Remember this: Do not throw stones at people talking from experience. It might save your life.
I am writing this piece more as a warning than a commentary on ruining some outfitter's hunting business. At the rate someone participating in this kind of behavior is pursuing, they are going to harm themselves. Always investigate outfitters from a reputable or irreputable outfitter service.
Sexual predators have been around for a long time. Usually these sorts of people are found in the form of rapists, child molesters, pimps, sex traffickers and overtly-dominant types in relationships. Sexual predators always find an environment where they can take every advantage for themselves by the 'spot and stalk' technique that is prevalent in hunting circles. There is also such a thing as prostitution rings in hunting. This is not a part of hunting, yet a way for a group or person to take advantage of the beloved sport that I have come to love. It even extends into shooting as the escort service type. These types of endeavors are more socially directed than anything to do with hunting itself. It's a way to take advantage of an activity for selfish and polluting purposes. I guess some savvy individual sees a 'need' and offers a 'service'.
Sexual Tourism has become a global problem. International businesses are using self-prostitution as a means to acquire money under the guise of a service. Sex sales because it's on the mainstream commercials and magazine ads, but it's meant to be titillating. There are those that actually prostrate women out as a advertisement, knowing that it allures to the empty promise of sex with a beautiful, unattainable woman. If that woman isn't getting paid-she's being exploited by a pimp-like individual.
Human beings are sexual beings. It's when that ideal gets exploited for monetary rewards in the form of the age old profession.
How would the sexual predator use hunting as a lure to attract unknowing females or females that want to get into the sport but haven't participated before?
Build a social media page with a corresponding internet business page then connect with strangers on the internet while researching their personal likes and dislikes. Oh happy day when they enter a private page. They then stay silent, watch and wait for opportunity. It's literally a virtual Ghillie suit.
You would have to be an adept hunter who can notice anomalies to spot one of these because it is usually another hunter. Yes, the sexual predator is an actually hunter. Why break from tradition?
Not to long ago, I used a social media site and became connected to a person there that was advertised as a guide. I made the random comment but there was limited response. There was also another safari page I was connected to that the year before solicited me to 'come there and hunt' but my father was ill. I said no, but kept it in the back of my mind so if my situation changed I could look into booking a hunt. Of course, I didn't feel the need to disclose my intentions as it was a business. I also wanted to open a dialogue with the owners so that I could feel comfortable about going to a foreign land by myself without the worry someone I wasn't sure of was waiting for me.
I deleted that page because I became more concerned the business was shady. Within an hour of the disconnect, the other outfitter sent a request. I took it then re-friended the other page I had just left.
Why would I do that? Like in Hamlet, I thought something was stinking in Denmark. I also thought the likelihood there was a herd behind this unsavory business, I could just relieve myself of the whole mess and block them all. I also figured if I didn't 'nip it in the bud' like Barney Fife said, I would have an ongoing problem of strangers having fun at my expense.
Later, I would learn these two men (with the help of others) worked together anonymously doing questionable things on the internet at the admission of the other.
In a nutshell this is what happened. I was approached by an individual that was drunk by admission who later sent me a nude photo of himself with the promise that the following month if I were to book a safari with him, that I could have sex with him the whole time, hunt and have me pay for it. When he found out I wasn't interested based on his behavior, he proclaimed I was stalking him. He became very angry then the following conversations reeked of a fake remorse at his behavior.
After that conversation with the photos, I decided to investigate the people I thought were involved. It seemed to me they were passing the phone around while they were on a hunt or online because they never could keep up with the conversation or the right language. I am really not sure how many were involved. I spoke to this lovely lady who told me what I suspected the whole time. It was a lure to get unsuspecting females either married or with children to go abroad for sex and hunting at a price. If they were married that would be all the better because then if they consummate the deal in the bed, there is always the threat of blackmail because of adultery and shame to their children or family.
The other aspect to this is, if the trip were planned with the intention to hide some adulterous act, the female couldn't be promised that once she arrived in that foreign land that she would be meeting the person she was suppose to. Even meeting the intended outfitter once she leaves the airport, the fact she may never be seen again is likely. There is also the fear of being sold as a sex slave.
I really don't have to name names because this is real. Other women should know that these things can happen to them. Most will believe it could ever happen to them. There is your first mistake.
It's detrimental to the sport. As women are becoming more involved, you have novices that do not have mentors to see them over rough spots or have their back when they get in this kind of situation.
It's probably single mothers, divorcees, wives, and singletons.
There are also adventure seeking young college students dreaming of fabulous trips to foreign lands and having a good-looking guy as a plus would lure them because in truth they are not worldly, only intrepid.
It's like going into the Alaskan tundra inhabited by bears. If you're not savvy enough or knowledgeable, the chance you're going to get eaten by one is almost assured. Unless you're crazy like a fox.
By the time this person or persons got through they asked for my silence or 'not to tell'.
Here I was thinking:
1. I got propositions with nude photos and empty promises.
2. I got insulted because I rejected the offer.
3. The person or persons thought I was a target or wanted to get incriminating info on me.
4. Asked for my silence on their bad behavior.
5. Finally stated they have a physical problem to excuse bad behavior.
I then thought what could possibly happen to a woman that goes abroad by herself to these places:
1. Once she's picked up from the airport she disappears like Natalee Holloway. Never to be seen again. I watched a documentary where women would consort with him even after he was all over the news for murder. He eventually was videotaped trying to start a sex trade operation in Thailand(??) then he killed a Peruvian girl, which ended in his imprisonment.
2. She decides she has been mislead by the person because once she meets them in person, they are not what they advertised. She might get away by leaving for a hotel before going with them.
3. She is suspicious something isn't right but then finds out later when she gets to where they are taking her, that she is then threatened, raped, or fed to the hippos.
4. She goes, gets emotionally entangled then tossed aside while depleted of her money. Again if the outfitter is nice, she might return and put more money into the business but when she becomes to clingy, is dismissed and threatened with blackmail or shamed into silence.
Sexual predators see their targets as emotionally compromised or to open. This lady I talked to asked the question more to herself, "How did that happen to me?". The guide/outfitter that took advantage of her, probably saw a generally honest and open person then went in for the kill. I would suspect he took his time, learned his quarry, what lured her, set out the bait and waited for her to approach.
It would be quite easy to take advantage of an emotionally compromised person that is having trouble at home. They tend to seek out a trustworthy soul to counsel them through their problems but this is when the predator strikes. When they think you are weak-minded or distracted.
Most animals are naive, will come right up to danger, and be the willing victim by happenstance. They see no danger. The outfitter that is a sexual predator will exploit this by appearing trustworthy and a protector. Once he has you in his clutches in a foreign land, where else is there to go but along with it or fight your way out the bush the best way you can. Once you are there you are in it. Its called Deep Shit.
~Written by: W Harley Bloodworth~
~Courtesy of the AOFH~
