trophy hunting
 

Don't really like it or understand it, but it happens.
This story didn't bother me until I read the next to last paragraph.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/dentist-slaughtered-cecil-lion-hunts-230627252.html

There are a lot more paragraphs in that story to make one angry about the greed. The only justice I can think of is to hunt the dentist and leave him bleeding to be shot again for the kill the next day.

That only seems fair.

I've got nothing against hunting. Hunting and then eating what you hunt, great. (I love venison). Hunting because you've got animals that have run amok or are invasive, great. It needs to be done.

Going to kill something just so you can feel like you killed it and stuff it and stick in in your den. That's just crap, especially when most of the stuff that you're interested in is rare, protected, endangered.

I have known 2 guys that spent small fortunes on big game hunting all over the world.

They had to pay huge fees to get permits for the hunts. The fees support game preservation in really poor areas. Most game taken is either old and not the ones reproducing or are in areas of overpopulation due to loss of range. All meat is given to locals that greatly appreciate the food.

I don't do it myself but if done correctly it is a benefit to long term conservation and has a positive impact in poor economies..

At least he was using his own money for the trophy....different than the guy at the end of the article.

I will take your word for it Steve, I don't need to read that.

Father in law regularly turns me on to sausage made out of venison and pork/boar, delicious.

Trophy hunting, never have gotten that. I know people that have deer heads mounted, but they ate the deer that was formerly attached to it.

Cowards.

This about sums it up:

https://flintbonecomicreview.files.w...e-far-side.gif

I'm OK with hunting for food. I question why people want to take the best of the herd. Let's see. Remove the best male and how will that effect the gene pool? Do that for 300 years?

I am not a trophy hunter and don't care for it. That said, if it is legal, I am not going to judge someone who engages in it. These stories are always causing a big outrage that put all hunters in a bad light, so I don't engage in condemning these people, even if they are obnoxious. It is divide and conquer by the "animal rights" people. It is a bit like me saying that I don't think you need an AR with a 30 round magazine, just because I hunt and only use a bolt rifle. Gun control people LOVE to put that divide into gun owners. Anti hunters LOVE to put that same divide into hunters.

If you eat meat, drink milk, eat eggs, own a pet, like to hunt or fish, you have to be very careful jumping on the bandwagon of such stories. Also watch out for petitions on your ballot that sound "reasonable", it is a slippery slope ... first it is the trophy hunters in africa, then the ones in the US, then the ones hunting the cute animals like bears, then ducks with dogs (poor dog needs to swim in cold water!) ... you get the drift.

G

My grandfather took trophies all over North America. My father went along on many of the trips, usually just taking photos. (He did shoot a mountain goat in British Columbia.) The hunt stories were epic - often on horseback. I would have loved to have been along on those hunts.
Dad was and I am a meat hunter - I'm not much interested in trophies.

My last big trip with my Dad was salmon fishing on Kodiak Island. As we were passing through airports he pointed out that all the big bears were shot by dentists. (The camp we were fishing out of was primarily a bear camp, recommended by a dentist friend of Dad's).

I read that article the other day. I noticed that a lot of it is very awkwardly phrased. That suggests to me that the hunt was perfectly legal - even if the species is under threat.

The African experience seems to suggest the the game populations are doing best where the "trophy" hunting is best run - giving the local population an incentive to protect the animals.

While the trophy thing isn't for me, I have no problem with that fellow taking an animal legally.

Having said all that - the attached article doesn't ring true to me.

personally, i wont shoot anything i do not consider delicious.

trophy hunts do not work for me at many levels. first of all, i cant afford it. so i really don't worry about any of my other reasons. its a moot point anyways.

i also learned there is no need to take a picture and post it up on the internet anymore. no good can come of it. sure, i like to showoff as much as the next guy, but it really isnt worth the occasional "atta-boy".

So true, Vash. The best way to share your hunt is by serving up some of the meat or sausage. I am always an ambassador for hunting. Many people are indifferent on how they feel about it and we want them on the hunters side. Posting your trophy picture at your desk or as your screen saver is much less helpful than cooking up some bear chili for the potluck.

G

An inconvenient truth. The industry saves more big games lives than it costs.
That said, not for me. If I was so inclined, using a paintball gun would be interesting. Have to be stalk up to them much closer, and the paintball splash on the vitals could give me the certainty that “I got him”. And, our fellow earth inhabitant could wander off to his next water hole and rinse it off.
Alas, I doubt this would catch on with that crowd.

I think it’d be more interesting if they had to hunt using hand to hand (paw) combat. Bet there’d be more interesting stories then.
Tony

And a lot fewer...which would be welcome.

Hunters are the most effective and compulsive environmentalists. Bar none.

Being a son of a trophy hunter and knowing a ton of local "hunters" (because nearly everyone here is one) and holding a masters degree in ecology personally, I respectfully find the above statement to be absurd.

The majority of funding for restoration of wildlife habitat, especially waterfowl, has been from hunting licenses and taxes collected on sporting goods. So yes, your uncle Joe who can't wait to kill the most geese on Saturday will not strike you as a conservationist, but he paid the bills to get the flyways back to where they had been 100+ years ago. And by the way - market hunting has been what ruined the waterfowl populations, not recreational hunting.

I have been a member of Ducks Unlimited for 25 years. Never have shot a duxk.