Moral and Esthetic Superiority
9
Category Archives: “Sportsmen”
20/20 Hindsight
Stop the “Sportsmen’s Act”
From HSUS.org
The dreaded so-called “Sportsmen’s Act” is back.
Yet again, a small faction of wealthy trophy hunters is pressuring your elected officials to allow the importation of threatened polar bear trophies from Canada. They also want to open millions of acres of public lands to
sport hunting and commercial trapping, without evaluating possible implications on animals, habitat and Americans who enjoy our nation’s wild spaces. They are also fighting to keep pumping tons of toxic lead ammunition into the environment, poisoning the land and wildlife, even when non-lead ammo is readily available.
Please make a brief, polite phone call today to your Senators and urge them to OPPOSE S. 405, the Sportsmen’s Act, and protect our wildlife and wildlands.
Wildlife needs strong voices like yours to stand up for them. After you call, don’t forget to send a follow-up message»
It seems ANYONE can fire a machine gun
Here’s a photo to go along with this earlier post https://exposingthebiggame.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/three-4-year-olds-and-a-99-y-o-woman-reported-killing-deer-in-2013/
‘Prince William HAS to stop being a hypocrite – especially when it comes to animal cruelty’
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/prince-william-stop-being-hypocrite-4796300
Prince William has attacked the Chinese for their animal cruelty, but has he got any right to criticise, asks Mirror columnist Brian Reade ….
Speaking at the World Bank on Monday, Prince William attacked them for their role in wildlife crime, accusing them of being major players in “one of the most insidious forms of corruption in the world” which is done to satisfy man’s “craving for trinkets.”
Words that leave the future monarch wide open to accusations of hypocrisy (and I’m not merely talking about having a dad who parades more trinkets on his chest than the worst tin-pot dictator.)
Because this is someone who, in February, went with his brother to the Duke of Westminster’s 37,000-acre hunting estate in Spain to shoot wild boar and stag.
On a previous visit to his godfather’s Spanish killing fields, the princes were said to have bagged 740 partridge in a day.
His defenders argue William was speaking for endangered species, not the plentiful ones.
But is he so thick he can’t grasp that species tend to become endangered after man has killed so many few are left?
I’ll answer that for you. Yes he is thick. He also comes from a family of animal-slayers.
In 2004 his brother was photographed grinning widely, in Argentina, over the body of a one-tonne water buffalo moments after he’d killed it.
Harry loves big game hunting, just like grandfather Philip, who, despite being a former World Wildlife Fund president, has been known to shoot tigers and crocodiles in India/
And closer to home, in a couple of weeks, the whole clan will walk off their sprouts around the Sandringham estate, blowing birds out of the sky, for no other reason than they can.
If I were the China Daily cartoonist, after I’d finished with the CIA, I’d have sketched a chinless wonder pointing a smoking gun at a wild boar with blood running from its guts spelling out the words “Do as I say not as I do…”
If I were a photo-journalist on that paper I’d be asking my editor to send me to Sandringham to film the hypocrites in all their blood-lusting glory, and then ask: “Is it OK to sadistically kill wild beasts if it’s on one’s own land, or one’s rich friend’s land? And if it’s for fun?”
I know the Royals are led to believe they rule us by divine decree, but who toldthem they also have the right to decide which creatures get to exist and which ones don’t.
As an endangered species themselves, you think they’d be more careful.
Commission selects Unsworth as new director of WDFW
Let’s see, Unsworth is an avid hunter, has 4 kids, holds a bachelor’s degree in wildlife management from the University of Idaho, a master’s degree in fish and wildlife management from Montana State University and a doctorate in forestry, wildlife and range sciences from the University of Idaho, yes, he should make a fine addition Washington’s wolf management team.
Too bad compassionate Washingtonians didn’t have a vote or voice in this decision…
NEWS RELEASE
Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission
600 Capitol Way North, Olympia, WA 98501-1091
http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/
January 10, 2015
Contact: Commission Office, (360) 902-2267
Commission selects Unsworth as new director of WDFW
TUMWATER – Dr. Jim Unsworth), deputy director of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, was chosen today as the new head of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
The Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission voted to select Unsworth after interviewing eight candidates for the director’s position in December and narrowing the field to four finalists. The commission, a citizen panel appointed by the governor to set policy for WDFW, announced its decision at a public meeting Jan. 9-10 in Tumwater.
