A lot of people love animals. A lot of people hate trophy hunting.
I get it. I really do. For many people, the idea of paying thousands of dollars to kill a magnificent African animal, then pose beside it, is grotesque, immoral — sick even. It’s a completely understandable emotional response. It’s also wrong.
Hunting is vital to the survival of African wildlife. Hunting creates value in the wildlife and its habitat — and only attaching a dollar value to it can make conservation of habitat and wildlife a viable option for the economies of Africa. Legal hunting is, for several reasons, the best antidote to poaching. It puts men in the field who can keep an eye on what’s going on in the bush, and the money it brings in gives locals an economic incentive not to tolerate poachers. It also funds anti-poaching ranger units.
The primacy of the almighty dollar may be an unpleasant reality, but that doesn’t change things on the ground.
CNN is taking on this tricky paradox — the need to kill some wildlife in order for a species to survive and thrive — in a documentary entitled Trophy, airing January 14. The doco is built around a controversial hunt in which a Dallas hunter paid $350,000 for a permit to hunt a black rhino in Namibia. The gigantic fee will go toward habitat preservation and anti-poaching efforts — work that will give the rhinos a shot at survival in the third millennium.
The hunter, Corey Knowlton, of course, received vile death threats (because anti-hunters believe in the sanctity of life, dontcha know…). I wonder how many of those anti-hunting “conservationists” have ever put $350,000 where their mouth is?
From CNN:
Knowlton has faced scathing criticism and death threats as the world reacted to the controversial hunt of one of the world’s most endangered species. Knowlton has spent the last year and a half preparing and planning the hunt that is being highly scrutinized by animal welfare groups around the world.
He agreed to let our CNN crew document the hunt.
“At this point, the whole world knows about this hunt and I think it’s extremely important that people know it’s going down the right way, in the most scientific way that it can possibly happen,” Knowlton said after arriving in Africa….
“I think people have a problem just with the fact that I like to hunt,” Knowlton said. “I want to see the black rhino as abundant as it can be. I believe in the survival of the species.”
I urge anyone interested in this subject — anyone willing to dig in past Facebook memes — to read the works of Ron Thomson. A trained ecologist and game ranger, a hunter of unsurpassed experience, he understands and beautifully articulates the argument for conservation hunting. The man speaks from deep education, a profound understanding and love for his native Africa — and a level of field experience that it would be impossible to equal in the post-colonial era. His publisher notes that:
He once calculated that he has spent more than 25 000 hours in pursuit of Africa’s elephants, buffaloes and black rhinos; the reckoning being determined ONLY from the time he and his tracker picked up the spoor of the animal he was hunting, to the time he pulled the trigger and killed it (or captured it). That equates to 5.7 years of tracking and shooting big game animals, from dawn to dusk, every day. This does not include the time he has spent hunting predators: stock-killing lions, leopards and hyenas. And it does not include the time he spent getting to the spoor in the morning, and returning to his vehicle after the kill.
Over a seven year period the author captured 140 black rhinos, also using conventional hunting methods – but with only a dart gun in his hands. Furthermore, the weapon was loaded with a single dart filled with drugs that took 30 minutes to bring the rhino to its knees. Even when properly darted, therefore, the rhino had a lot of time to take revenge on the hunter before it became comatose. And there was never a second game ranger with a heavy calibre rifle to back him up. His average darting range in the Zambezi Valley thickets was between 6 and 13 yards. He always went in alone! The author’s accounts of these hunts represent some of the greatest big game hunting stories ever told.
Thomson knows whereof he speaks — and he speaks well, if one is willing to listen. Obviously, he’s a passionate hunter and believes in the value and efficacy of his trade — but I challenge anyone to refute his arguments.
It is difficult — perhaps impossible — for some people to understand that a hunter can love the hunt and the creatures hunted. It’s one of those “if I have to explain it, you wouldn’t understand” things. It’s an aspect of the Frontiersman’s Paradox. Whether or not you choose to engage in trophy hunting is a personal choice. I’m ambivalent about it myself. Almost all of my hunting has been of upland birds. I’ve said before, I don’t know that I could shoot an elephant, though the same conservation principles apply to them. If somebody drops a $25,000-$75,000 safari in my lap, I guess I’ll find out.
Not everybody is a hunter and not every hunter is a trophy hunter — and that’s all as it should be. But “that’s not for me” is worlds away from “I don’t like it so it shouldn’t exist!” If you choose to support wildlife conservation by other means, I salute you. But don’t succumb to those who, lacking in understanding, want to ban trophy hunting — they’re hurting Africa, Africans and wildlife.
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Coming soon…
You can get your copy of Warriors of the Wild Lands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans through my favorite trading post — Paulina Springs Books of Sisters, Oregon.
Craig Rullman says
Yes. It’s irony that upends the timid. One sad result of the glory years of trophy hunting was to accelerate the decline of the species–but in all likelihood it will now be trophy hunting and the money it brings, that ultimately preserves the species. The first part of that equation is what so many can’t get beyond, because their purely emotional reaction blinds them to the second part.
