Exposing the Big Game

Forget Hunters' Feeble Rationalizations and Trust Your Gut Feelings: Making Sport of Killing Is Not Healthy Human Behavior

Exposing the Big Game

Justice Scalia spent his last hours with members of this secretive society of elite hunters

FILE - In this Oct. 20, 2015 file photo, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaks at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.© AP Photo/Jim Mone, File FILE – In this Oct. 20, 2015 file photo, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaks at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. 

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/justice-scalia-spent-his-last-hours-with-members-of-this-secretive-society-of-elite-hunters/ar-BBpXBgx?ocid=spartandhp

When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died 11 days ago at a West Texas ranch, he was among high-ranking members of an exclusive fraternity for hunters called the International Order of St. Hubertus, an Austrian society that dates back to the 1600s.

After Scalia’s death Feb. 13, the names of the 35 other guests at the remote resort, along with details about Scalia’s connection to the hunters, have remained largely unknown. A review of public records shows that some of the men who were with Scalia at the ranch are connected through the International Order of St. Hubertus, whose members gathered at least once before at the same ranch for a celebratory weekend.

Members of the worldwide, male-only society wear dark-green robes emblazoned with a large cross and the motto “Deum Diligite Animalia Diligentes,” which means “Honoring God by honoring His creatures,” according to the group’s website. Some hold titles, such as Grand Master, Prior and Knight Grand Officer. The Order’s name is in honor of Hubert, the patron saint of hunters and fishermen.

Cibolo Creek Ranch owner John Poindexter and C. Allen Foster, a prominent Washington lawyer who traveled to the ranch with Scalia by private plane, hold leadership positions within the Order. It is unclear what, if any, official association Scalia had with the group.

“There is nothing I can add to your observation that among my many guests at Cibolo Creek Ranch over the years some members of the International Order of St. Hubertus have been numbered,” Poindexter said in an email. “I am aware of no connection between that organization and Justice Scalia.”

An attorney for the Scalia family did not respond to requests for comment for this article.

Two other private planes that landed at the ranch for the weekend are linked to two men who have held leadership positions with the Texas chapter of the Order, according to a review of state business filings and flight records from the airport.

After Scalia’s death, Poindexter told reporters that he met Scalia at a “sports group” gathering in Washington. The U.S. chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus lists a suite on M Street NW in the District as its headquarters, although the address is only a mailbox in a United Parcel Service store.

The International Order of St. Hubertus, according to its website, is a “true knightly order in the historical tradition.” In 1695, Count Franz Anton von Sporck founded the society in Bohemia, which is in modern-day Czech Republic.

The group’s Grand Master is “His Imperial Highness Istvan von Habsburg-Lothringen, Archduke of Austria,” according to the Order’s website. The next gathering for “Ordensbrothers” and guests is an “investiture” March 10 in Charleston, S.C.

The society’s U.S. chapter launched in 1966 at the famous Bohemian Club in San Francisco, which is associated with the all-male Bohemian Grove — one of the most well-known secret societies in the country.

In 2010, Poindexter hosted a group of 53 members of the Houston chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus at the Cibolo Creek Ranch, according to a Houston society publication. A number of members from Mexico were also part of the ranch festivities that included “three days of organized shoots and ‘gala’ lunches and dinners.”

Poindexter told CultureMap Houston that some of the guests dressed in “traditional European shooting attire for the boxed bird shoot competition” and for the shooting of pheasants and chukar, a type of partridge.

For the hunting weekend earlier this month, Poindexter told The Washington Post that Scalia traveled to Houston with his friend and U.S. marshals, who provide security for Supreme Court justices. The Post obtained a Presidio County Sheriff’s Office report that named Foster as Scalia’s close friend on the trip.

Sheriff Danny Dominguez confirmed that a photograph of Washington lawyer C. Allen Foster is the same man he interviewed at the ranch the day of Scalia’s death.

From Houston, Scalia and Foster chartered a plane without the marshals to the Cibolo Creek Ranch airstrip. In a statement after Scalia died, the U.S. Marshals Service said that Scalia had declined a security detail while at the ranch.

