A few years ago a friend of mine from Wisconsin, Steve Huber, came for a visit in January. Steve was doing a TV show and we went to Clarks Hill to film a striper fishing show and to South Georgia to film a hog hunt. Both trips were a lot of fun.
Steve told me about going to Africa on Safari to kill some of the animals there and also about a caribou hunt in Canada. He said he was setting up some more trips and asked if I would be interested in going with him as an assistant, and have the opportunity to shoot some of the animals I had only read about.
Other than the fact I hate flying and would have to get on an airplane, I really had no desire to shoot big game like that. I have no desire to kill a lion, for example. Hunting around here for whitetail deer does not require flying, and I love venison. But I would rather be fishing than hunting.
There is a huge uproar about a dentists killing a well-known lion on Safari in Africa. There are all kinds of silly claims on the internet and news about this incident and the usual flaky anti-hunters are using it to push their agenda. Some of the things they say don’t make sense, and some are outright lies.
Although I have no desire to go on a Safari, I would never condemn those that do. I am a bass fishing fanatic and I am sure their desire and enjoyment of hunting is similar to my enjoyment of fishing. Just because I don’t want to do something is no reason for me to condemn those that do.
In Africa, game management is dependent on trophy hunting. The dentist paid $50,000 just for the license to hunt a lion and that money is supposed to go to the country he was in for management of game. He also spend many thousands more when he got there, helping the local economy.
Some folks seem to think this lion he killed was a pet. It was in a sanctuary where hunting is not allowed, but as best I can tell the lion was killed over a mile outside its borders. Some claim the lion was lured outside the sanctuary by baiting so it could be shot. As best I can tell baiting is legal in that country.
Some reports I have seen say the lion was old and not in great health. In lion prides, when the dominate male gets old he is killed by a younger, stronger lion that takes his place. That is nature. Nature is what we consider cruel, but animals don’t have emotions, that is just the way wild animals live and die.
I find it really strange that so many folks and mainstream media get their knickers in a knot about something like this but the murder of five of our military don’t seem to faze them. They go crazy about killing a lion but ignore videos showing folks cutting up babies for their parts.
For all the people condemning the dentists, put your money where your mouth and prejudices are. How much have you donated for wildlife management in Africa? How much are you willing to spend, of your own money not everyone else’s tax money, to support wildlife in Africa? Or anywhere else.
Game animals are better protected if they have a value. If locals can make money off hunters, they will protect the animals. Otherwise why would you want wild lions living near you? Lions will kill and eat people, so throughout history in Africa lions have been killed to protect the folks sharing the same habitat.
In the same vein there is a thing going around on Facebook showing a guy with a big camera taking pictures while some kind of wild feline cuddles with him. The caption says “This is how real men hunt.” Other than the fact pictures don’t taste too good no matter how you cook them, it is silly.
Hunt with a camera if you want. Cuddle with wild animals if you want. But don’t be surprised when, like the silly woman trying to take a selfie in Yellowstone Park with a bison, you get gored. And don’t whine when, like the idiot trying to take a selfie with a rattlesnake, you get bit and it costs you $150,000 in hospital bills.
Some of the pictures do reflect real life and death in nature. Like the one showing a crocodile pulling a water buffalo calf into the water for lunch. And the one showing a pride of lions attacking a baby elephant. Nature is not cruel, it is just the way it works.
I will continue to kill deer and eat them.