Rick Schwertfeger says
Ducks Unlimited, Trout Unlimited, numerous upland bird organizations all have accomplished significant wetlands, waterways, raparian areas and prairie habitat preservation and restoration. Hunting license fees, taxes on firearms and ammunition contribute to state conservation and restoration efforts. I have read the assertion that hunters and fishermen have done more for conservation than any other group. Regardless of the accuracy of that statement – we have done much.
On a personal level trophy hunting seems to be a bit different. I don’t personally feel a need to hunt those animals. But your description of the economics seems correct. The thought comes to mind that Mr. Knowlton could have donated the $350K to conservation efforts. Or set up a conservation foundation to fund ongoing efforts. But I do not mean that as a judgment of what he did. His motives; his business; not my place to judge.
Now, if someone invited me to go hunt wild hogs to do a small part to limit the enormous damage that that out of control population is doing, I’d probably say “Sign me up.”
JimC says
One point — which I did not bring up in the post, is that there was a need to eliminate this rhino because older rhinos have a tendency to kill younger ones.
You are on point with Ducks Unlimited, etc. I attended many DU banquets back in the old days and THOUSANDS of dollars flowed to the ducks (and their habitat).
Keith West says
I wondered about that as I read your post. If there was a need to remove a large animal, and relocation to an animal park was not an option, then it only makes sense to have a commercial hunt and put the money to good use.
deuce says
Totally agree, Rick.
Keith West says
In my part of Texas, feral hog season is IIRC all year, no limit, and no license required. So come on down.
JimC says
I would LOVE to go on a Texas hog hunt!
J.F. Bell says
There’s no shortage. Somewhere around a year ago, the cousins bagged upwards of forty in one night, with the heaviest of those being near-about 300 pounds.
Reminds me I need to dust off some of those old rifles in the safe. It’s not Africa and it’s not the ’20s, but I supposed it’d do lacking better.
lane batot says
Anyone going on a hawg hunt using dogs–I have a favor to ask…..If any of the hog hunters use Rhodesian Ridgebacks or crosses of such, get me their address/phone number. I know some hog hunters do utilize these dogs in this country(as well as in Australia and of course Africa!), and I am really planning to at last acquire one of these all ’round “Bush dogs”, and I’d MUCH rather get one from a functional, hunting background as opposed to inbred conformation show dog breeding. Not to mention a hog hunter is not likely to ask anywhere from $1,500 to $2000 bux for a pup like the show breeders do!!!!
Breaker Morant says
Obviously, you hit my x-ring again. I am at a point in Smoke where my thoughts have been naturally turning in this direction as I formulate thoughts and ideas.. Ron Thomson, is on my list, but I haven’t read him much.
The thing that really pissed my Zimbabwe outfitter off is that the tour operators in Hwange National Park (Zimbabwe) and, basically, the phototourism industry as a whole, contributes little or nothing to the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife department and that Parks and Wildlife funding mainly comes from the hunting industry. I have no way to verify that, but I have no reason to doubt it.
I think the thing that pisses me off the most is that there is no granularity among those most opposed to trophy hunting. For example, Jimmy Kimmel with his “Cecil” rant can’t even begin to comprehend (and doesn’t want to) that Cecil apparently roamed partly in Hwange National Park and partly on village lands to the east.
Assuming, for the sake of discussion that Hwange Park is well-protected (a big assumption, but you have to start somewhere)-what are the conservation pressures that the village lands face? We may disagree on what steps to take on those lands, but, for the most part, the anti-hunting side does not even understand that it is a question.
Another way that my thoughts have been turning lately is “Why is photo-tourism treated as the ideal outcome?” The pro-hunting side often uses the argument that photo-tourism doesn’t work across broad areas of Africa and thus hunting provides a way to value the game. I heartily endorse this argument, but we forget that rural Africans want to eat meat.
The crux of the matter is that Africa is too poor to save wildlife across broad areas simply for affluent westerners to take pictures of (See Kenya).
Ideally, a sustainable harvest of wild game would provide meat, rather than an expansion of cattle and goat herds. The expansion of cattle and goat herds into game lands is the least desirable outcome.
One “Big” thought that I have and it is something I need time to formulate and expand better is that modern westerners with an urban outlook, only see the animal (elephant, lion, whatever) and they do not, and are incapable of, seeing the land behind the animal.
JimC says
Thomson’s whole ethic is based on a soil up understanding.
Keith West says
“Ideally, a sustainable harvest of wild game would provide meat, rather than an expansion of cattle and goat herds. The expansion of cattle and goat herds into game lands is the least desirable outcome. ”
This, a thousand times.
deuce says
Great post. I’ve never trophy hunted ANYTHING, but I see its utility in circumstancxes like this. Too many people–who are contributing no money–are “thinking” with their amygdalas here.Hunters put their money where their mouth is. Most anti-hunters don’t. They just want to spend other people’s money to create an unsustainable edenic utopia.
IMO, “Bambi” should be rated rated “X” and only adults should be able to view it. It’s twisted thousands, if not millions, of minds.
Keith West says
I need to read Bambi. I understand the book (and maybe it’s sequel) are a tad bit bloodier than the Disney movie.
lane batot says
Talk about synchronicity! I JUST ordered a hopefully good, old, UNABRIGDED copy of “Bambi” by Felix Salten, for the very same reason! Should be here any day now….. Funny about the talk regarding BANNING the movie, because the book WAS banned in Nazi Germany, mainly because it was written by a Jew! I’ve always heard it was a gritty, realistic nature story in it’s original form, and I at last wished to find out for myself. Lots of cheapo copies out there, but a bit tricky finding one NOT of the Disney influenced movie, and unabridged……
JimC says
This is new territory for me. Had no idea…
lane batot says
When I get and read my copy, I’ll give you a “critter critique”, if you’d like…..
JimC says
Yes, please.
Eccentric Cowboy says
Those unfamiliar with African economics and realities of living there have no clue how vital hunting is to the folks there. A single hunting camp can provide more money than they can comprehend. Local villagers are provided with honest jobs and food, especially red meat.
Peter Capstick once wrote how a local revolution once left his camp completely alone. After they took power they told him they did so because it would be critical to the economy.
What most folks don’t understand is that in the brutal third world anything that doesn’t have an immediate dollar value is either ignored or deliberately bulldozed to make way for something more useful. So when the local animals are illegal to hunt they won’t give two craps about them. They’re only food for troops and the habitat torched to make way for farms so that their workers don’t starve. They simply don’t care about the animals.
But when worth tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, boy howdy do their attitudes change! Poachers are more likely to be thrown in prison or even receive bush justice in the form of 7.62mm. They’ll go above and beyond to preserve the animals and habitat when they see each as being worth more than they earn in a year. A harsh reality, but a reality none the less.
What’s more, I consider hunting to be the one case where man can truly go back to nature. Anything else is merely observation. But hunting awakens all of our old instincts. At that point we’re actively participating.
Of course the non hunters will never see it that way, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with them, heh.
http://bzfd.it/2FwCIf6
Saddle Tramp says
I came across the stories about both Mr. Knowlton as well as Ducks Unlimited and how the Duck Stamp saved the ducks a while back.I agree that had unbridled and unregulated hunting sprees continued it would not be what it is. The Duck Stamps prevented that. I do not need to rehearse any of our illustrious history when it comes to this. Thank god we still have Buffalo with us. I just don’t agree with the vanity (my opinion) of the trophy being the end result in so many cases. Again my personal opinion. Nature will take care of itself. It’s man’s intereference and encroachment that is the problem. Still it must be dealt with. It is not an emotional issue with me. Not at all. I grew up hunting and fishing. It was second nature to me. If these are considered mercy killings for the benefit of the whole that may all sound fine and good but I go a little deeper. My question is with what got us into the mess it is. It’s the ones with blood in their eye that concern me. I have worked in slaughterhouses and been up to my waist in blood having to unclog a plugged up drain in the blood pit on many occasions. Thousands slaughtered everyday. It is suppose to be humane, but let me tell you that ain’t so. But you gotta eat right! Trophy hunting enters another spectrum altogether. Conservation is about saving the animals from man (for man) and not the other way around (in most cases). If this is what it takes to save them then so be it. Also, before one presumes that nobody has ever put up $350,000 for conservation I would assume they know this to be a fact. I do not. This is no doubt a very deep subject that deserves more tha a knee jerk reaction from whichever side. I had the opportunity to hunt Alaskan Brown Bear on Admiralty Island in Alaska. I declined. Two of my friends went. One of them wounded a 1,000 pounder or better. They never caught up with him (or the reverse). A wounded bear is a very dangerous thing. You are stranded on the island until the plane returns to fetch you. He ended up killing a smaller one. For me they are just too majestic to track down and kill when they are being no immediate threat or otherwise a risk unless you are in desperate need of food or fur. Bears by the way are still raised for slaughter for the wild game market. Of course you can say all of Nature is majestic. It is. For me the Alaskan Brown Bear was a line I would not cross. I am reasonable. I just abhor vanity in a rigged game. Jim you pointed out well the other aspects. Point well taken. I remember way back when reading a Field & Stream where the editor had hunted Grizzly in Canada with a .22 Rifle. Now that’s a hunter. Let’s face it these efforts of conservation are for the benefit of man. If that makes it a win win you can count me in…
On the whole scheme of things the animals don’t need us. It is only because of us the problem exist. I am not naive. Far from it. Either you have blood in your eye or you don’t. It’s a slippery slope.
JimC says
Thanks for the thoughtful response. I need to spend some time with it — you touch on a deep question. What IS man’s real relationship with “nature.” Ae we of it or apart from it? Or both? One could argue, as Heinlein did, that, since man is an animal, everything he does is “natural.” What’s the difference between a beaver building a dam and men building a dam? That arguement’s got a certain logical appeal — it’s true, I suppose — but it always felt “off” to me. Talk about a slippery slope…
Saddle Tramp says
Here’s a slippery slope to consider. Let’s say some imbalance threatens the American Bald Eagle and it’s environment. In order to save them groups are allowed for very large fees (400 grand or up) to hunt them and mount them as trophies. These funds would all go to support the various needs of the people and environment. Trophy hunters satiate their desire and it all goes for a good cause. The hell with those frivolous, pesky and naive “environmentalist”. Those shortsighted scientist and treehuggers such that were calling for the banning of DDT back in the 70’s. Those wild eyed dreamers with their clarion call of what we do to the planet. Did they all have $350,000 to plunk to legitimize their hew and cry? I think not. That sounds to me like elections being bought and paid for. Only those with the means can pay to play. Not my kind of country. I am not anti-hunting. Not at all. I am only saying you can’t just out hunt and out kill the problem. I know we are all wiser than that. Putting down a damaged and untreatable animal is a humane (but still difficult) thing to do as with horses and dogs for example. In the case of a healthy Black Rhyno I must hesitate even with the mitigating rationales. I take no pleasure in the thought of it. The same way I would have with killing an American Bald Eagle to save one. Having encountered two on my last trip along the Columbia River Gorge (one sailing right along side me) and another roosting in a bare tree I am very much reminded of the majesty of nature and the delicate balance.
JimC says
Synchronicity. Marilyn and I spent a half hour hanging out with a bald eagle that flew in and perched in one of the ponderosas in downtown Sisters yesterday afternoon. A spirit messenger, perhaps?
lane batot says
Reminds me of a good joke….This feller was caught poaching and EATING a Bald Eagle. He was arrested and taken to court. He didn’t deny or try to obstruct due process, with the result that he was quickly sentenced. After sentence was passed, the judge spoke up and asked the poacher; “I don’t mean to seem callous or anything, but by gosh I AM curious–what DOES a Bald Eagle taste like?” The poacher replied; “Well ya know, judge, it’s kinda hard to say. Not quite like anything else. But I’d say it tastes something like inbetween a California Condor and a Whooping Crane!”
JimC says
Sick and wrong — but funny.
Breaker Morant says
The story of Greg Carr and Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique is absolutely fascinating and might be worth its own post here at some time. I learned of his story in “Game Change” a book by Glen Martin that I have recommended here before.
Carr is a wealthy individual, I forget how he made his money, and has partnered long-term with the Mozambique government to rehabilitate the gem that is Gorongosa.
http://www.gorongosa.org/our-story
JimC says
I love guest posts… Just sayin’
Breaker Morant says
Obviously, the Carr-Gorongosa thing is a long-term non-hunting success story.
Another success story from Mozambique is the hunting areas around the Zambezi Delta. This is another story that I look at once in awhile.
Zambeze Delta safaris is a long-term hunting success story.
http://www.zambezedeltaantipoaching.com/
I call these “Long-term” success stories with the unfortunate caveat that This is Africa and things could go ass over teakettle at any time. But you have to try.
lane batot says
I have a great, long documentary series on the amazing recovery of the Gorongosa……..
Matthew says
It’s interesting that humans feel the need to collect trophies. This is true not just for hunting. Any athlete is going to be proud of his collection of trophies. Sam with any Nobel prize winner. On a darker note this is probably where scalping comes from.
Thad says
Jim,
To your question, “what is man’s relationship with nature”, I’ll throw in a bit from Gary Snyder’s book The Practice of the Wild. Basically, and probably a poor paraphrase, but the paradox lies in us asking the question as if animals and nature are somehow outside of ourselves and therefore foreign. In other words, the “wild” is all around us, but we usually take the position of it being a foreign element that must be controlled. I grew in Wyoming, and hunting is an accepted and natural practice, and at the base of it is the truth that if you want to eat meat, then you should take it for yourself. Knowing that an animal died a firece death so that you can eat makes the animal noble, and partaking of that animal is a natural act. Protecting the basic relationship between hunter and prey affirms that this cycle can continue and places humans squarely in it. Trophy hunting is hunting, and like it or not humans are a top tier predator. I agree that trophy hunting can ultimately save a species, but the argument being had about “hunting” reveals a much deeper problem. If we don’t understand that nature is largely about life and death, then how can we possibly hope to save it? And if you don’t think you are completely in the “wild”, even in an urban setting (like NYC), then try this: sit quietly for 5 minutes and take stock of all the animals, insects and life around you buzzing and fighting for survival. The Gary Snyder book is very good, by the way.
JimC says
Great stuff, Thad.
Separation from the cycle may well be the root of all evil — or at least of civilization and its discontents.
Breaker Morant says
Re-Separation from the cycle.
A dozen or so years ago, Richard Louv wrote “Last Child in the Woods:Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder” about the separation of our kids from nature. Obviously, that was prior to the I-Phone so the problem so the problem is exponentially worse today.
“Outdoor News,” A Minnesota hunting and fishing newspaper often carries interviews with retiring Natural Resources personnel and the over-riding theme of those interviews is that you just don’t see kids outside anymore.
A haunting example, In the 70’s (the time of my childhood) they could fly over the Brainerd lakes area and you would see a few kids horsing around on a home-made raft and a couple of kids in a small rowboat etc.
This is from me, now at the lakes it seems to be that the kids are pulled around on tubes by fancy speed boats (mine are no different)-not a lot of just wandering off and exploring on their own.
JimC says
We have to be careful about falling into “kids these days” curmudgeonry, but…
Kids these days….
lane batot says
….And it’s sad, because the kids from those “old days” that are now adults, are not out showing the kids nowadays what’s what out in Nature–so it can’t ALL be dumped on the “kids these days”. In that very book, “Last Child In The Woods”, the author mentions climbing trees when he was a kid, but now that he was in his forties, those days “of course” were long gone, and I glared at the passage and had to ask, “of course”, WHY? I am late, late FIFTIES now, and still climb trees regularly! Perhaps kids are doing what they do now, because the adult examples they have are doing what THEY’RE doing! And give the impression that running around out in the woods is something “childish”–probably because they themselves have become too lazy, unmotivated, and physically out of shape to revel in woods running themselves anymore!
thedarkman says
I still hunt every year, but strictly for ruffed grouse because I enjoy the meat and they are fun and often challenging to bag. I do not trophy hunt, and frankly couldn’t bring myself to kill a buck or bull moose for a nice rack. But I understand why some do, and I don’t judge as long as there is no waste and locals benefit. We North Americans have no right to judge how people in the third world manage natural resources with profit and future sustainability in mind. We come from a soft, spoiled world wallowing in excess, and are in no position to judge those who have so little in a world so much harsher than our own. The privileged need to keep their noses out of lives that they could not possibly of; do a little research before beaking off about something you have no comprehension of.
thedarkman says
Oops! I did this last night while tired and with my phone. I timed out and had to copy and paste, and somehow I lost some material. Oh well, you get the gist of my rant…
lane batot says
YEAH! Tell me about it! I LOVE this blog(my FAVORITE in fact!), but boy howdy do I get tired of “timing out”(Which I’ve already done–and LOST a huge commentary on this very post, into computer oblivion)–I cannot figure out how to “cut-and-paste” on my dang computer thing, and since it takes me FOREVER to hunt-and-peck a response, it is especially frustrating to be so limited and lose responses. NONE of the other blogs I’ve ever got on has this feature! Am I complaining? Yup. Mars an otherwise PERFECT blog. I mean, one shouldn’t be time limited sitting around a campfire telling stories, or expressing opinions! Just sayin’. And now, after FIVE comments, I will be KICKED OUT for the rest of the day, and I haven’t even gotten around to my REAL harangue on the subject of Trophy Hunting(which I generally agree with most of what has been said, but with SOME differences)……
Wayne says
I agree fully with the economic rationale for hunting big game. If PETA had their way we’d all stop eating meat. The result, however, would be that there’d be very few cattle and virtually no hogs on the planet. They just don’t make very good “pets.”
Although I shoot something for the pot every year to remind myself where meat comes from, I’m not a trophy hunter. As long as a trophy hunter consumes the animal in addition to mounting the head/horns, I don’t see any harm. I’d draw the line at killing animals much more rare than whitetails, such as grizzlies, just to provide trophies.
Thanks for this thoughtful discussion of a very complicated issue.
JimC says
And thank YOU.
lane batot says
….Let me try again(my original response that took me too long to peck out–unlike the quickie blurbs I did above)–hard to compress all my years of pondering and wrasslin’ with THIS subject in a time-limited commentary! Let me just throw out a few more questions and observations, to illustrate what a DEEP, complicated issue this is, and should definately NOT be reduced to knee-jerk interpretations…WHY, for instance, does much of the general public go ape shit when a lion gets shot, but not even hardly blink when it is a Cape Buffalo? A Giraffe gets all manner of sympathy, but not one of numerous species of antelope? Conversely, WHY do many hunters love to spout how “natural” it is for them to hunt, and then vilify other predators? Even to the point of desiring to exterminate them? Why do hunters ridicule any portrayal of animals having feelings and being desirous of preserving their own lives? And the anti-hunters rant and rave about a trophy hunter killing some old male beast with a quick, far more merciful bullet, but think being torn apart and possibly eaten alive in old age by animal predators is acceptable? Why is killing domestic animals in horrible, totally unnatural factory conditions acceptable by so many, but hunting wild animals for meat not? There are nuances and asides and hugely varying opinions on ALL these issues–something that could keep psychology studies deeply busy for decades–our bizarre, complicated, but yea, totally dependent relationships with other animals……
lane batot says
……and on the increasing disconnect with Nature–THAT is probably contributing more to the ignorant conclusions some make about hunting more than anything else. I have read some “humaniac’s” philosophy that predators such as tigers and wolves SHOULD be allowed to go extinct, because, well, they KILL other “nice” animals!(and sometimes “nice” people like themselves!). Totally ignorant of the common brutality many of those vegetarian critters display to each other and other species! Totally ignorant of the savage competition amongst PLANTS, for that matter! I personally don’t need to hunt and kill things to get that “connection” with Nature, but I can see where many seem to need to–and it often is their ONLY connection. I think it would be incredibly foolish for modern society to just outlaw that. I personally also feel that this disconnection with Nature has A LOT to do with the twisted morals and priorities of modern society, and leads directly to the madness of mass shootings(of other humans), and the insanity of modern politicians. Hunters are often their own worst enemies, however by trying to defend ALL hunting, when, Like ANYTHING, there ARE some REALLY BAD slob hunting practices that go on, and fuel the antis rants. Even in Trophy Hunting–some are wonderfully conservation oriented, and respectful of the animals and local people–others are selfish, callous blow-hards! If one REALLY KNOWS the subject well(and few seem to), it would be impossible to paint trophy hunting with either a completely negative brush, or a glowing positive one. I could go on and on…..
