry comment to my recent post entitled, “Kendall Jones, Just another Pretty Psychopath.” The female commenter claimed to be upset by the use of the word “males” as though it were an insult to people of the male persuasion. A great book by Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson, Demonic Males: Apes and the Roots of Human Violence (which I included on my recommended reading list at the back of my book), would not have a title if it were taboo to use the M-word.

But it turns out the reason for her comment was that she was offended as a “feminist hunter.” My grandmother’s two older sisters were suffragettes who marched on Washington D.C. and got themselves arrested for the cause of furthering women’s rights. If it hadn’t been for them and women like them, this commenter still might not have the right to vote. But one thing they didn’t do was hunt.

Although it’s a sure-fire way to get attention, it makes no sense to objectify and exploit one group of oppressed (non-human animals) while championing one’s own cause (feminism). It flies in the face of those who actually do fight for the rights of others. I imagine most animal rights activists, like Carol J. Adams, author of The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory, would agree—the term “feminist hunter” is just another oxymoron.

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A Field Guide to the North American Hunter

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People tend to paint all wildlife-killers with a single brush stroke, referring to them all simply as “hunters.” Yet close scientific observation reveals that there are at least five different categories, or sub-species, of the mutation of Homo sapiens known as the North American hunter (Homo hunter horribilis). Oddly, members of some sub-species don’t like to be associated with others. They can’t all be bad apples, can they? Read on…

1) Sport Hunter

This category can actually be applied to all the other sub-species, including theimagesD5ZT7PC1 universally maligned trophy hunter, as well as the so-called subsistence hunter, since nearly no one in this day and age really has to kill wild animals to survive anymore. Lately we’ve been hearing from a lot of hunter apologists quick to make a distinction between sport and subsistence hunters. Truth is there’s not all that much difference between the two. Sport hunters and subsistence hunters are often so closely related, they’re practically kissin’ cousins. Rare is the hunter who doesn’t justify his sport by boasting about “using the meat.” By the same token, you hardly ever find one who openly admits to being just a sport hunter.

But, being by far the largest sub-class, there are obviously plenty of adherents. For reasons known only to them, they like to refer to themselves as “sportsmen” (or “sportswomen”). When not out killing, they are often seen petitioning Congress to enshrine their perceived right to kill animals (meanwhile mocking the very notion that non-human animals have rights).

Tracks: On the rare occasion that these good ol’ boy traditional sport hunters get out of their vehicles (usually a pickup truck with a bench seat, so they can sit on their camo-clad asses three abreast), you’ll find their tell-tale boot tracks weaving along the roadway—a sure sign the Schmidt-swilling hunter has spotted a deer, or needs to take a pee.

Other spoor to watch for: spent shotgun shells and cigarette butts in parking lots, or 16 ounce beer cans and empty fried pork rind bags ejected out the truck window, along forest roadways.

 

2) Subsistence Hunters

10478663_666186560097028_1055574252307234730_nThis category includes the holier than hemp types who use words like “foodie,” and all those others who claim to hunt mainly for food. Subsistence types conveniently ignore the fact that there are 7 billion human meat-eaters on the planet today, and if they all followed their model for “living off the land,” there would be no wildlife left on Earth.

Like sport hunters, subsistence hunters do what they do because they want to; they enjoy the “outdoor lifestyle.” But not many self-proclaimed “subsistence” hunters are willing to give up modern conveniences—their warm house, their car, cable TV or the ever-present and attendant “reality” film crew—and live completely off the land like a Neanderthal…at least not indefinitely.

While everyone has a right to feed themselves and their family, what gives them the right to exploit the wildlife is unclear. Sure, all people need some form of protein, yet millions have found a satisfying and healthful way to eat that doesn’t involve preying on others. And they don’t seem to understand that dead is dead and it doesn’t matter to the victim whether their killer eats every part of them or just sticks their head on a wall.

Call: Often overheard uttering feeble catch-words like “management,” “sustainability,” “population control” or “invasive species.” Unfortunately, they never think to apply those same concepts to the species, Homo sapiens.

 

3) Trophy Hunters   

This group can be confused with other “sportsmen,” but though both types are clearly in1383480_10151726970777825_1974489269_n it for the fun, trophy hunters are obsessed with every aspect of the so-called sport. These are the kind of people who hold “contest hunts” on anything seen as competition, yet ironically are intent on recruiting more hunters, including women and young people, encouraging them to take up the “sport.” Although their professed enemies are predators like wolves and mountain lions, their most dreaded foe are the anti-hunters.

The trophy hunters’ fixation with horn curl or antler spread is in fact causing a reversal of evolution in the species whose heads they covet.

Breeding plumage: Camouflage from head to tail; flashy orange vest. Mates primarily with themselves.

 

4) Sadists  

1384140_564330240283396_857016214_nThis category includes bow-hunters, trappers and wolf hunters. Often seen on reality T.V.  shows or in homemade snuff-film videos on U-Tube. Hunters who consider themselves in one of the other categories would do well to self-police their kind, lest normal people (non-hunters) think all hunters are sadists who enjoy the act of killing and are turned on by watching animals suffer and struggle under their power.

Habitat: Disgusting personal websites or Facebook pages where they parade around in camo, showing off their evil deeds for anyone who’ll give them the time of day.

 

5) “Ethical” Hunters

This is the category that virtually all hunters want to be included in. Unfortunately, the phrase “ethical hunter” is an oxymoron, like “humane slaughter,” “virgin mother,” “fair chase,” “free-range poultry” or “friendly neighborhood serial killer.” As withSmalfut UFOs, Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, no one has ever been able to locate one of these mythical phantoms.