The friend, Louisiana-born Foster, is a lawyer with the Washington firm Whiteford, Taylor & Preston. He is also known for his passion for hunting and is a former spokesman for the hunting group Safari Club.

In 2006, Foster was featured in The Post when he celebrated his 65th birthday with a six-day celebration in the Czech Republic. He flew his family and 40 Washington friends there to stay in Moravia’s Zidlochovice, a baroque castle and hunting park. The birthday bash included “tours of the Czech countryside, wine tasting, wild boar and mouflon (wild sheep) hunts, classic dance instruction and a masked costume ball.”

A secretary at Foster’s law firm said he is traveling in Argentina. The firm’s director of marketing, Mindee L. Mosher, said Foster was traveling and she would try to contact him. A woman answering a phone associated with Foster hung up when asked for comment.

Planes owned by Wallace “Happy” Rogers III and the company of A.J. Lewis III left from San Antonio and arrived at the ranch just after noon Feb. 12. The planes departed the ranch about 30 minutes apart Feb. 14, according to flight records provided to The Post by FlightAware.

Rogers owns the Buckhorn Saloon and Museum in San Antonio. He has donated $65,000 to Republican candidates since 2008. Lewis is the owner of a restaurant supplier company, also based in San Antonio. He has given $3,500 to GOP candidates since 2007.

Rogers and Lewis have both served as prior officers in the Texas chapter of the International Order of St. Hubertus, according to Texas business records. Rogers spoke to a Post reporter briefly on the phone and confirmed that he was at the ranch the weekend of Scalia’s death, He declined to comment further.

Lewis did not respond to several attempts for comment.

The Presidio County Sheriff’s Office released an incident report to The Post on Tuesday that revealed Foster’s name as Scalia’s traveling companion and provided details about the discovery of his body.

Poindexter and Foster told the sheriff that Scalia had traveled to Texas the day before to go hunting. Poindexter told the sheriff that they “had supper and talked for a while” that evening.

Scalia “said that he was tired and was going to his room for the night,” the sheriff wrote in his report.

When Scalia didn’t show up for breakfast that morning, Poindexter knocked on his door and eventually went in and found the Justice dead in his bed, Poindexter said.

Law enforcement officials told The Post that they had no knowledge of the International Order of St. Hubertus or its connection to Poindexter and ranch guests. The officials said the FBI had declined to investigate Scalia’s death when they were told by the marshals that he died from natural causes.

Alice Crites in Washington and Eva Ruth Moravec in San Antonio contributed to this report.

More than 20,000 trophy hunters descend on Las Vegas to join ‘pay to slay’ auctions

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/more-than-20000-trophy-hunters-descend-on-las-vegas-to-join-pay-to-slay-auctions-a6847361.html

by Tom Bawden Environment Editor
The hunts, which will eventually kill about 600 animals in 32 countries, have outraged activists…

More than 20,000 trophy hunters are descending on Las Vegas this week to take part in a series of “pay to slay” auctions that have outraged animal rights activists.

The hunting jamboree, at which delegates will bid for the right to take part in 301 hunts that will eventually kill about 600 animals in 32 countries, is organised by Safari Club International (SCI), whose members include the notorious killer of Cecil the lion.

The four-day extravaganza at the Mandalay Bay hotel and convention centre on the Las Vegas Strip includes live music from country veteran Merle Haggard and Blood, Sweat & Tears.

The auction features an array of items including a white gold leopard broach – starting price $39,000 (£27,500) – and bullet gift certificates.

But the centrepiece of the event is unquestionably the auction of packages to hunt – and in some cases stuff – big game. Lots range from Iberian red deer and Pyrenean chamois to Australian water buffalo and African elephants.

The description of the 10-day Alaska Brown Bear and Black Bear hunt, which has a starting price of $75,150, reads: “This all-inclusive hunt is an outstanding option for hunters who want an all-in-one luxury hunting experience…in amazing areas boasting the highest density of bears in the world.”