Unsworth, who will replace Phil Anderson, formally accepted the job today.
Commissioners said they sought a visionary leader with a strong conservation ethic, sound fiscal-management skills and the expertise to work collaboratively with the commission and the department’s constituents.
“After a thorough nationwide search, we’re confident Jim is the right person to guide the department through the many challenges that lie ahead,” said Miranda Wecker, chair of the commission. “His solid understanding of natural resource issues and strong leadership skills will be invaluable in the department’s effort to manage and protect the fish and wildlife resources that are so important to the people of this state.”
As director, Unsworth will report to the commission and manage a department with more than 1,600 employees, and a biennial operating budget of $376 million. His annual salary will be $146,500.
Unsworth, age 57, has spent more than 30 years in wildlife management with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and has served as deputy director for the agency since 2008. He previously held several management positions for the department, including wildlife bureau chief and state big game manager.
Unsworth holds a bachelor’s degree in wildlife management from the University of Idaho, a master’s degree in fish and wildlife management from Montana State University and a doctorate in forestry, wildlife and range sciences from the University of Idaho.
“I’m thrilled at this opportunity,” Unsworth said. “I look forward to taking on the many exciting challenges that come with managing fish and wildlife in the state of Washington.”
Unsworth and his wife Michele have four adult children. He is an avid hunter and fisher.
Unsworth will replace Anderson, who announced in August he was resigning from his position at the end of 2014. At the commission’s request, he has since agreed to stay on as the head of the agency until a new director is in place.
“Phil’s enormous dedication to managing Washington’s fish and wildlife will truly be missed,” Wecker said. “As director, he was a tireless worker who successfully guided the department through one of the most difficult times in the history of this state. Under his leadership and with his support, the department made important progress in meeting some very challenging issues. We are extremely grateful for his service and all the contributions he made during his career at WDFW.”
Wecker said a statement of appreciation for Anderson will be posted in the next week on the commission’s webpage at http://wdfw.wa.gov/commission/ .
Female hunters share tales of sexism
These comments from FB friends aptly set the stage for this article:
–Boo hoo, that’s what happens when you do an asshole thing with other assholes.
–LOVE you are not exactly mixing with the cream of the nation. Doh.
Female hunters share tales of sexism
Ryan Sabalow, ryan.sabalow@indystar.com
Tiffany Compton is a former police officer. She has worked as a guard in an all-male lockup inside a state prison. She knows how to use deadly force and take down bad guys twice her size.
But when Compton, 29, recently found herself alone and intimidated on a recent morning, it wasn’t at the hands of hardened criminals. It was a group of duck hunters.
The Indianapolis woman had walked into a wildlife area office to sign up for her first public-lands duck hunt. She was the only woman in a room full of camouflaged men. Immediately, she felt the stares.
And then, with her back turned, she heard words that made her cringe. It was a father talking to his son.
“As I’m looking at the map,” Compton recalled, “I can hear the dad chuckle, and he says (to his son), ‘I know what you’re looking at.’ ”
Women are increasingly making inroads into traditionally male-dominated hunting and shooting sports. Still, stories such as Compton’s are common — and they illustrate a troubling hurdle for hunting groups, wildlife agencies and outdoor retailers seeking recruits to a sport that isn’t growing.
Based on surveys conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of U.S. hunters has largely stayed flat or declined in recent years, a factor hunting associations and wildlife officials blame at least in part to increased urbanization. The trend poses a particular challenge for state wildlife agencies, whose funding is almost entirely dependent on fishing and hunting license fees and taxes on hunting and shooting equipment.
“The very last thing you want to do is make a new hunter feel uncomfortable in a scenario like you described when she’s simply trying to draw for a blind,” said Nick Pinizzotto, president and CEO of the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, a hunting and shooting lobbying group. “Women hunting is the best thing that could happen to our sport.”
After all, he said, female hunters — or even women who might be merely supportive of hunting — are key allies at the voting booth or in public policy debates about hunting and gun-rights issues.
‘Be prepared to deal with that sexism’
Of the 13.7 million hunters in the U.S. in 2011, 11 percent were women — and that’s up from 9 percent since 2001.
