Hunting Brings families together, and gives young people a positive, rewarding sport that can be passed down from generation to generation.

Hunting is not about the indiscriminate killing of animals, nor is it about acting out some macho fantasy. hunting is about sharing memories and experiences with your friends and family while enjoying the outdoors. It is the glow on a youngster's face as they see their first whitetail slinking through the forest. Hunting is the peace of sitting in the woods at dawn - on a brisk October morning - while nature awakens around you. It is a special passion that we hunters cherish, but many people do not understand.

But these days, much of our time, energy and resources are spent defending the sport of hunting. The anti hunting movement would like to see an end to all hunting and hunters are their prime target. We have had our cars vandalized, our equipment destroyed or booby-trapped, we have been harassed, prodded, and threatened - yet we have never retaliated or resorted to such behaviors. We simply want to continue hunting with our families and friends and enjoy nature in peace.

However, this is not the way the anti-hunting/animal rights extremists are portraying us. These groups feel that humans have no superiority in any way to animals. In fact, I suspect that the great majority put animals on a higher plane of existence than people. Take for instance this quote from Ingrid Newkirk, founder of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA): "We'd be against animal research even if it resulted in a cure for AIDS." or the famous slogan "A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy" In more recent news, Animal Rights groups are actively trying to force their agenda by labeling the Make-a-Wish foundation the "Make-a-Death-Wish" foundation for granting a seriously ill boy a chance to hunt bears in Alaska with his dad - a dream the two shared for years. It is time we got the message to the non-hunting public of what they are about. But more importantly, what we are all about. If you weigh the benefits that hunters provide to all people - non-hunters and anti-hunters included, it is pretty hard to argue with the facts:

 

• Fact: Wildlife is thriving: There are more Deer, Elk, Turkey, Pronghorn, Sheep, etc... now, than there were at the turn of the century. Check it out yourself

• Fact: Hunters pay for wildlife: Since 1923 hunters have paid over $3 billion dollars in hunting license fees alone. On top of that, we pay an excise tax which has distributed nearly $2 billion dollars to purchase wildlife management areas which benefit both game and non-game species. Dollars derived from hunting and fishing license sales, pays 75% of the cost of game and fish agencies.

• Fact: Hunting is safe: the odds of being killed while hunting (by another hunter) is .0015-.00425%. For non-hunters, the odds of being killed by a hunter is 1 fatality for every 12 million recreation days of hunting. You are 20 times more likely to die from an insect sting than even be wounded by a hunter. (See the chart below on sports injuries provide by the Wildlife Legislative Fund of America.
• Fact: There are no feasible alternatives to hunting: While many anti-groups like to talk about token transplants and some deer contraceptive, the reality is these programs are extremely expensive and are marginally successful in even small, controlled settings. The harsh reality that many anti-hunting groups don't like to admit is that they understand and accept that animal populations will grow out of control to a point where nature will balance them back. This is done through disease and starvation. Having personally walked up to a fawn that was too weak to stand after a winter without food, I can not understand how a well placed arrow or bullet (either of which will dispatch the animal quickly) is so horrible while 4 months of being so weak that wild dogs eat your legs alive is somehow better? If our game populations were not hunted, they would outgrow our forests' carrying capacity doing years of damage to seedling growth and woodlot habitat. Once the herd outgrew the capacity of the land to sustain them, there would either be mass disease or starvation and the population could take 10-20 years until it was healthy again.

• Fact: Poachers are not Hunters: It seems fashionable these days for the media to get hold of a news story about a cow or some other animal that was shot illegally, and say it was shot by a hunter. The reality is that these violations are not done by hunters, but rather poachers and slobs. The Animal rights fanatics love these stories because they label the poachers as a "hunter" and start manipulating your perception of us. The reality is that hunters run out these individuals by supporting license revocations, stiff fines and confiscation. Bowhunter Magazine, for example, publishes the names and deeds of violators to prove that we will not stand for that behavior. If you don't believe me, look at the statistics of who turns in these violators: Hunters are responsible for 95% of the calls turned into TIP (Turn in Poacher) lines across the country.

 

Hunters love, respect, and protect wildlife. We spend billions each year on management programs for animals such as this young black bear cub!

 

• Fact: Hunters love and protect animals; the environment: The anti-hunters are trying to manipulate you by stereotyping hunters as "bloodthirsty and sadistic. In reality, the opposite is true. Hunters have shouldered the cost of conservation for the good of all animals. Hunting clubs protect deer and other game with feeding programs, habitat improvement, and stocking programs. Hunters willingly accept and support decisions made by wildlife management agencies for the good of all animals. Hunters fervently protect our wild lands to keep them free from development, pollution and misuse. And hunters have actively funded projects in other countries as well (Africa for instance) where hunting has saved animal species such as lions, elephants, and rhinos from sure extinction by providing ...an economic incentive to protect them.

We hope that when it all comes down to it, the facts and logic will overcome the emotional manipulation that the animal rights fanatics use as a tool to mislead the general public. On behalf of the bowsite, my family, and myself - Welcome.

 

If you would like to talk more about the many positive things we do, drop me an e-mail at [email protected]

 

Sincerely,

The Staff of The Bowsite

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