5-walter-palmer2.jpg

US dentist Walter Palmer, who shot Cecil the lion, with another of his trophies

It adds: “Method of take is hunters’ choice.”

The Ultimate Hunters’ Market has been condemned by animal rights activists, amid a renewed focus on the ethics of big game hunting after SCI member and US dentist Walter Palmer killed Cecil in Zimbabwe last year.

Wendy Higgins, of Humane Society International said: “The auction site reads like a grotesque killing-for-kicks catalogue, in which the lives of the precious wildlife are sold to the highest bidder so that they can be slaughtered for fun.

“It is a tragic indictment on our society that, despite the global outrage over Cecil the Lion’s pointless killing, this scale of trophy hunting is still going on,” said Wendy Higgins, of Humane Society International.

League Against Cruel Sports chief executive Eduardo Goncalves added: “It beggars belief that there are still people who are excited by the prospect of slaughtering an animal for target practice and turning it into a trophy.”

The Safari Club International (SCI) is expected to raise more than $2.5 million from auctioning the mammal hunts alone, which have been provided from various hunt organisers.

The club runs the convention annually and it provides the majority of its income – most of which is used to lobby Washington.

If Golden Globes Host Ricky Gervais Gives Out Prestigious Awards to His Favorite Animal Abusers

1. Worst Performance as a “Conservationist”

6 Awards Ricky Gervais Will be Giving Out
2. Worst Supporting Actress to the Above Jerk

Ricky2

3. Lifetime of Cruelty in Entertainment Achievement Award

6 Awards Ricky Gervais Will be Giving Out

4. Worst Original Idea to Abuse Animals for Sport

6 Awards Ricky Gervais Will be Giving Out

5. Best Onscreen Performance of Why Tigers Belong in the Wild

6 Awards Ricky Gervais Will be Giving Out

6. Most Rabbit Tears in Makeup and Hairstyling

6 Awards Ricky Gervais Will be Giving Out

 

 

They’re getting out of control!

From John A. Livingston’s The Fallacy of Wildlife Conservation:

“I happen to loath and abominate blood ‘sports.’ I think that killing any sensate being for recreation—for fun—is evil and contemptible. I have said so, for public consumption, many times.

“The most frequent theme in the resulting letters I receive is that I have absolutely no rational argument to present, and that as the result I (sneakily) resort to purelyDSC_0192 emotional appeals. Some of the mail, by the way, has to be opened with my asbestos gloves.

“An acquaintance of mine in the arctic town of Inuvik once said to me, ‘John, we’ve got to do something about all these ravens here in town!’ ‘Why so?’ I asked. ‘For heaven’s sake, man, look around you—there are so many of them they’re getting out of control!’

“Loss of control is the abdication of power. It is tantamount to chaos. The universe is orderly, therefore chaos is unnatural. …

“So, it is seen that the ravens of Inuvik (prospering on our garbage) are thumbing their amiable beaks at universal order and thus at us. …

“Death is the final sting, the ultimate victory of uncontrollable, unmanageable, immoral, chaotic nature—from which experience we are snatched at the final exhalation by the gorgeous rationalization. Spirit over flesh, man over nature.”

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson

Bear shot dead by NINE-YEAR-OLD boy at a children’s birthday party

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, All Rights Reserved

Wildlife Photography ©Jim Robertson, All Rights Reserved

Looking through the scope of a high powered hunting rifle, an excited boy of nine celebrates his birthday by shooting dead a majestic brown bear.

Reed Sutley shouted “yeah” after firing the fatal shot.

The delighted lad and four pals then giggled at the grisly birthday party as they chatted about the killing.

Reed boasted: “We saw eight bears – one down and seven more to go.”

The boys were taken on the trip by Reed’s dad, Greg, who filmed the killing and posted the footage online.

The video – which has emerged as part of a Mirror investigation – shows Reed and his school friends perched in a lair high above the ground.

Whispering and waiting on the wooden platform in a tree, they watched the bears that were lured to the area with bait provided by Mr Sutley.

An adult then took the gun from a collection of weapons and passed it to Reed.

