Hunters condemn Wyoming Wolf Incident

The last ten days have seemed like a bad dream. I woke up to one of the craziest April fool’s jokes I had ever experienced. At least I thought or hoped it was a joke. A colleague of mine had sent me over an article about a wolf being mistreated by a supposed hunter in Wyoming. I thought this can’t be true, no hunter in his or her right mind would ever be this cruel or want to harm the image of hunting in this way. But it was true, it wasn’t a bad, belated April fool’s joke and I wasn’t dreaming.

My gut reactions were shock, anger, and outrage for what was done. Purposefully prolonging an animal’s suffering for any reason is the antithesis of sportsmanship and our way of life; it shows a lack of morality, reflects antisocial, demented conduct, and has no place in our system of hunting, trapping, and wildlife conservation. When my outrage subsided, fear sank in. Yes, fear! Fear of what the actions of one individual would do to hunting as a whole. This individual took it upon himself to flip all of us responsible conservation-minded hunters, the proverbial bird then proceeded to shoot holes in our little boat, laughing and drinking beer as we began to sink. I can’t help but imagine the leadership of anti-hunter organizations licking their chops and rolling their cupped hands with excitement for how they can use this terrible incident to their advantage.

Although there is never an opportune time for something like this to occur, it truly couldn’t have happened at a worse time. It comes while we are trying to campaign to save mountain lion hunting in CO, trying to prove to the non-hunting public we are not bloodthirsty, wildlife-hating monsters that lop off heads and leave to rot the carcass of our prey. That we love wildlife, care for the whole system and are stewards of the wild world. Anti-hunting took this golden goose given to them and have produced images of this man with a dead mtn lion and he has now become the poster child of why they need to save lions from us evil hunters.

HOWL for Wildlife has been working hard to show all the beautiful things associated with hunting. These are the true driving forces of why most of us hunt: intrinsic, human values, the comradery, the meals, the challenges, the connection with nature, the connection with one’s food, the heritage and all the other things that encompass why we love this way of life. To an extent, much of this is erased! The actions of one man are being used at this very moment by anti-hunting groups to define all of us. They are using the paint of his actions to construct a picture of who you are, who I am. Guess what? It’s effective, and they are winning the hearts and minds of the middle ground. Each day we are losing the would be supporters of hunting 1% at a time.

You have to understand the anti-hunters have been playing a long game, they have never been able to win in the arena of science, truth, and logic so they have been waging a war of public perception. And they are winning. To make it worse we are in a time where people make decisions based on headlines and memes. This world “climate” is a perfect recipe for anti-hunting to interject their messaging, they don’t have to prove anything they can say what they want and it is taken as gospel. A picture is worth 1,000 words, so the saying goes, but whose words are they? If we continue to allow the actions of a few that fuel the campaigns of our opposition we will lose. It’s on us to police the unsavory, to protect what we have like we have always done through sound practices, legislation and good old common sense. Rushing to defend the actions of this individual because you are afraid it may hurt hunting is not the way to win the hearts and minds of the non-hunting public. In fact, it shows the opposite, you are playing into the hands of anti-hunting. I have heard the grumbling that those of us who are condemning these actions are placating those who are anti-hunting. No! Standing up for what’s right and in this case protecting wildlife from unnecessary torture is what shows the public that you, me, we, are the stewards of wildlife. We do care and want to see sound practices put in place that not only protect wildlife but protect the hunting way of life.

A few people are upset that hunting influencers and organizations are bringing national attention to this issue and feel we should have just let it die on the vine. But the problem is it was already a national issue and if hunters aren’t speaking out against this and aren’t the voices that shape reform that would prevent things like this from happening. Then the only voices being heard are those from the opposition. Believe me: they are speaking loudly and moving quickly. Do you want policymakers deciding policy based on the squeaky wheels of anti-hunting or would you rather policy be put in place directed from the Hunting community?

Whatever your feelings are about wolves, those need to be put aside to show a unified front that the hunting community is outraged at these actions and condemn this behavior. Hunters pride themselves on the fact that all animals that die at their hands deserve a quick clean humane death. We should not intentionally steer away from this idea. Join me in supporting all the organizations that want to bring about a positive change that will not only help prevent things like this from ever happening again, but also helps protect hunting and wildlife.