It is so nice to see that some people are rethinking hunting as a fun pasttime!
Animal-rights activists doggedly oppose hunting as cruel
B
y MARTHA MENDOZA, AP National Writer
Saturday, February 26, 2005
(02-26) 15:15 PST San Francisco (AP) --
The videos they show at the training camp for animal activists aren't for the squeamish. Students grimace and cringe — some start to sob — as images of trapped and wounded animals flash on the screen.
At the camp sponsored by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, would-be activists are taught about the horrors of hunting, trapping and breeding animals for fur. Then, they learn the tools — from writing letters to the editor to staging rowdy protests — that PETA uses to try to shut them down.
"If you approach the hunters, in a nonconfrontational way and just talk to them in a reasonable and level way, you can really change a lot of minds," facilitator Don Shannon said. "I see it happen all the time."
They haven't changed the mind of John Jackson, who has hunted for the past 30 years and chairs the Metairie, La.-based Conservation Force, a hunting and wildlife advocacy organization. He's encountered so many animal rights activists, he knows some by their first names.
"They bandy about like chickens. I'd like them to go find something better to do," he said.
The nation's leading animal protection groups have taken aim at hunting since they were formed in the 1970s, dedicating millions of dollars and thousands of hours to the cause.
They cite some victories: A bison hunt in Montana was canceled in January after Gov. Brian Schweitzer expressed misgivings about the potential bad publicity, and in December the New Jersey Supreme Court barred a bear hunt after activists argued that the state lacks a proper management program for the animals. In the past year, about a dozen hunts — for deer, pigeon, dove and Canada goose — were canceled after pressure from animal rights groups.
"People who like making wildlife dead have less bravado these days. They realize they're going to get less applause than they used to for driving home with a dead deer tied on their roof rack," said Priscilla Feral, president of Darien, Conn.-based Friends of Animals. She claims their anti-hunting magazine advertisements, billboards, legislative lobbying and protests have made hunting less popular.
The overall numbers of hunters certainly are declining. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's most recent survey, the number of people hunting in the United States dropped 7 percent between 1991 and 2001, to about 13 million overall. But surveys by the U.S. Sportsmens Alliance suggest the decline is due to the aging of the hunting population and the steady disappearance of land where people can hunt, said Rick Story, vice president of the Ohio-based organization.
"It's not that people are not hunting because they're listening to the animal rights movement," he said. "It's that our society, in the last four generations, has shifted from life on the farm to life in the big city."
Story said the protest campaigns are misguided. "They characterize us as boorish louts with a bellyful of beer, which we take umbrage and issue with," he said.
Steve Hindi, an animal rights activist from Elburn, Ill., hunted and fished for 30 years, mounting his biggest trophies and hanging them on the wall even as he took in stray animals and loved his pets. Then he began reading magazines from animal rights activists, and he visited a pigeon shoot in Pennsylvania where he was surprised and upset by the way wounded birds were treated.
He began talking to friends, colleagues and activists who opposed hunting. Eventually he said he couldn't quell the "nagging voice suggesting that killing animals, especially those much smaller than me, was not completely defensible as a hobby."
"It was in talking to animal rights activists that I decided I was fighting on the wrong team," he said.
These days, Hindi can be seen driving his so-called "Tiger Truck" at rodeos, sports shows and other events. The converted delivery truck has projection screens mounted on the sides and back, usually airing videos of animals being hurt at bullfights, hunts and other events.
"I like to think that people are simply evolving, but I think that animal organizations have played a significant role," he said.
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On the Net:
PETA:
U.S. Sportsmens Alliance:
Friends of Animals:
Conservation Force:
www.peta.org
www.ussportsmen.org
www.friendsofanimals.org
www.conservationforce.org/
sfgate.com |
