Hunters need a new public image

[Hydrophilic]

Trophy hunter slammed for posing with bloody HEART from giraffe she shot

A TROPHY hunter posed with a bloody giraffe heart which was cut out of the beast she shot. Merelize Van Der Merwe, 32, infuriated campaigners by sharing the photo of her “perfect” Valen…

www.thesun.co.uk

Between the African trophy kills that always make the news, the smoke a pack a day rhetoric, the poaching, the camp litter, the deer heads tied to truck grills, the anti science rhetoric, etc. We need to rebrand!

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Randy and Steve have been leading the charge on this for several years.

 

[LCH]

I wonder why a "trophy hunter" would go to the trouble of field dressing the animal? Almost like they intend to eat it!

I do agree that release of that photo may have been in poor taste and/or judgement.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Probably not the greatest photo or story to share with the world......

 

[406LIFE]

I think there is much that we can do to improve our image and some above are a good start. I don't think that shying away from "hero shots" including those that show meat in its freshest form, is a part of that rebranding. The link above shows a mix of what I would call good and some that I think are in better taste. There was a time when a photo with an animal you killed immediately communicated respect and reverence for the event. Weapons were secondary if present and not the focus. Care was taken to show that body was handled appropriately. There was a recognition that a necessary sacrifice had just been made, by all involved.

I would not post a picture hugging the dead animal, but I would (probably have?) posted a picture of a heart. And in a giraffe, that's pretty dang big and noteworthy. I'm just looking at the pictures and don't have context or a caption/story from her on what's going on.

A call to rebrand is needed. The picture of Elmer Fudd should be retired; and stories like you find in Modern Huntsman should be celebrated and replicated. There was a time that we could self-police within our own ranks. I think that time is no more. Fair Chase in its inception was decried by the masses and is now the standard across the world. I would be eager to see more hunters elevate their actions and call others to follow.

 

[MThuntr]

Randy and Steve have been leading the charge on this for several years.

Unfortunately they've been branded as "Liberal Decoys" by an awful lot of hunters (a recent locked thread over on R---ide). The in-fighting will be our biggest demise

 

[Gr8bawana]

As hunters on a hunting forum we have no problem with those pics. When they chose to share those pics with the general public, that's where the problem lies.
They could have taken the photos and kept them to themselves and their hunting friends. No need to brag to the world on FB.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Hunters and sportsmen & women need a new political party!

 

[Dunning Kruger]

Trophy hunter slammed for posing with bloody HEART from giraffe she shot

A TROPHY hunter posed with a bloody giraffe heart which was cut out of the beast she shot. Merelize Van Der Merwe, 32, infuriated campaigners by sharing the photo of her “perfect” Valen…

www.thesun.co.uk

Between the African trophy kills that always make the news, the smoke a pack a day rhetoric, the poaching, the camp litter, the deer heads tied to truck grills, the anti science rhetoric, etc. We need to rebrand!

Poaching? Thats criminals, period, not hunters or even people that care about public perception. Criminals will always exist. Camp litter? Thats not all from hunters, not by a long shot. Dear heads on truck grills? Never once seen that in my life, you got a time machine or something? Anti science rhetoric? Man every attack on hunting put forth by the antis is 100% emotion based with zero regard for actual facts and completely lacking in a valid scientific purpose.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Unfortunately they've been branded as "Liberal Decoys" by an awful lot of hunters (a recent locked thread over on R---ide). The in-fighting will be our biggest demise

True outdoorsman know what the value of Randy and Steve do.

 

[MTTW]

You guys do realize that this forum is open to the public, right? Plenty of critter hearts to be seen here. Also dead animals killed as trophies and plenty of critters given away as food.
Maybe we should take a look in the mirror. Or do you think that everyone here kills everything they kill for food for themselves. Like we hunt sheep in foreign countries because our freezer is empty.

 

[longbow51]

Trophy hunter slammed for posing with bloody HEART from giraffe she shot

A TROPHY hunter posed with a bloody giraffe heart which was cut out of the beast she shot. Merelize Van Der Merwe, 32, infuriated campaigners by sharing the photo of her “perfect” Valen…

www.thesun.co.uk

Between the African trophy kills that always make the news, the smoke a pack a day rhetoric, the poaching, the camp litter, the deer heads tied to truck grills, the anti science rhetoric, etc. We need to rebrand!

Don't feed the troll.

 

[406LIFE]

Man every attack on hunting put forth by the antis is 100% emotion based with zero regard for actual facts and completely lacking in a valid scientific purpose.

I'd encourage you to look at what some of the anti organizations put out. It is not all emotion. The use studies straight from our side of things to build their cases. Take a look at wounding loss (archery especially) and how they use those studies from P&Y, QDMA/NDA, and others to make their case. We can't simply dismiss their objections/arguments to hunting anymore. We need to be able to answer (and in some cases, clean up) how/why we hunt.

 

[Dunning Kruger]

I'd encourage you to look at what some of the anti organizations put out. It is not all emotion. The use studies straight from our side of things to build their cases. Take a look at wounding loss (archery especially) and how they use those studies from P&Y, QDMA/NDA, and others to make their case. We can't simply dismiss their objections/arguments to hunting anymore. We need to be able to answer (and in some cases, clean up) how/why we hunt.

Yeah, and the proposal to ban all bear hunting in california because theyre "at risk" when they have the highest population in the lower 48, which has been increasing for years? Shit like that is what i always see some up. Totally unfounded emotional bullshit absolutely 0% based on any science whatsoever

 

[JLS]

Unfortunately they've been branded as "Liberal Decoys" by an awful lot of hunters (a recent locked thread over on R---ide). The in-fighting will be our biggest demise

Really?

 

[clayPA]

I think Randy and Steve do a heckuva job with this type of thing, and there are a lot of people that feel the same way as them and the OP. Showing what hunting really should be through their stories. There's still way to many people that don't respect the hunt and animal enough. And a lot of people that don't want to be involved in the politics.

 

[MThuntr]

Really?

It was a thread about Mystery Ranch being "woke"...it spilled over a little into a brief out of context mention that they need to leave MT to go the inner city because they used MR and have inclusive conversation on their platforms.

 

[nrpate05]

Huh, I guess I (and probably most people on here...) am a sociopath. Geez. The animal rights groups certainly like to cherry pick the stories they get involved in and put their spin on it. I'm sure a lot of them have seen what Randy and Steve do and they simply can't make an argument against what they do. There really just needs to be more of a conversation between hunters and animal rights groups, but unfortunately, from what I have seen, the hunters are the only ones willing to have that conversation. On another note, I wonder when First Lite will be coming out with pre-torn jeans for me to wear in the field...

 

[JLS]

It was a thread about Mystery Ranch being "woke"...it spilled over a little into a brief out of context mention that they need to leave MT to go the inner city because they used MR and have inclusive conversation on their platforms.

Anti-wokers eh?

 

[LuketheDog]

I'm an unabashed trophy hunter: