Hunters: An Ecological Disaster

Editorial By Marla Stormwolf Patty

Comment by PRO-HUNTING man: “without hunters, there would be no wildlife left, they give millions of dollars to conservation”.

Comment by CONSERVATIONIST: “Because of hunters there is very little wildlife left, they give millions of dollars to their lobbyist groups in Washington who allow them to destroy the habitats and wild life and also give millions to start smear campaigns against conservationists who they call terrorists.”

 The advent of firearms made it easier for hunters to mass murder animals. When hunters scream “No one will take away my rights to bear arms!!” What they are really saying is “No one will stop me from hunting into extinction any animal that I want to”. And hunting, despite what hunters want you to think, is not a right. No where in the Constitution does it state that you have the right to kill animals. It is considered a “privilege”, not a right. Before conservation laws, virtually anything was deemed fair game: elephants, tigers, rhinos, gorillas, wolves, deer, elk and most other large animals, and even then those laws vary depending upon what lobby the hunters appeal to.

  Conservation laws in the United States are more or less based on who or what agency wishes to enforce them. And they are rarely enforced within the last few decades. Hunters have more legal maneuvering and protection than any citizen of this country does. And they know it. Laws are established based upon whether hunters will be protected from the laws outlawing any hunting. When we first went to battle on Capital Hill regarding getting animal crush videos banned, the primary concern of the NRA and political parties was “Yes, but will this law banning animal crush interfere with our need to show footage of us murdering animals?” There were only a handful of politicians and one Supreme Court judge who cared more about getting crush outlawed than the complaints of hunters who wanted to ensure that they could continue to post hunting photos, several of which showed themselves simulating sex with the animals they had murdered.

Hunting has obliterated species, both on land and in the oceans. The dodo bird’s disappearance is attributed in large part to hunters, and the historical decimation of the American buffalo from hunters nearly pushed that species to total extinction. Big game hunting was a craze beginning in the 1800’s, and their effect on animal populations was, and still is, devastating. Species of dolphins, sharks and whales are extinct or near to extinct due to the insatiable blood lust and trophy hunting of hunters. Hunters are by and large, ignorant of issues like sustainable breeding populations, and there were no protected species until the first conservation laws were passed in the 20th century. Laws had to be established in order to stop the hunters (and trappers) from destroying, like a virus, everything in their paths. When a hunter tells you that he or she is a conservationist, that is a lie. Hunters care nothing for the ecosystem.

The proof of that is seen all too often, a recent example is the Yosemite forest fire that blazed out of control on Aug. 17th, 2013. Because of high fire danger across the region, the Forest Service had banned fires outside of developed camping areas more than a week before the fire started. It cost tax payers over 127 million to fight, and in an economy that has the highest unemployment listings not seen in decades, this was something that citizens could ill afford and with families struggling to feed and clothe their children, hunters and trappers helped to make the hardship just that much harder on these families, on all of us.

Listed as one of the largest forest fires in California state’s history, it has all but gutted Yosemite. It burned more than 250,000 acres in and around Yosemite National Park, consuming 257,314 acres, or 402 square miles, destroying habitats, homes, commercial properties, outbuildings and untold animal populations before it was contained, months later. The blaze was started by a hunter whose illegal small camp fire grew out of control. The hunter has, at this writing, been charged for one of the worst fires in state-recorded history. This fire managed to rival the record of the last forest fire, started by yet another hunter in 2003, the blaze in the Cleveland National Forest, east of San Diego, was sparked by a novice deer hunter who became lost. The hunter set a signal fire in hope of being rescued, which burned out of control, causing immeasurable damage, destruction and loss of life.

And on occasion, hunters deliberately set fire to their own homes, killing the pets of their children and endangering the lives of family and the surrounding area. As is the case of Tara Andvik, a notorious hunter who initially blamed acts of arson on animal rights activists however, it was discovered that Mrs. Andvick was guilty of setting the fires, herself.

 Please view liveleak video below of the arson and this article regarding the verdict.

Other examples are the on-going attempted extinction of keystone animals who hunters and trappers see as a threat to the animals they wish to murder. Again and again, real conservationists have had to bring animals back from the brink of extinction due to hunters and their insatiable blood lust. An example of that is the recent 2013 USA Government shut down, where upon hunters took advantage of that shut down to illegally hunt wolves and other animals in Yellowstone Park.

Hunters complain about Invasive Species, when by and large they are the ones who brought the animals here in order to hunt and being that hunters and trappers are ignorant of environmental issues, their actions brought about a change in the landscape that many countries are still grappling with. For example, it was a hunter who in 1859, released rabbits into his woodland property in Australia to have something to hunt; introducing rabbits to Australia, to which the rabbits and their new environment both suffered, due to a major issue of non-sustainability. Hunters have caused the ecological damage, by importing non-indigenous species to satisfy their hunting appetites. In the early 21st century, several hunters in the American South were discovered to be importing and breeding “hogzillas”, extremely large and territorial wild boars to have another new animal to hunt. These animals are released into the local forests and do not integrate well within the existing ecosystemic structure. Hunters blame the innocent animals, however, it is the recklessness of hunters, their insatiable blood thirst and complete disregard for anything living, that is to blame.

Hunting has the direct effect of dangerously and unnaturally reducing animal populations; unless hunting is tightly regulated (which it is not in the United States and elsewhere), hunting can and does decimate species and disrupt the balance of ecosystems. It is significant to note that deer populations in the States became manipulated by humans only after the decimating of wolves and large wild cats by hunters. For more information on the hunter manipulations of animals, see Anthony Damiano’s article, Threats against activists made by hunters.

Armed with ignorance and more often than not, a 6-pack of alcohol, hunters and trappers blithely head off into the wilderness in search of trophies to mount on their walls and take photos to upload onto social internet network and websites in an effort to “ego-boost” and “show off” their kills. Much in the same manner that serial killers take trophies of their victims.

I have often wondered what it is about wolves that make hunters pathologically want to murder them. And after spending my whole life as a wolf advocate, the only answer that keeps coming back to me is the independence of a wolf is something hunters are jealous and envious of, indeed, afraid of. I have read articles, comments, posts, and websites by hunters who all spend hours upon hours despising wolves together. And invariably, in most of what I have read by hunters and have been told by hunters, and in many cases yelled at by hunters, (in a few incidences with a loaded gun at my head) what stands out the most are the complaints by hunters that wolves are a competition to hunters and wolves are better hunters altogether than humans, and their independence disturbs the hunters. Many hunters also despise cats in the same pathological way that they hate wolves. Cats are also natural hunters. And better hunters than human hunters.

In several instances, hunters even appear to encourage poaching. And poaching is never okay, and is one of the primary reasons for animal extinction on the planet, next to habitation loss from human encroachment and habitat destruction, caused by humans.

So it would seem to me that hunters kill for a blood lust. A need to feel superior and a need to kill that which they will never be, which is independent, free and a part of the natural world. By extension, hunters often express a loathing for humans who are fighting for the environment, and have a litany of words they use to describe humans who want to restore the natural balance to the planet. Most hunters often come across as hostile, dangerous, threatening and have expressed enjoyment at murdering animals for every activist they loathe. Hunters are not environmentalists. In fact, they refer to Environmentalists as “terrorists” in order to confuse the public as they continue to help to destroy the ecosystem.

In addition to the mass fires they have caused, wrecking untold disaster on national parks, water supplies, homes, acres of habitat lost and thousands of lives gone forever. If that isn’t enough, they also spend thousands flying to other countries to murder all the wildlife there whilst imperialistically stating that they are managing that country’s eco-system (ie: destroying it). It is the height of arrogance. Going to another country and telling the indigenous people there that they should be grateful for the mighty hunters who invade their countries and destroy their lands. It’s the type of mentality that allows for slavery, savagery and genocide.

Hunters are not conservationists, they have absolutely no respect for other species, nor the environment. And if a stray bullet enters your home during “hunting season”, you can expect your fears and outrage to be ignored by the hunting community at large in the same manner that they ignore property rights and the sentience of every life on the planet for that next trophy kill, that next fix for their insatiable blood lust addiction, the need for that next wolf which they can murder in order to proclaim themselves as masters of the universe.