The boy can hardly contain his glee as he prepared to kill.

Reed took aim as two bears gorged on the food.

His dad gave encouragement and told the lad to shoot the animal that was lying on the floor while it ate.

A single bullet is fired and the animal collapses as Reed celebrates the slaying and the other bear runs away.

After filming the birthday party in Alberta, Canada, hunter Mr Sutley posted the harrowing three-minute video – called “9 Year Old Shoots First Bear at Birthday Party” – on YouTube.

The proud dad bragged on his YouTube page: “Reed took his first bear with a perfect shot!”

His footage has attracted outrage, with one YouTube user saying: “Words cannot describe how disgusting this is.

“Greg mate, you should be ashamed of yourself bringing kids out on a road trip for the soul purpose of killing an innocent animal… Why the f*** are these kids laughing… after they killed it?”

Canadian Mr Sutley runs a hunting company in Alberta which charges up to £5,500 for those wanting to follow in the footsteps of Walter Palmer, the US dentist who killed Cecil the lion and has shot dead black bears with a bow and arrow.

The Mirror’s probe into Canada’s cruel hunters found the use of the term “hunter” in parts of North America is not a true reflection of these sickening expeditions.

Images of people tracking animals for days were shown to be myths.

In fact, companies like Mr Sutley’s lure their quarry to their death using barrels filled with beaver tails, doughnuts and maple syrup.

Hunters sit comfortably in hides or trees waiting to kill their prey. The animals are shot dead from yards away.

As part of our investigation we watched as eager trophy hunters descended on Alberta to kill baited bears.

US beauty queen Brittany York, who describes herself on her social media pages as an “animal lover”, is among those who have recently been to the region to hunt.

Last month the 25-year-old along with her dad Richard, 49, travelled more than 2,000 miles via Dallas to Edmonton.

It was her second hunting trip this year to Alberta after killing a bear three months earlier.

Often boasting about her skills she regularly posts graphic pictures and videos of her hunts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

After practising with her bow, Miss York and her party drove in convoy, taking two 4×4 trucks and towing two off-road vehicles to Halliards Bay where her guide and his team bait the area.

For four days the group sat as bears weighing up to 30st and standing 7ft tall ate in front of them, waiting until they found what they thought would make an acceptable kill.

Last Thursday Ms York, who was crowned Miss North Carolina in 2011, published a photo of her dad on Instagram, holding the paw of one of their kills. “Great job, Daddy!” she wrote.

The beauty queen justifies her hobby by claiming she only hunts to eat. But she has been slammed.

One critic said on Facebook: “You call yourself an animal lover when your own cover picture is you smiling disgustingly with a dead animal? You’re despicable.”

Despite repeated attempts to contact Mr Sutley and Miss York, both were unavailable for comment.

The hunts are licensed and there is no suggestion that anything illegal has been done.

Mr Sutley runs his Smoky River Outfitting business from his home in Debolt, Alberta.

The video of his son was published online last year but it has only just been unearthed.

Our probe has also found that hunters can kill bears for as little as £67.

More: http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/bear-shot-dead-by-nine-year-old-boy-at-a-childrens-birthday-party/ar-AAeasJk?li=AA9SkIr&ocid=mailsignout

 

Woman Sprints In To Save Fox As Hunters Scream At Her

https://www.thedodo.com/woman-rushes-save-fox-1330092433.html?utm_source=The+Dodo+Newsletter&utm_campaign=fa102935b6-09_06_2015_NL&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4342b46fc5-fa102935b6-125298189

There’s simply nothing classy about fox hunting, a bloody tradition that uses dogs to tear foxes limb from limb.

While a ban on the cruel sport has been in place for a decade, it’s hard to enforce, and no one knows how many foxes are still killed each year.

But some animal activists in the U.K. are taking the law into their own hands, using whatever means they can to intervene on behalf of the defenseless animals hunted down despite the law protecting them.

Moving footage from 2012 shows the determination of a woman who couldn’t stand the cruelty.