lane batot says
…..and as mentioned above hunting is always EVOLVING, like everything else. Whereas, no doubt, trophy sport hunting once largely contributed to the extinctions and endangerment of many species, now, for some species, it can ironically be their salvation. I have been personally affected by hunting and the philosophies revolving around it all my life–even now. Where I live, and like to roam, it is very dangerous for me and my dogs to go out for a run in the woods during deer hunting season(not only from accidental misidentification shooting, but most hunters around here will purposefully shoot any dog they see free running in the woods! THAT’S a whole ‘nuther issue I could harangue about lengthily!). This limits me enormously during the Autumn and early Winter during deer season, the time of year I MOST enjoy roaming the woods! It was no real problem when I lived in remote Appalachia, where hunters were far and few between, and there were plenty of areas one could go to avoid them, but where I now live, this simply is not possible! So I am frustrated, and aggravated, and STIR CRAZY every year, but would I wish to outlaw hunting? I know very well if THAT happened, not only would the deer population soon get out of control, but the forest itself would no longer have value AS FOREST(except to LUMBER!), and would soon disappear from “progress”, where my barbaric roaming would be most assuredly and miserably curtailed! So every deer season, I grit my teeth and try to be thankful there IS a forest to roam, AFTER the hunting season is over!
JimC says
Have the same issue here in autumn.
lane batot says
…..and though I’m veering away from specific trophy hunting now, let me just bring up the scenario of successfully “outlawing” hunting by the general populace–is anyone naive enough to think that will STOP hunting? It NEVER has, even when the consequences of getting caught as a “poacher”were/are SEVERE! And it WILL continue in this country–in fact, there is quite an underground of illegal stuff that goes on all the time. If you guys are interested in hunting on any level, you MUST get a copy(NOT usually found cheap, either–a cousin generously GAVE me my copy) of “Ragnar Benson’s”(OBVIOUSLY NOT his real name, I don’t think!) “Survival Poaching”–outrageous, instructive, philosophical, and wickedly entertaining! And recording completely illegal activities! I cringed throughout, but had to admire the ingenuity, initiative, and yea, the sheer NATURALNESS of learning to survive and get one’s meat completely under the radar of the majority of society–such hunters will be completely unaffected by “outlawing” legal hunting. In fact, they will BENEFIT from it! In this book, “Ragnar” tells of ratting on OTHER poachers that are encroaching on what he considers HIS hunting territory–no qualms, no guilt, no apologies or sense of hypocricy–simply one predator eliminating other predatory competition given any chance to do so–a perfectly natural behavoiural response in most predators! Legal hunters could take a cue from that, and quit defending ALL manner of hunting, and set the bar on what is legal and acceptable, and be just as ruthless in culling amongst their own pack, for the sake of the evolvement and preservation of huntingas a whole …..
Paul McNamee says
I’m late with a reply as I was on vacation and lurking when this post went up.
Ironically, I was staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge in Disney World which is a faux-pseudo-African experience where we got to safari among white rhinos and giraffes amid “Watch for Poachers” signs.
Do you remember the Steppenwolf song, “The Pusher”?
The drug dealer is all right but god damn the pusher man.
The hunter is all right but god damn the poacher man. And yes, some crazy animal lovers refuse to understand the difference.
I’m still personally not aligned with trophy hunting but as long as it is hunting and conserving and not poaching – and perhaps the meat and non-trophy parts can be donated to the needy – sure, okay.
p.s. – Also got to round out my last night in Disney World at a faux Irish pub where I partook of Guinness and a wild boar burger. First time eating boar – had plenty of pig product in my life, of course – it was tasty.
JimC says
“Trophy” is well done. Another aspect to grapple with is the game ranches and canned hunts. That all makes me feel very uncomfortable — but there are more predators (for example) in South Africa because of them. It’s a very sticky wicket and a lot of individual ethical choices to be made.
Wild boar — dinner of kings!
lane batot says
My…right….index….finger….is….almost…..gone……You guys KEEP trippin’ my trigger here! Canned hunts–I USED to lump all of THEM in one big negative category, and I still consider MOST disgusting and an insult and detriment to the image of REAL hunting, which MOST canned hunts are NOT! I had some terrible personal experience with THAT where at a “Petting Zoo” I used to work at(NOT the Zoo I am now a keeper in), sold animals hand-raised and fed and coddled by people all their lives(always on my days off–not-so-coincidentally!) to a local Canned Hunt place where they’d be shot down in tiny pens by urban pretend hunters. I was so furious when I found out, I and my bosses had some hostile conversations(AMAZING how they tried to justify it–they DID get paid A LOT of money per head!), that was the beginning of the end of my 6 year(a record for me back then!) employment there. I’ve DESPISED MOST canned hunts ever since. But again, to be completely fair, one MUST ALWAYS take each individual circumstance into consideration….I saw that 60 Minutes episode where some of those exotic mega ranches(mainly in Texas) raise “trophy” animals, and those animals have hundreds of acres to roam, and it REALLY IS a “hunt” to get one! Plus, they can really control WHICH individual animal “get’s it”(usually an old male), and the rest of the herd is left to live.,purty natural wild lives. BEST of all, these huge ranches have helped preserve and return endangered species back to the wild in their original homeland, and/or provide a sanctuary for species virtually extinct in the wild! I CANNOT beg to differ with all THAT. That particular episode may still be watchable on their website maybe…..
Wayne says
The Ragnar Benson book is a gem that has been on my shelf since the early 80’s. Yep, I cringe at his description of making a black bear trap by welding angled nails onto a paw sized can, but I marvel at the cleverness of a buried box with a pipe entry to periodically trap burrowing animals. It is a no-holds-barred analysis of real survival hunting/trapping that includes tips on how to do some of the things most of us did as kids like stealthily bagging rabbits or squirrels in the suburbs with an air rifle. Highly recommended.
lane batot says
I JUST bought “Ragnar’s Ten Best Traps” booklet(which was NOT too exorbitant), which had plenty of new material in it to justify having it along with his classic “Survival Poaching”. I also just re-looked up “Survival Poaching” on Amazon, and copies can be had for $20-something bux–not TOO exorbitant, and I would certainly consider it every bit worth it, to anyone interested in hunting or trapping as a subject of study(if not practice….). DEFINATELY a true “Frontier Partisans” kinda book, ESPECIALLY about more modern day participation! Just fascinating, if OUTRAGEOUS reading!
lane batot says
…..and as for POACHING–that too, should be considered(I think) on an individual basis to be fair. There is ALL KINDS of “poaching”. Where I was in Africa, NO WAY would I have condemned or ratted out the poor rural villager taking common birds, mammals, or fish to feed his hungry family–bare subsistence poaching. Although THAT, depending on the where’s and how’s could still cause problems–like the poachers in the Virungas setting snares for small, common antelope, but occasionally snaring gorillas by accident, that Dian Fossey started her own “guerrilla” war with. And we all know where that got her….. I think, had I the chance, would have tried to come up with simple, easy alternative traps to introduce to the locals that were not detrimental to gorillas–old Ragnar’s influence could have been a huge help there! Huge gangs mowing down elephants and rhinos for tusks and horns, in mafia-like crime rings?–yeah–WIPE THEM OUT(in my opinion), anyhow, anyway……
JimC says
It was interesting that one of the hunts depicted in “Trophy” was for an elephant — for meat. The villagers got meat, cash and the hunter got a trophy. Seems like a win. And the villagers are not killing the elephants as they did before because they have cash value as well as meat and nuisance removal value.
lane batot says
Cringe though I might at the slaughter of any of the “long-nosed people”, I have to admit that THAT, at least, is not so wasteful and disrespectful of the animal. Seeing the ivory and horn poachers wasting TONS of meat that poor local villagers COULD benefit from is truly sinful. I recently read a book on the history and biology of rhinos, and was interested to discover that THEIR meat is considered really good, and they were often hunted in the past mainly FOR their meat by pioneers, the horn was just a byproduct–something you virtually never hear about in modern times!
JimC says
SA should legalize the export of rhino horn and ranchers should raise rhinos like livestock. That’s part of the doco, too, and I’m sold on the concept. Kill the black market; the horns are a renewable resource, and it would be a boon to ranchers. Maybe a bit of meat, too.
Matthew says
Would it be viable to ranch Rhinos? How about elephants? How long would it take to breed a sizable population of each and what would the financial risks be.
JimC says
Check out the coco if you can. There’s a guy doing the rhino thing. We’re talking vast acreage. If you could legally sell horns, it would be hugely viable — rhino horn is currently more valuable per pound than gold or heroin. Go figure.
lane batot says
…..and then there is poaching–as in England and other parts of Europe–that was distinctly class-oriented. Being(my European genetics, anyway) descended from naught but peasant stock, I do not condemn the old time poachers their snagging(by whatever means) the landed gentries bunnies and pheasants and deer(etc.) for subsistence, and revel in the stories of their cleverness and persistence, and the sheer ADVENTURE of it all–I have NUMEROUS books in my voluminous library dedicated to that subject! Like Ian Nial’s “The Poacher’s Handbook”, with it’s classic woodcut illustrations. After (re)reading that for the umpteenth time, it always just makes me wish to be afield(with a dog or two and maybe a ferret!), even though I’ve rarely been out to actually kill anything. The same for the BEAUTIFULLY illustrated “Tales of the Old Poachers” and the even better sequel “More Tales Of The Old Poachers” by John Humphries. I must admit I also have and enjoyed the “Tales” from the GAMEKEEPERS point of view as well! And ANYTHING by D. Brian Plummer! “Frontier Partisans” ALL!