Spoor: This make-believe subspecies leaves no tracks or scat because, well, they’re fictitious. The only impression they make is in the minds of the easily influenced. There’s simply no way an animal-killer can be considered ethical, unless of course he gives up hunting.

A Sense of Entitlement is Not the Same as Environmental Ethic

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A friend asked me how I would respond to someone who wrote this: “Hunters started the conservation movement in the early part of the last century, and in the United States are the largest financially contributing group to Wildlife Restoration and Conservation.”

My answer?: The only reason hunters got involved is that they’d overhunted so many species practically to extinction and they wanted to save their sport. John Muir and others were around in the 1800s, selflessly speaking for wildlife and against hunting.

And, as another commenter to this blog just pointed out: “The stark reality is this: National Wildlife “Refuges” were originally set up to serve as “duck factories” for the hunting & trapping industries, along with opportunities for livestock grazing.”

Before hunters go around tooting their own horns, they should consider the motives behind their actions. If they’re ultimately self-serving, they are not necessarily all that praiseworthy. Don’t let hunters ‘shit you, an overblown sense of entitlement is not the same as a selfless environmental ethic.

Wolf Photos Copyright Jim Robertson

Wolf Photos Copyright Jim Robertson

Rise, Kill & Barf

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Gee, I wish that terrible Ted Nugent had written the forward to my book–NOT! I’m sure Ted wrote (in Crayon, no doubt) a fitting lead-in to the book of drivel pictured above.

Sub-headed A Theology of Hunting from Genesis to Revelation, the author makes claims such as: “If a person looked to Scripture and paid particular attention to the passages within the Bible that address the topic of hunting, then they’d walk away thinking not only is hunting animals tolerated but it is endorsed… by God. And that’s exactly what this little book is about: proving that God, from Genesis to Revelation, is extremely cool with hunters and hunting. I’ll go out on a biblical limb and claim right off the bat that you cannot show me, through the balance of the Bible, that the God of the Scripture is against the responsible killing and the grilling of the animals He created.”

If you haven’t yet urped up your fill and you want to read more hate-speak from this sadist, feast your eyes on this bull crap: http://news360.com/article/239678297

Meanwhile, for some truly enlightening and uplifting reading: http://www.earth-books.net/books/exposing-the-big-game

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the use of hounds, traps, and bear baiting. Some animal rights groups claim that these methods are inhumane, unsporting, and unsustainable. Earlier this year the advocacy group Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting submitted nearly 80,000 signatures to put the issue of banning the three hunting methods on the November ballot. The organization notes that Maine is the only state in the nation to allow all three harvest methods.”

Look, doe-eyed Disney movie lover: the most effective way to keep bears away from your kids and grand-kids, your dogs, your plate of doughnuts on your outside deck and your refrigerator is to make them fear you – and the chief way to get that message across is to hunt, shoot and eat them.  Always legally of course.

Oh, and by the way, as I point out in my new book, Rise, Kill And Eat: A Theology of Hunting From Genesis to Revelation, animals are supposed to fear us according to this book called the bible.  Check it out …

“Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.’” Gen.9:1-3
Read more at http://clashdaily.com/2014/05/kill-bears-author-says-shooting-bears-will-solve-bearhuman-conflicts-gods-will/#rVxL4LgMepT5rbey.99

Killing Makes Them Feel Better

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I received the following comment from a Facebook friend today:

“Hey Jim. Just finished your book. When reading the chapter about the mind of the hunter, I recalled something I witnessed back in 2006 when I worked for my state’s Dept. of Natural Resources. It was bowhunting season for deer, and a bunch of camo-clad yahoos were gathered in the parking lot early in the morning in the park where I worked. One of them said to the others, ‘I need to kill something. Me and my old lady had a fight.’

“So this ignorant A-Hole went out in search of a deer to kill because he was angry at his wife. Just proves exactly why these psychos hunt, and it sure doesn’t have anything to do with conservation, or loving the animals they kill, or any other lame excuse they come up with. They are sick and twisted people, and need to be called out on their BS at every turn.”

This goes a long way to explain why most hunters like to kill innocent animals. It’s typical serial killer motivation: a transference of victimhood; a self-esteem thing. Simply put, killing makes them feel better.

Photo Copyright Jim Robertson

Photo Copyright Jim Robertson

 

People In Hawaii are Killing Cats For Sport

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http://news360.com/article/239475774

The Huffington Post

Are People In Hawaii Killing Cats For Sport?

 05/16/2014

While one Hawaiian island is being overrun by thousands of mice, another is seeing a disturbing trend of cat disappearances and murders.

In the past two months, according to Basil Scott, president of the Kauai Community Cat Project, more than 50 cats on Kauai have either been killed or have disappeared.

“We’ve had some shootings, poisonings, (and) one intentional running over,” Scott told The Garden Island. “There’s five places where we are very certain, or fairly certain, that people are killing cats. And some of it is crazy.”

The organization has received several reports of “sport type” cat shootings late at night and in public areas. People “have seen dead and dying cats,” according to a statement. “This is not only a violation of animal cruelty laws but is also prosecutable under firearms and public safety laws.”

According to Scott, a security guard witnessed one of the shootings, which involved several men shining a spotlight on a cat from a car before firing at it.

“We’re talking about guys who have been drinking, who have loaded firearms in the car, which is illegal,” Scott said.

The Kauai Police Department told The Garden Island paper that it had no knowledge of the alleged crimes, but the Humane Society is offering up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest.