Category Archives: Trophy Hunting

Time to Say, “Enough!”

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…it took two hours after hooking the alligator using a crossbow before they could shoot it with a shotgun. It took four hours more to get it into the boat, but Brockman said it was too heavy to do with just the three of them, so they just waited in the middle of the river for the sun to rise. “We killed the alligator at 4 a.m.,” he said.
How is this shit even legal? Don’t non-humans have any rights at all? It’s time to reign in hunter behavior and say, “Enough!”
And why is NBC “News” glorifying it?…
Mississippi hunters catch record-breaking ‘gators
By Simon Moya-Smith, Staff Writer, NBC News

It’s only been three days since the start of Mississippi’s alligator hunting season, yet a pair of parties have already submitted two record-breaking ‘gators, state wildlife officials announced Monday.

Dustin Brockman of Vicksburg, Miss., ventured with his brother and friend into the Mississippi River by motorboat early Saturday night and emerged with a 727-pound record breaker that was 13 feet, 4.5 inches long.

The previous weight record was 697.5 pounds, according to Ricky Flynt, program coordinator with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.

“We chased him for about two hours,” Brockman said. “Then we got a shot on him.”

Brockman said that it took two hours after hooking the alligator using a crossbow before they could shoot it with a shotgun. It took four hours more to get it into the boat, but Brockman said it was too heavy to do with just the three of them, so they just waited in the middle of the river for the sun to rise.

“We killed the alligator at 4 a.m.,” he said. “We waited until 6:30 (a.m.) before I called three or four more guys to help us load it into the boat.”

And just one hour prior to Brockman’s epic catch, a hunting party led by Beth Trammell of Madison, Miss., hooked a 13-foot, 5.5-inch alligator near Redwood.

The Trammell party, which included six people, broke the previous weight record with their 723.5-pound catch and held the markbefore Brockman broke it 60 minutes later.

“It took about four hours to get it in the boat,” said Trammell. “We had to flag another boat down to help us out it was so big.”

Trammell said that when they had the hefty alligator hooked, their poles were bent like “candy canes.”

Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks

Dustin Bockman of Vicksburg, Miss., and his team pose with the alligator they caught near the Big Black River in Claiborne County. The alligator is 13-feet and 4.5 inches in length and weighs 727 pounds.

The current length record, which has yet to be broken, is 13 feet, 6.5 inches. That alligator was captured on the Pascagoula River in 2008, according to the Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks department.

Brockman, who had never hunted alligator before this weekend, said the majority of the hunting occurs at night when it’s easier to spot the reptiles’ eyes with a flashlight.

“It’s a lot easier to find them because their eyes reflect,” he said. “In the daytime, if they’re lying on a bank underneath the tree, you ain’t going to see them.”

Brockman said he plans to use the gator’s skin for a gun strap and a picture frame and will eat the meat after providing some to his friends.

Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks

Beth Trammell of Madison, Miss., and her team pose with their catch Sept 1. The alligator is 13-feet and 5.5 inches and weighs 723.5 pounds. It broke the previous record of 697.5 pounds.

“We’re going to cook it for sure,” he said. “I got a bunch of people who want some, and there’s plenty for me and everybody else.”

Trammell said she plans to get the meat back from the processor as early as Friday.

“We’ll eat the meat,” she added. “I think my brother in law is going to get the head mounted.”

And the Trammell party will be back out on the water this weekend, hoping to catch another record breaker…

Why Are TV Networks Airing Reality Shows That Glorify Stupidity And Cruelty To Animals?

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Where I live we don’t get television reception, so my viewing time is spent the old fashioned way: watching DVDs from Netflix. On those occasions when I find myself flipping channels somewhere that has cable, the rapidly-spreading spate of “reality” wildlife blow up tv t-shirtsnuff shows gets me so worked-up I feel like pulling a John Denver and blowing up the TV. But that would do little to slow the scourge of brainless, conscienceless drivel plaguing our society like a pandemic super-bug.

Clearly, cooler heads than mine are needed to combat this ever-growing menace. Therefore I hereby relinquish the pulpit (temporarily) and turn it over to Justin Forte, who, ever since nimrod networks started cropping up across the cable TV wasteland, has been asking the question…

Why Are T.V. Networks Airing Reality Shows That Glorify Stupidity And Cruelty To Animals?

Guest Rant by Justin Forte

What is it with television networks showing these stupid reality shows about bumpkins and glorifying killing and exploiting wild animals lately? It is beyond disgusting! All you see any more on most networks is one brain-dead reality show after another! Networks like Discovery, Animal Planet, TLC, and The History Channel are supposed to show programs that raise IQ levels not lower them! All you see on these networks and several other TV networks anymore are garbage shows that glorify trapping, torturing, and killing wildlife for profit and entertainment!

If it isn’t that, the networks show other reality shows of people acting like brain-dead yuppie idiots or people craving attention for doing ordinary stuff that other people do all the time that they think they should be on TV and get a medal for doing! WTF?

It is really sad, disgusting, and disturbing that the media has gone so low and is force feeding this garbage to the masses, and our society is suffering for it! Personally, I would love to see a social study experiment conducted to show the negative effects these reality shows are having on our society. I think these brain-dead reality shows glorifying animal killing and stupidity is dumbing down the masses and I think it is high time we stand up to the networks airing this garbage before they turn us all into brain-dead idiots and zombies from all this lousy programming they keep airing!

One of the best things we can do to put an end to these lousy reality shows that glorify animal killing and stupidity is to start complaining to these networks by calling, emailing, and sending letters of outrage over their programming. Another is to boycott the networks that show them. Cut the networks off from their ratings and they will begin to lose money, then we will be able to force them to bring back intelligent programming and entertainment like they used to show before they started showing the garbage they are showing now.

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Hunter Killed by Buffalo he was Trying to Shoot

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A British man working as a professional hunter on a private game reserve in Zimbabwe has been killed by a wounded buffalo he was trying to shoot.

By Peta Thornycroft, Aislinn Laing in Johannesburg
2:45PM BST 11 Jun 2012                                                           [My comments interjected in brackets throughout]
Owain Lewis, 67, had been tracking the animal for three days to finish it off after it was shot and injured by a visiting American hunter he was escorting.

[okay, first off, how many years must he have been killing animals if he was 67 when one finally finished off his career?]

Paul Smith, the owner of Chifuti Safaris in the lower Zambezi Valley, said Mr Lewis was “very tough and experienced” but had been caught unawares when the buffalo charged from the undergrowth and tossed him in the air.

[What, no video?]

“It turned on him and attacked him and unfortunately the apprentice hunter with him could not shoot the animal as Owen’s body was in the way,” he said.

[Fortunately, that is.)

“It was a very tough fight. Owain’s neck was broken but the apprentice did manage to kill the buffalo.

[Oh, that last bit is a real shame.]

“We are very shocked. This is the first time we have had an incident like this.

[and hopefully not the last.]

Today is Opening Day of “Bear Season” in Washington!

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The first day of August: summer is at its peak, young birds have fledged and the wild berries are just now ripening up…

But on this very same day, demonic dimwits and narcissistic nimrods that enjoy making sport of murdering animals are out trying to end the life of a humble being whose only focus lately is filling up on fresh fruit.

That’s right; believe it or not, August 1st is the beginning of bear season across much of Washington! From today until November 15th, any loathsome scumbag with a bear tag and an unwholesome urge to kill can “bag” himself a bruin—just for the sport of it—in this presumably progressive state.

Sure, one or two people may be killed by bears in a given year, but over that same time period 50 will die from bee stings, 70 will be fatally struck by lightning and 300 will meet their maker due to hunting accidents. A person has about as good a chance of spontaneously combusting as being killed by a bear.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of bears are killed by people each year, and no one is keeping track of how many are wounded, only to crawl off and die slowly without hospital care to pamper them back to health. 30,000 black bears are slain during legal hunting seasons in the US alone. Possibly another 30,000 fall prey each year to ethically impotent poachers seeking gall bladders to sell on the Chinese black market. Victims lost to that vile trade are eviscerated and left to rot, since bear meat is not considered a desirable taste treat. To make it palatable, backwoods chefs traditionally douse the flesh and offal with salt and grind the whole mess into sausage.

Why then, is it legal to kill bears when we have long since concocted a myriad of ways to turn high protein plant foods (such as soy, seitan or tempeh) into a perfectly scrumptious, spicy sausage, sans intestines? Unquestionably, the hunting of bears is nothing but a warped distraction motivated by a lecherous desire to make trophies of their heads and hides. But, dangerous and terrifying as they must seem to trophy hunters out to prove their manhood from behind the security blanket of a loaded weapon, they aren’t the “most dangerous game,” as the serial killer, Zodiac (an avid hunter who grew bored with “lesser” prey and progressed to hunting humans) divulged.

An irrational fear of bears dates back to the earliest days of American history and is customarily accompanied by obtuse thinking and quirky spelling. The most famous inscription (carved into a tree, naturally) attributable to Daniel Boone (that guy who went around with a dead raccoon on his head) bragged how he “…cilled a bar…in the year 1760.” The bears Boone killed (and there were many) in North Carolina and Tennessee were black bears, a uniquely American species that, like coyotes, evolved on the Western Hemisphere.

Every year a fresh crop of Elmers decides to play Daniel Boone and blast a poor little black bear with a musket ball (which, although extremely painful and traumatic, often isn’t enough to kill them outright). Others prefer the test of archery, savagely impaling innocent bears who are just out trying to find enough berries to get them through the winter.

Rachel Carson, whose 1962 book, Silent Spring, advanced the environmental movement, saw the brutality of hunting as a detriment to civilized society:

“Until we have the courage to recognize cruelty for what it is—whether its victim is human or animal—we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing we set back the progress of humanity.”

The question is, how long will society continue to tolerate the moronic act of sport hunting?

————

This post contained excerpts from my book, Exposing the Big Game: Living Targets of a Dying Sport
http://www.earth-books.net/books/exposing-the-big-game

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

Text and Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

Cost to Shoot a MT Wolf: $19.00. Add a Dollar if You Want to Let it Struggle for Two Days in a Trap

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Although the kind of sick fucks who get a kick out of killing wolves in Montana would pay ten times that amount, their “game” departments are handing out wolf tags like candy—so much for the notion that hunting licenses raise a lot of money for wildlife.

But, as evidenced by the article below, the mainstream media would not judge or condemn anyone who gets a thrill from killing non-human animals. Instead, their informative yet dispassionate reporting legitimizes the ongoing atrocity of wolf hunting…

MT: Changes in store for Montana’s 2013-14 wolf hunt

Posted on July 26, 2013 by TWIN Observer

Written by Tribune Staff

Montana’s Fish & Wildlife Commission recently approved regulations for the upcoming wolf season.

For the 2013-14 seasons, hunters will have the opportunity to pursue wolves throughout Montana beginning Sept. 7 for archery hunting, Sept. 15 for the general rifle season and Dec. 15 for trapping. The archery only season will close Sept. 14, and the general season will end March 15. Wolf trapping season ends Feb. 28

Wolf hunting licenses cost $19 for residents and $50 for nonresidents. License sales should begin by Aug. 5. Montana trapping licenses are currently on sale for $20 for residents and $250 for nonresidents.

New prospective wolf trappers must attend a mandatory wolf-trapping certification class to use a Montana trapping license to trap wolves and can sign up at fwp.mt.gov. Trappers who successfully completed a wolf trapping certification class in Montana or Idaho in the past do not need to retake one this year.

There is no statewide hunting harvest or trapping quota, but each wolf harvest must be reported. There is, however, a quota of two wolves in Wolf Management Unit 110 near Glacier National Park; four wolves in WMU 313 and three wolves in WMU 316, which borders Yellowstone National Park. Additionally, hunters and trappers are limited to taking only one wolf per person in WMUs 110, 313 and 316.

FWP urges hunters to avoid harvesting wolves with radio collars that provide researchers and managers with important scientific information.

The combined maximum hunting and trapping bag limit is five wolves per person. A hunter can purchase up to five wolf hunting licenses but can harvest only one wolf with each license. The use of electronic calls by wolf hunters is allowed.

Trappers must check their traps every 48 hours and immediately report any unintended animal caught in a trap, including domestic animals. Wolf traps must be set back 1,000 feet from trailheads and 150 feet from roads, the commission will consider in August a new measure that requires additional setbacks along more than 20 specific roads and trails popular among hikers and other recreationists in western Montana. If approved, the locations will be posted on FWP’s website.

Montana wolf specialists counted 625 wolves, in 147 verified packs, and 37 breeding pairs in the state at the end of 2012. The count dropped about 4 percent from the previous year and marked the first time since 2004 that the minimum count declined.

Last season the total hunting and trapping harvest was of 225 wolves. Hunters took 128 wolves and trappers 97.

Delisting allows Montana to manage wolves in a manner similar to how bears, mountain lions and other wildlife species are managed, guided completely by state management plans and laws.

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The Boss Hunting Truck can track down big game for big bucks

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[This gives new meaning to the phrase,…]

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by Alex Lloyd

When hunters need a vehicle for their excursions, the first choice tends to be a heavy-duty pickup — think an old Ford F-250 equipped with a viewing box on the bed, a few gun holders within, a beer cooler, and for the fancy even a camouflaged paint job. Parker Brothers Concepts, creator of pro-wrestler John Cena’s Incenarator from this year’s Gumball 300, decided to take that concept a step further, building what it calls The Boss Hunting Truck and billing it as “the luxury hunting truck of the future.”

If you want to hunt in opulence, (and who doesn’t?) the cost of this truck will set you back as much as a nice house. The Boss Hunting Truck starts at $200,000, but by ticking various options, it will quickly rise to $500,000.

Based off a Hummer H1 K10 Series, the Boss Hunter sports a tuned 6.5-liter turbo diesel meshed to its four-wheel drive system. Inside sits an abundance of leather with “The Boss” decals and a custom steering wheel. Five monitors for six external cameras are equipped, along with a CB radio and internal gun holsters with additional storage for ammo. The shop will also add a drone plane with iPad control and camera feed for “live viewing” of any extant deer, squirrels or chupacabra, if you so desire. Additional gun storage can also be optioned, as can a magnetically interchangeable exterior camo design.

…More about this slightly exaggerated version of the typical American sportsman’s war wagon here: http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/boss-hunting-truck-track-down-big-game-big-212333552.html

photo-1truckster

Unfortunately Twinkies are Back, and Sport Hunting isn’t Gone Yet

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In honor of the return of the Hostess Twinkie (just announced on CNN Money), I’m revisiting a post I wrote last November, entitled:

“Sport Hunting Should Go the Way of the Twinkie”

Bemoaning the end of the Twinkie era (the company was only able to sell 36 million of the nutrition-less, lard-filled sponge-cakes last year and thus had to declare bankruptcy), the press have been calling Twinkies an American icon; a “family tradition,” even.

But what do Twinkies have to do with sport hunting? Well, both are long-standing traditions that should never have been. Hostess Twinkies (on par with hot dogs and canned spam) are an extremely unhealthy, potentially addictive, pseudo-food gimmick that should never have been invented, while hunting is a murderous act of desperation that should never have been taken lightly enough to have morphed into a sport. Both have seen better days, but while the Twinkie, along with its partners in crime, Ho Hos and Ding Dongs, will soon be ancient history, the US Senate is considering forever enshrining sport hunting with its very own act of Congress, the “Sportsmen’s” Act of 2013.

Those of you fortunate enough to own a first edition copy of Exposing the Big Game are in possession of a collector’s item. Subsequent printings will have the word “Twinkie” removed, since future generations will have no idea what they were. [Update: Twinkies are back much to the delight of Elmers and Elmerettes everywhere].

The following paragraph from the book mentions the iconic junk food in association with an exceptionally despicable form of hunting–bear baiting…

Sometimes Elmer sets out a pile of “bait,” using whatever he happens to have on hand. Today it’s Twinkies and hot dogs (no surprise there). Then he waits in a lawn chair safely perched on a tree stand (a platform secured high in a tree, reminiscent of his childhood tree-house) for an unsuspecting ursine to discover his offering. To pass the time, Elmer reads a frightening bear-scare story in the latest issue of his favorite sportsmen’s magazine. After a while, a beastly bruin catches wind of his Twinkies. Now it’s time for action! With the scary bear’s attention focused on the goodies, the plucky huntsman makes his kill.

Unfortunately, now anti-hunters won’t be able to use the “Twinkie Defense” if they go ballistic to protect an animal from hunters like Elmer.

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Wildlife Recovery Just a Big Game for “Game” Departments

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More proof that reintroduction and recovery is all just a big game for state wildlife department managers: Missouri recently reintroduced a mere 100 elk over the past two years, and already they’re talking about implementing a hunting season on them soon.

It seems hunting groups and their “game” department lackeys live by a time-tested formula:

1) Wipe out a species through over-hunting and/or trapping
2) Allow it to recover
3) Open a season and sell tags to kill the animals off again

Lately we’ve seen this formula in action with wolves in the intermountain West and Great Lakes states. In addition to their full-scale assault on wolves, Montana recently started up a hunting season on bison, and they’re already talking about one for grizzly bears the minute they lose federal protection.

Now the recovering elk in Missouri may soon be under fire, as a local paper tells us in the following article entitled,

“Elk hunting in Missouri now predicted to start in 2016”

Tuesday, July 9, 2013 Supervising editor, Jake Kreinberg

COLUMBIA — The Missouri Department of Conservation now estimates that an elk hunting season in the state will begin in 2016.

The department slowly reintroduced elk from 2010 until earlier this year, trapping about 50 annually in Kentucky and then bringing them to the Peck Ranch Conservation Area in southeast Missouri for observation. The program has since moved to its operational phase, in which the herd will grow only via reproduction.

Elk were common in Missouri before European settlement but had been eradicated from the state by the end of the Civil War. Resource scientist Lonnie Hansen says “about 100” elk are now in the herd following several dying off during relocation and last year’s drought.

“I’d be pleased if we had 125 animals in the herd” by the end of this year, Hansen said.

The department wants at least 200 elk in the herd before it will give any consideration to allowing elk hunting, which might not happen for another three years, Hansen predicted. He previously expected hunting to start in 2015, according to previous Missourian reporting. Whenever hunting begins, it won’t be easy to get a license, as there may be only 30 to 40 available.

“We’d like to see them become part of the natural landscape,” Hansen said about the animals.

Reintroducing elk to the state could be beneficial not only to the ecosystem of Missouri, but also the economy. Joe Jerek, the department’s news services coordinator, said the conservation areas could “expect to see a lot of people” hoping to catch a glimpse of the new herd.

“There are lots of people that just want to see them,” he said. “It brings another large native species back to Missouri.”

According to the department’s website, residents’ interest in reintroducing elk led to a restoration feasibility study in 2000, but that was suspended a year later because of fears of Chronic Wasting Disease the elk could introduce to local livestock.

A method for testing for the disease and continued interest in having elk revived the reintroduction effort in 2010.

[Just who is interested in “having elk,” and for what purpose, the paper didn’t say.]

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, 2013. All Rights Reserved

Hunting is Not a Crime, It’s a Sin

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After posting yesterday’s blog post, “White Hunter “Perverse Little Creatures from another Planet without any Dignity,” I remembered that there was another good line in the Clint Eastwood film, White Hunter Black Heart:

When Eastwood’s character, John Wilson (the director of a movie being filmed in Africa), announces, “I’m staying till l get my elephant,” Pete Verrill (the movie’s screenwriter) tells him, “You’re either crazy or the most egocentric, irresponsible son of a bitch that I’ve ever met. You’re about to blow this whole picture out of your nose, John. And for what? To commit a crime. To kill one of the rarest, most noble creatures that roams the face of this crummy earth. In order for you to commit this crime, you’re willing to forget about all of us and let this whole goddamn thing go down the drain.”

To which John Wilson answers, “You’re wrong, kid. It’s not a crime to kill an elephant. It’s bigger than all that. It’s a sin to kill an elephant. Do you understand? It’s the only sin that you can buy a license and go out and commit.

“That’s why I want to do it before I do anything else in this world. Do you understand me? Of course you don’t. How could you? I don’t understand myself.”

And neither do we, John.

photo IFAW.org

photo IFAW.org

White Hunter “Perverse Little Creatures from another Planet without any Dignity”

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Hoping to hear a good anti-hunting line or two, I watched the Clint Eastwood film, White Hunter Black Heart last night. Though overly focused on Eastwood’s character, John Wilson (a thinly-veiled representation bordering on caricature of the director John Huston), who flies to Africa to shoot a film…but is really more interested in shooting an elephant—literally and lethally. After spotting a large “tusker” bull, Wilson becomes obsessed with getting “My elephant” (as he referred to the noble animal).

As it turns out, it was John Wilson’s sidekick, Pete Verrill (played by Jeff Fahey), the screenwriter on Wilson’s film project (and the stand-in for the director’s non-existent conscience) who voiced the story’s classic anti-hunting line. Looking at the impressive bull elephant (the object of Wilson’s obsession) through binoculars, Pete Verrill remarks, “Oh. I’ve never seen one before, outside the circus or the zoo. They’re so majestic; so indestructible. They’re part of the earth. They make us feel like perverse little creatures from another planet. Without any dignity.”

Though Clint Eastwood has a hard time losing himself in his characters, he was clearly not portraying himself through this director with a big-game trophy-hunter wanna-be fixation. Eastwood himself is a bit too evolved and intelligent for that, as evidenced by his statement to the Los Angeles Times: “I don’t go for hunting. I just don’t like killing creatures.”

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