Shooting things is what we do — be proud
“Wow, that’s awful! Why on earth (would you) kill this poor creature? Damn!”
That’s just one of the comments attached to a Facebook promotion for a story about how LouisianaSportsman.com blogger Josh Chauvin killed a bobcat during a hunt on Richard K. Yancey WMA earlier this fall.
That note, along with several others from obvious animal-rights folks, wasn’t a surprise — other than the fact that these bunny-huggers were fans of a page dedicated to hunting and fishing.
Or maybe that’s the plan: Like hunting and fishing pages, and then use those platforms to espouse the “all animals should be left to skip happily through the woods” philosophy that seems to drive these misguided souls.
But what was surprising was the number of comments from Louisiana Sportsman fans who claimed to be sportsmen but thought the photo should not have been used.
“Why would you shoot that?” one user asked. “Population control is the excuse too many use for killing! Pretty soon having 10 wild cats left will be too many for a hunter that has NO respect for wildlife. I can support deer hunting and keeping wild pigs numbers down. But this was a stupid kill unless it was about to eat your child or destroying your livestock!”
How one can selectively support hunting is a mystery to me. Either you’re a hunter or you aren’t.
But it goes beyond that. Read what another reader — again, one who professed to support hunting — wrote: “Just think this was a horrible PR move on the magazine’s part.”
What? Shooting a legal animal (remember that each licensed hunter is allowed by law to shoot one bobcat per year) and distributing the photo is a bad public relations move?
Obviously, some believe all we have to do is hide photos showing the results of our hunts and anti-hunters will stop attacking the sport we all love.
The fact is that nothing you or I do will ever make the anti-hunting crowd hold our hands and sing “Kumbaya.” Folks, they hate what we do. Period.
Now, should we throw our deer on the hoods of our trucks and parade them around town? Nope. Should we post photos of blood-soaked animals on Facebook? Probably not.
But we should be proud of our hunting successes. Believe me when the day comes that I kill a Boone & Crockett buck, I’ll show photos to everyone I run into.
If you are a fan of a hunting magazine’s Facebook page, guess what? You’re sure to see dead animals. It’s part of the sport.
And as long as kills fall within the boundaries of existing hunting and fishing regulations, Louisiana Sportsman and its social media pages will be the platforms to show off these trophies.
So let’s stop being politically correct in hopes that we don’t offend someone. Instead, let’s celebrate the hunting sports and share the excitement with the next generation.
That’s the only way we’ll win the battle.
