WHAT?!? HIDE OR DIE IS THIS THE MESSAGE?!? Should everyone just pretend that we are not hunters so that we can keep hunting? Should we have a secret hand signal or button that we wear so that we can recognize each other and then can feel free to speak about what we're passionate about and who we are? When did we become so fearful and weak? This is exactly what the anti want us to do , this is exactly their agenda, what the author of this post has prescribed is the recipe for the end of hunting as we know it.
Yes the world has changed and we must change with it but not in this way. I do agree that we need to come together with a united front and that we need to make a plan of action, but that is just it ACTION NOT INACTION. The biggest problem that I see is the reluctance of hunters, outfitters and big hunting organizations and websites to stand up and fight for our passion. The anti have organized and been aggressively attacking us on many fronts simultaneously and our stance has always been to not react or fight and they are eating our lunch.
We have big organizations like SCI, NRA, DSC and many others that have huge war chests but they do nothing to stand up for hunting and fight the antis, not on the ground, but in cyberspace. We must use some of that money to fund the future of hunting, we can not continue to sit back and be passive, we must fight their attacks not verbally but using the same tactics that they employ. We must disrupt them! We can no longer afford to take the high road, we need to get dirty.
Sometime it is the better choice to not engage but at this point we can see that this is a war of attrition and they are winning so look into your history books and see what we need to do, we need to hit back not hide or we will starve. We do not need to engage in petty arguments with fanatics on FB but fight back with our wallets because that is what they are using against us.
The organizations that we have been funding for a long time need to get together, set aside their differences and start to seriously fight for US and the future of hunting. We need to pressure these big clubs that are sitting on 100's of millions of OUR dollars in the name of "conservation" so that they start recognizing that
hunters themselves are the ones who need the conservation the most.
They need to hire a political firm that aggressively investigates and exposes these groups for their spending practices and find any dirt on them that they can (and there is plenty). We need to sue and attack these anti groups and individual computer warriors on issues of defamation, death threats, hacking (Rowland Ward was down for months and there are many more examples like that), highjacking websites, spamming and copyright infringement and loss of income from anti attacks on individuals and companies that are legally existing and acting. They are picking us off and we are letting them. It is true they are winning because we are letting them! We are victims of our inaction and own making.
Aren't hunter the first to return to war torn countries, long before tourism. Aren't hunters the ones who will risk life and limb and disease to travel to remote places in the world seeking adventure and profound experiences in nature while at the same time sharing our wealth with those less fortunate? It takes bravery and moxxy to chase after dangerous game or wounded game…. why should we hide? Who have hunters become? Hunters have become the hunted! I would rather fight like a Lion than hide in a hole like worm. Hunters are the wolves not the sheep...
When I read something like this I think WOW, maybe the anti have won if they can chase us into a hole where we feel like we have to hide and pretend and act like hunting is our secret passion that is not socially acceptable, we are not pedophiles!
I think we should collectively change the words hunt, hunter and hunting… from now on we can use the words sizzle, sizzler and sizzling, everyone got that? Pretend that blood doesn't exist? How is that going to save hunting? No more trophy pictures? Act like we're all in the tourism industry? It'll be a big surprise when someone books some adventure travel only to realize once they get there that they have inadvertently booked a hunting safari but they got dazzled by all of those campfire and game pictures, with people sitting around having a glass of wine and laughing. At that point why not just go into the tourism industry and be done with hunting if you no longer have a taste for it! You have already got the set up, just put your gun away.
I can assure you that if the beef industry were to be attacked by the antis with videos of cows with sad eyes and sad background music playing from some famous musician to solicit donations the beef industry with hit back full force with a well though out PR and smear campaign. Why doesn't the hunting industry protect their interest like this?
I have so many things to say about this post but I guess the most important thing is WHY IS ANY HUNTER OR OUTFITTER ON FACEBOOK???? Facebook is as anti hunting as they come as far as businesses are concerned from the top management down. This social media giant has a very anti agenda and I know this from several personal experiences with them as well as what they have done to some unfortunate individuals that have been chosen to be made an example of and shamed virally while doing something perfectly legal.
The antis on social media will relentlessly feed anything that they can find until something takes off and it does not matter what. Every time something goes viral they use that to get donations and fund their organizations. We should be putting a spotlight on them showing who they are looking into their taxes and their lifestyle and their background and showing how little is going to anything but lining their pockets. The same kind of tactics that they use against hunters who dare to post their trophy pictures with their names attached.
I would not support or use FB or Intstagram. FB has done more harm to hunting than any website out there by far. They have enabled anti hunting groups, help them to persecute us, build their coffers and allowed them to use our media against us even copy righted material unless you are willing to sue them. Any hunter still using FB is enabling the antis in my opinion and opening yourself up to being used to further their agenda.
I can assure you that we are being attacked not just on the hunting front but the gun front as well. At least the NRA puts a lot of money and effort into fighting for those rights but I don't see the big hunting organizations doing the same.
If you want to protect wildlife protect the hunters. Right now it's us hunters who need protection and as a result we will protect the wildlife!
I have never ranted on the site like this before! Sorry if this post is jumbled about but this has been on my mind for sometime and this letter just made me crazy. I see that the author is scared and has good intentions but I couldn't disagree with most of his ideas more.
I can assure you that
@BRICKBURN and I have been on the front lines fighting the anti off on a regular, lately daily basis, and if we just let them and gave in to them AH would be long gone. AH would not be what it is today without hunters being passionate and sharing their love of hunting and their experiences. It would not be the same without the pictures and ,yes, some of them have blood, that is par for the course, it's hunting. If we remove the blood and the trophy pictures and the stories will the anti suddenly leave us alone? Never! They will have just gained some ground. Cleansing the image of hunting will not slow down this train down, it needs to be derailed.