JimC says
Lest we forget, the legendary Frontier Partisan of Sherwood Forest was a poacher.
lane batot says
Oh, aye–and how I would happily delve into the subject of Robin o’ the Hood(or “Wood” if you are a “The Once And Future King” fan!), but first I need to allow my right index finger a chance to regenerate…..
JimC says
Delve away! What else you gonna use that trigger finger for?
Matthew says
One of my favorite books was Danny Champion of the World by Roald Dahl. Which involves poaching.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny,_the_Champion_of_the_World
Paul McNamee says
Yeah, of course. Poaching for survival is a rhino of a different color. I’m referring to the slaughtering poachers who tear out the elephant tusks and leave the carcasses rotting in the sun and don’t care if they hunt the species to extinction – even though that obviously puts them out of work. I guess they hope to bankroll enough before that happens?
JimC says
It’s always pillage and run. Like drug cartels.
Wayne says
One man’s poacher might be another man’s subsistance hunter.
If you’d like more reading on this subject, I recommend the following:
Meditations on Hunting by Jose Ortega y Gaset
The Hunt bye John G. Mitchell
Heart of Home: People, Wildlife, Place by Ted Kerasote
In Defense of Hunting by James A. Swan
Heart and Blood: Living with Deer in America – I dog eared almost every page in this book!
I read these books in my search for a balance between respecting wildlife and being drawn to the hunt. At least we share this contradiction with as good a man as Theodore Roosevelt. The hunt connects us to our ancestry, and as Ortega y Gasset points out, is the only way we can truly enter the world of the animals we hunt. To hunt with purpose, respect, and admiration for prey animals is, I think, a high calling and not one to be taken lightly.
JimC says
Yep. It should be joyful, but never frivolous.
lane batot says
I can agree, to some extant, with most of this, EXCEPT the statement “is the only way we can truly enter the world of the animals we hunt.” That is true if it is the ONLY way one tries! And hunting is only one of MANY ways! Try raising some orphans(some of them made orphans by hunters, by the way!), as I have of various species, and you’ll get a FAR different perspective and have a personal relationship with them unlike anything you can ever hope to perceive just hunting them! I just recently started helping care for rhinos at the Zoo I work at, and unlike a trophy hunter’s viewpoint of these behemoths, I have found them surprisingly intelligent and rather endearing critters! After such daily interactions, I could never imagine plugging one for “sport”! I am not trying to denigrate hunting here, especially subsistence hunting, as I believe it is no more wrong for a human predator to hunt than it is a wolf, or a bear, or a cougar(and after helping raise 3 orphan cougars, who treat me like their foster mum and are extremely affectionate even after maturity, I can REALLY relate to cougars on a level beyond that of someone who just plugs one out of a tree!)….to be continued…..
lane batot says
……I simply choose not to hunt myself, and only would if I HAD to for bare subsistence. Where I live, the wildlife is HEAVILY hunted, especially deer(white-tails here) Most are hunted from stands over bait(perfectly legal here), usually corn. I also keep wildlife feed out off and on(I don’t like them to become totally dependent on it, but I like to help them out, especially in rough weather, and this year in my area, the mast crop totally failed, and the mast-dependent wildlife has been having a hard go of it, and I have upped my feeding for that). I just like to provide a sanctuary of sorts on MY property, where the critters(ALL are welcome) can have at least ONE place they can come without having to worry about a burning bullet. And despite other such baits set up well within the ranges of the same individual animals, they have learned to distinguish ME as an individual who means them no harm, AND someone who puts food out for them, and they react totally different towards me than they do to virtually any other humans around here. I will sometimes surprise deer(and once even a coyote), that, once they recognized me, stopped fleeing and then calmly went about their business, as if to say, “oh, it’s only you”–perfectly aware I mean them no harm. This has taken many YEARS to accomplish, and I can’t exactly go up and pet anybody, but I find it rather special, and prefer that to spreading fear by hunting them–and I most assuredly have gotten a far different and more personable perspective on animals other than all of them just running in panic, and only giving me a glimpse of a few seconds. The CROWS around here REALLY know me well now, though that took a really long time! They know I’M the guy who puts dog kibble out for them, and do crows ever love dog kibble! Yet they distinguish me from everyone else, as all other hands are against them here. Gosh, but I MUCH prefer being accepted amongst critters as not a threat or dissrupter of the forest, than I ever would a great hunter. Just my preference…..
Wayne says
Read in the NY Times this morning that Harry Selby just died at 92.
JimC says
Thank you for the heads up. One of the greats. Will post.