Facebook/Leon Vegano Animal Sanctuary

The hunters sit astride horses in the fox hunting tradition, while their trained dogs do their dirty work.

Facebook/Leon Vegano Animal Sanctuary

The hounds are zeroing in on a tiny fox when a woman sprints towards them. She starts screaming at the dogs to get them to stand back.

Facebook/Leon Vegano Animal Sanctuary

She throws her own body on the fox and brings the shaking animal into her arms.

As she runs away with the fox, the hunters shout at her from their horses: “Leave it!”

Facebook/Leon Vegano Animal Sanctuary

Watch her beautiful act of bravery here:

Add your name to a petition that says the fox hunting ban needs to be more strictly enforced.

Mia Farrow faces Twitter backlash over lion killer’s address

http://www.komonews.com/news/entertainment/Mia-Farrow-faces-Twitter-backlash-over-lion-killers-address-319613911.html

NEW YORK (AP) – Mia Farrow took some Twitter heat Wednesday for joining other angry social media posters and blasting out the business address of the dentist who killed the beloved lion Cecil in Zimbabwe.

Some apparently thought the actress had listed Walter Palmer’s home address in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, calling for her verified Twitter account to be suspended under the site’s terms of service.

A Twitter spokesman said the company does not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons. He directed The Associated Press to official Twitter rules and policies that allow wiggle room on disciplinary action when information was previously posted or displayed elsewhere on the Internet prior to being put on Twitter.

The Farrow account deleted the original missive amid the outrage questioning whether the intent was to ensure Palmer is physically tracked down by haters. But the deletion did little to calm Twitter nerves.

One tweeter clucked back at Farrow, “Maybe Donald Trump should give out your phone number,” referring to Trump doing just that for a GOP rival, Sen. Lindsey Graham.

Another tweeted: “I hate what he did, but giving out his address isn’t the way to go.”

Farrow’s manager did not immediately return an email Wednesday seeking comment.

Meat is murder? Rockers go head to head over animal rights

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jul/10/meat-is-rockers-go-head-to-head-over-animal-rights

In the past 24 hours, Paul McCartney has condemned proposals to bring back fox hunting, and Dr (yes, Dr!) Brian May of Queen has been on Newsnight, delivering a passionate and sweary tirade against the bloodsport.

It seems as though righteous hunt-based indignation is the new rock’n’roll. Which is somewhat counter to the genre’s origins as an excuse for all-purpose carnage and desecration. Musicians, and fans, are forced to take sides. You see, rock has conflicting impulses when it comes to our furry friends. From the start, rock’n’roll was primordial, raw, its prime movers born to be wild. But there are many artists, from Macca to Morrissey, who oppose this stance.

Take, for example, Metallica. Last year there was a 10,000-strong petition to ban the metal act from headlining Glastonbury due to frontman James Hetfield’s support for bear hunting. More surprisingly, Bryan Ferry caused a stir at a music awards ceremony when, amid boos and jeers, the Roxy Music crooner applauded his “brave son” Otis for his pro-hunt antics after he stormed the House of Commons in 2004 (indeed, he is still actively involved in lobbying for fox hunting’s return). I say “more surprisingly” with regard to Ferry, because he belongs to rock’s effete wing. You can’t imagine him tucking into a plate of red meat, let alone bestriding the corpses of albino deer.

Unlike retrograde moustachioed axeman Ted Nugent. You can imagine Nugent biting into the hide of a live albino deer while it’s still roaming the forest. The 70s rocker recently defended Kid Rock, who was criticised for killing a cougar. The Nuge responded to complaints from Peta by posing over the carcass of an African lion and posting a spirited (and grammatically suspect) defence of trophy hunting.

Kid Rock (right) with a cougar carcass.
Kid Rock (right) with a cougar carcass. Photograph: Facebook

And who could forget Jerry Lee Lewis, who I interviewed this week. Sex metaphor or not, rock’s carnivorous urges are made plain in the words of one of his songs, the Meat Man: “Plucked me a chicken in Memphis … Mama, I still got feathers in my teeth”.