Women also make up a growing demographic among firearms owners.
For example, the number of women with gun permits in Indiana jumped 42.6 percent since 2012 — from 86,617 permits two years ago to 123,536 through the first quarter of this year. The National Rifle Association estimated that about 25 percent of 70,000 attendees at its Indianapolis convention this year were women.
With female hunters and shooters on the rise, companies have taken notice. Women now increasingly host big-game hunting cable television shows; outdoor retailers have begun marketing products and gear designed for women; and one of the nation’s most venerable hunting magazines, Field & Stream, recently put a female hunter on its cover.
But Compton’s story and several others that female hunters told The Indianapolis Star illustrate the depth of the problems women face from some male hunters. Women shared with The Star not only tales of sexism and mere rudeness, but disturbing examples of sexual harassment in the field, at outdoors retailers and at conferences.
“Men need to be involved in changing that climate,” said Nadya Fouad, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who has studied barriers to minorities and women entering workplaces dominated by white men. “That’s going to take some time. Meanwhile, women need to be prepared to deal with that sexism.”
‘It is a lot of sexual comments sometimes’
Morgan Born knows a thing or two about that. The 20-year-old mother from Lake County says she basically taught herself, a female friend and her boyfriend how to hunt ducks.
But in spite of being as skilled as any man in the duck blind, she said, there are some public duck hunting areas near her home where she won’t go because “a little circle of men” have repeatedly made her feel uncomfortable or were rude to her and her female hunting partner.
“It gets kind of weird at times,” Born said. “You get a lot of comments like, ‘I wish you would come in our blind.’ It’s like, ‘Oh my God.’ It is a lot of sexual comments sometimes.”
Terri Millefoglie, a conservation officer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, said now that she’s an officer with a gun and a badge, male hunters are much more respectful, but she remembers what it was like being the only woman signing in at public hunting areas.
“I got to the point where I asked if I could stay in the car when they (hunting partners) went inside,” she said.
Even in her field, she’s vastly outnumbered by men. She said she’s one of just six women among the 200 officers who patrol the state, enforcing fish and wildlife laws.
‘Maybe I should show a little respect’
Elsewhere, female hunters may fare better. California hunter Holly Heyser, the editor of a waterfowl hunting magazine, says she has not been treated disrespectfully by men out in the field.
But the 49-year-old former newspaper editor says that might be because female hunters are fairly common in California.
Still, Heyser knows that sexism in the hunting world can be very real. She noted there are private duck hunting clubs in California that won’t allow her to hunt.
But Heyser is encouraged to see that among the census survey results, girls younger than 16 make up the fastest-growing segment of hunters, an increase of 165 percent since 1991. The number of male hunters actually declined by 6 percent during that time.
She said she assumes it’s because more fathers are taking their daughters out into the field, a trend she hopes continues. If anything, she said, it might raise the level of decorum among her male peers.
“If a dad took a little girl hunting and they were in line at that check station together — a little girl in her pigtails — and some troglodyte sees a woman hunter and, you know, he thinks, ‘Maybe I should make a comment about her ass,’ maybe he would be smart enough to think, ‘Hey, maybe I should show a little respect,’ ” she said.
Compton, who endured the sexist comments on her first duck hunt, has this advice for her male counterparts:
“Just feel comfortable around us is the biggest thing,” she said. “Don’t make us kind of feel like we’re the outsiders. I think people would be surprised that there are some hard-core women hunters out there.”
The “Logic” of Hunters
Image
Wildlife officials consider deer hunting in state parks
Thursday, November 27, 2014 12:13 am
Wildlife officials are considering plans to allow deer hunting in several state preserves — including Willowdale State Forest in Ipswich — to cull herds that have flourished under state and local protections.
The move, details of which are still being worked out, will likely require legislative approval and is expected to prompt a backlash from animal rights groups and others who say the parks should remain sanctuaries for wildlife.
Hunters groups and local officials have pressed the state to allow hunting in Willowdale and other state lands – including Wompatuck State Park in Hingham and the 6,000-acre Blue Hills Reservation in Norfolk County – to control the deer population, said Bill Hickey, a spokesman for the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.
“Many of our reservations are closed to hunting by regulation either because they are in urban areas, border neighborhoods, or as a result of deed restrictions placed on the properties before the commonwealth acquired them,” he said. “This is very preliminary, and we are considering [the requests] on a case by case basis.”
Hunters: An Ecological Disaster
Editorial By Marla Stormwolf Patty
Comment by PRO-HUNTING man: “without hunters, there would be no wildlife left, they give millions of dollars to conservation”.
Comment by CONSERVATIONIST: “Because of hunters there is very little wildlife left, they give millions of dollars to their lobbyist groups in Washington who allow them to destroy the habitats and wild life and also give millions to start smear campaigns against conservationists who they call terrorists.”
The advent of firearms made it easier for hunters to mass murder animals. When hunters scream “No one will take away my rights to bear arms!!” What they are really saying is “No one will stop me from hunting into extinction any animal that I want to”. And hunting, despite what hunters want you to think, is not a right. No where in the Constitution does it state that you have the right to kill animals. It is considered a “privilege”, not a right. Before conservation laws, virtually anything was deemed fair game: elephants, tigers, rhinos, gorillas, wolves, deer, elk and most other large animals, and even then those laws vary depending upon what lobby the hunters appeal to.
Conservation laws in the United States are more or less based on who or what agency wishes to enforce them. And they are rarely enforced within the last few decades. Hunters have more legal maneuvering and protection than any citizen of this country does. And they know it. Laws are established based upon whether hunters will be protected from the laws outlawing any hunting. When we first went to battle on Capital Hill regarding getting animal crush videos banned, the primary concern of the NRA and political parties was “Yes, but will this law banning animal crush interfere with our need to show footage of us murdering animals?” There were only a handful of politicians and one Supreme Court judge who cared more about getting crush outlawed than the complaints of hunters who wanted to ensure that they could continue to post hunting photos, several of which showed themselves simulating sex with the animals they had murdered.
Hunting has obliterated species, both on land and in the oceans. The dodo bird’s disappearance is attributed in large part to hunters, and the historical decimation of the American buffalo from hunters nearly pushed that species to total extinction. Big game hunting was a craze beginning in the 1800’s, and their effect on animal populations was, and still is, devastating. Species of dolphins, sharks and whales are extinct or near to extinct due to the insatiable blood lust and trophy hunting of hunters. Hunters are by and large, ignorant of issues like sustainable breeding populations, and there were no protected species until the first conservation laws were passed in the 20th century. Laws had to be established in order to stop the hunters (and trappers) from destroying, like a virus, everything in their paths. When a hunter tells you that he or she is a conservationist, that is a lie. Hunters care nothing for the ecosystem.
The proof of that is seen all too often, a recent example is the Yosemite forest fire that blazed out of control on Aug. 17th, 2013. Because of high fire danger across the region, the Forest Service had banned fires outside of developed camping areas more than a week before the fire started. It cost tax payers over 127 million to fight, and in an economy that has the highest unemployment listings not seen in decades, this was something that citizens could ill afford and with families struggling to feed and clothe their children, hunters and trappers helped to make the hardship just that much harder on these families, on all of us.
Listed as one of the largest forest fires in California state’s history, it has all but gutted Yosemite. It burned more than 250,000 acres in and around Yosemite National Park, consuming 257,314 acres, or 402 square miles, and destroyed habitats, homes, commercial properties, outbuildings, untold animal populations before it was contained months later. Started by a hunter whose illegal small camp fire grew out of control. The hunter has yet to be arrested or held accountable for one of the worst fires in recorded state history. This fire managed to rival the record of the last forest fire, started by yet another hunter in 2003, the blaze in the Cleveland National Forest east of San Diego, was sparked by a novice deer hunter who became lost and set a signal fire in hope of being rescued. Causing untold damage and destruction and loss of life.
And on occasion, hunters deliberately set fire to their own homes, killing the pets of their children and endangering the lives of family and the surrounding area. As is the case of Tara Andvik, a notorious hunter who initially blamed acts of arson on animal rights activists however, it was discovered that Mrs. Andvick was guilty of setting the fires, herself.
Please view liveleak video below of the arson and this article regarding the verdict.
Other examples are the on-going attempted extinction of keystone animals who hunters and trappers see as a threat to the animals they wish to murder. Again and again, real conservationists have had to bring animals back from the brink of extinction due to hunters and their insatiable blood lust. An example of that is the recent 2013 USA Government shut down, where upon hunters took advantage of that shut down to illegally hunt wolves and other animals in Yellowstone Park.
Hunters complain about Invasive Species, when by and large they are the ones who brought the animals here in order to hunt and being that hunters and trappers are ignorant of environmental issues, their actions brought about a change in the landscape that many countries are still grappling with. For example, it was a hunter who in 1859, released rabbits into his woodland property in Australia to have something to hunt; introducing rabbits to Australia, to which the rabbits and their new environment both suffered, due to a major issue of non-sustainability. Hunters have caused the ecological damage, by importing non-indigenous species to satisfy their hunting appetites. In the early 21st century, several hunters in the American South were discovered to be importing and breeding “hogzillas”, extremely large and territorial wild boars to have another new animal to hunt. These animals are released into the local forests and do not integrate well within the existing ecosystemic structure. Hunters blame the innocent animals, however, it is the recklessness of hunters, their insatiable blood thirst and complete disregard for anything living, that is to blame.
Hunting has the direct effect of dangerously and unnaturally reducing animal populations; unless hunting is tightly regulated (which it is not in the United States and elsewhere), hunting can and does decimate species and disrupt the balance of ecosystems. It is significant to note that deer populations in the States became manipulated by humans only after the decimating of wolves and large wild cats by hunters. For more information on the hunter manipulations of animals, see Anthony Damiano’s article, Threats against activists made by hunters.
Armed with ignorance and more often than not, a 6-pack of alcohol, hunters and trappers blithely head off into the wilderness in search of trophies to mount on their walls and take photos to upload onto social internet network and websites in an effort to “ego-boost” and “show off” their kills. Much in the same manner that serial killers take trophies of their victims.
I have often wondered what it is about wolves that make hunters pathologically want to murder them. And after spending my whole life as a wolf advocate, the only answer that keeps coming back to me is the independence of a wolf is something hunters are jealous and envious of, indeed, afraid of. I have read articles, comments, posts, and websites by hunters who all spend hours upon hours despising wolves together. And invariably, in most of what I have read by hunters and have been told by hunters, and in many cases yelled at by hunters, (in a few incidences with a loaded gun at my head) what stands out the most are the complaints by hunters that wolves are a competition to hunters and wolves are better hunters altogether than humans, and their independence disturbs the hunters. Many hunters also despise cats in the same pathological way that they hate wolves. Cats are also natural hunters. And better hunters than human hunters.
In several instances, hunters even appear to encourage poaching. And poaching is never okay, and is one of the primary reasons for animal extinction on the planet, next to habitation loss from human encroachment and habitat destruction, caused by humans.
So it would seem to me that hunters kill for a blood lust. A need to feel superior and a need to kill that which they will never be, which is independent, free and a part of the natural world. By extension, hunters often express a loathing for humans who are fighting for the environment, and have a litany of words they use to describe humans who want to restore the natural balance to the planet. Most hunters often come across as hostile, dangerous, threatening and have expressed enjoyment at murdering animals for every activist they loathe. Hunters are not environmentalists. In fact, they refer to Environmentalists as “terrorists” in order to confuse the public as they continue to help to destroy the ecosystem.
In addition to the mass fires they have caused, wrecking untold disaster on national parks, water supplies, homes, acres of habitat lost and thousands of lives gone forever. If that isn’t enough, they also spend thousands flying to other countries to murder all the wildlife there whilst imperialistically stating that they are managing that country’s eco-system (ie: destroying it). It is the height of arrogance. Going to another country and telling the indigenous people there that they should be grateful for the mighty hunters who invade their countries and destroy their lands. It’s the type of mentality that allows for slavery, savagery and genocide.
Hunters are not conservationists, they have absolutely no respect for other species, nor the environment. And if a stray bullet enters your home during “hunting season”, you can expect your fears and outrage to be ignored by the hunting community at large in the same manner that they ignore property rights and the sentience of every life on the planet for that next trophy kill, that next fix for their insatiable blood lust addiction, the need for that next wolf which they can murder in order to proclaim themselves as masters of the universe.
Exposing the Big Game 