Then there’s the aforementioned Smiths frontman at the other end of the scale. Moz is notoriously, militantly vegetarian. In 2010, Mr Meat Is Murder wrote an open letter decrying David Cameron – a Smiths fan, to add insult to injury – as someone who “hunts and shoots and kills stags, apparently for pleasure”, and the royal family, especially the Queen (not guitarist May, the other one), who “annually signs off on the terrorising slaughter of adult Canadian brown bears in order that her guards are supplied with fancy hats”. He also took the opportunity to rechristen Ferry’s son Odious Ferry.

Terrible puns aside, is there an essential contradiction in rock’n’rollers – supposedly synonymous with destruction and teenage rampage – siding with things ethical, moral and good? And can a clean, pure, meat-averse friend of the furry make a credible rock noise? Rock should be savage – but can it embody the feral while denying its primal urges?

Gored bullfighter who lost testicle glad ‘nothing vital’ was damaged

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/11663285/Gored-bullfighter-who-lost-testicle-glad-nothing-vital-was-damaged.html

Marco Galán, a bullfighter who lost a testicle after being gored, says he is relieved “no serious damage was done”

Spanish assistant bullfighter Marco Galan is tackled by a bull in Madrid

Spanish assistant bullfighter Marco Galan is tackled by a bull in Madrid Photo: REUTERS/Javier Barbancho

Marco Galán, a bullfighter who lost a testicle after being gored at Madrid’s Las Ventas bullring, said on Tuesday he was relieved that “no serious damage had been done”.

Mr Galán, a banderillero, was caught by a bull on Sunday as he was driving two decorated iron-tipped batons (banderillas) into the beast’s shoulders.

“I didn’t want to pull out of the move and the bull caught me; that’s bullfighting,” Mr Galán said from hospital. “But I am happy because things looked bleak there for a while.

“It turns out that the goring is quite a clean one and didn’t touch anything vital.”

Mr Galan during the fight (REUTERS/Javier Barbancho)

He was hoping to leave hospital on Tuesday and return home with his wife to recuperate before returning to the bullring. The couple do not have any children.

Animal rights groups have criticised the battered bullfighter for taking part in the blood sport.

“Banderillero Marco Galán’s injuring a testicle in the bullring will undoubtedly have been a painful tragedy for him personally, but the cruel and bloody spectacle of bullfighting is a national tragedy for the reputation of Spain,” said Wendy Higgins, the European spokesperson of Humane Society International, an animal rights association.

Mr Galán said the Spanish breed of fighting bulls are born for combat in the ring and lead a “pampered existence” in the countryside before their day of destiny arrives.

“But I don’t care what they say. Just let people do what they want and enjoy the art of bullfighting and stop criticising something they don’t know,” he said.

 

 

Transform Rattlesnake Roundups Into Humane Festivals

https://takeaction.takepart.com/actions/transform-rattlesnake-roundups-into-a-humane-festival?cmpid=action-eml-recurring-snakes

In most towns it would be considered unthinkably cruel to have a contest where citizens catch and kill an animal with no limit. But in the Southeast two rattlesnake “roundups” still exist where killing wildlife is supposed fun.

The target of the two roundups—in Whigham, Georgia, and Opp, Alabama—is the rare eastern diamondback rattlesnake. Populations of the snake have been so destroyed that, following a Center petition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that these rattlers may need protection as an endangered species.

Rattlesnakes play a key role in the food web, especially in terms of rodent control. Because hunters often use gasoline to drive snakes from their dens, roundups are also harmful to hundreds of other species that share the dens as a home.https://takeaction.takepart.com/actions/transform-rattlesnake-roundups-into-a-humane-festival?cmpid=action-eml-recurring-snakes.

Take action below: Urge the mayors of Whigham and Opp to convert their roundups into wildlife-friendly festivals where no snakes are killed.

Transform Rattlesnake Roundups Into Humane Festivals

(Photo:Kristian Bell/Getty Images)

Empowered By

At the Center for Biological Diversity, we believe that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence in our world of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society, we work to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. We do so through science, law and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.