The Media Run: Hunting Suicide

Remember this: We are drowning in a narrative of non-sense.

The issue against and for trophy hunting has become the media blitz, much like Baby Jane, who was stuck in hole. Every couple of seconds, the public was updated, but Baby Jane just wasn't budging. Finally she was freed from her conundrum, much like my dream of the public being freed from the current narrative of lions, hunter-poachers, and how ultimately, Africa should step up.

On this same episode, Georgia Pellegrini was cooking lion meatballs. She stated Americans were becoming more adventurous in the exotic foods they eat. No one, as I can remember, likes to find out they are serving cat or dog at a local restaurant. From what I see, I would beg to differ to some extent. Pellegrini stated lion meat was a little chewy.

No girlfriend, I don't want the lion's meatballs. Someone, somewhere does because it has a market. Everything you can think to put in your mouth and digest has a market.

Georgia Pellegrini is one of the rare people I put on my anemically thin lists to be interested in enough to follow. She's a positive.

I am trying to feel out the trophy hunting scheme through questions based around its representatives, self-appointed or not.

Here I would like to shake my head and wag my finger at the false report of Jericho being killed by the media. Shame on you, my friend, shame on you.

I was watching an episode of a news broadcast with Bob Barker. Bob is supporting the stance of calling for a bounty on the head of the dentist alleged to have killed Cecil, the Lion. Come on Bob, don't stoop down to everyone else's level.

Grabs popcorn.

There was also this new face, to which I was never aware of, called the Italian Huntress, Sabrina Corgatelli. She desires to be famous, so now she is. She is infamous and represents herself as the Nelly Olson of Hunting. A very beautiful woman, with a mean spirit, who walks about town, rubbing her entitlements in the faces of people, while she could care less if she ruins other hunters privileges.

Come on girlfriend, stop making yourself and hunters look bad.

Add her to the list of female hunters, as poor representatives, and let us move on to the next person on the conveyor belt of mediocrity. Would someone please push the OFF button?

This storyline began to look like dirty, streaked underwear you pull from the spin cycle that never gets clean. Those underwear belong to someone else, but there they are in your hands for you to clean; a stain that will not come out.

I put my eye glasses down. I felt the area between my eyes, which was pinched with tension. Not another one......

What ever happened to hunting and just being happy with that?

I considered Sabrina Corgatelli. Yes, she has a lot of trophy animals. Her life seems to be awesome but....I wondered at the quality of how each one was garnered when considering what I had been told about African hunting. Add in the way the alleged hunting of Cecil ended with a lure on a truck hood. Now more people are speaking out about the routes to which foreign hunters actually get their tag fill in the way of trophy hunting.

I also considered the reality that Mrs. Corgatelli is just expending a lot of energy hitting back at strangers in the rouse of a fight.

Does it make sense to have a self-appointed defender of trophy hunting, when the attitude is derogatory to maintaining the benefits of trophy hunting itself?

How does a huntress go about defending poachers. Yes, the events started out as hunting, but ended as alleged poaching. Before speaking, should one make sure of the legalities of the accused parties before opening one's mouth in defense of them? Once again, how do you defend poachers? Where does the line between one's concept of the ethics and morals of hunting exist, as it is trickling down the leg, when it comes to defending the wrong priority?

Are hunters encouraging bad behavior by standing to the side, ignoring the damage it could eventually inflict to us all?

What exactly is Corgatelli trying to achieve? Is this the best way for her to achieve it for herself?

Right about now, I am not seeing this as a benefit for hunters-at-large. It reminds me of farting. It makes a big sound, smells really bad, but dissipates over time. In reflection, it is only considered a humorous joke to laugh at by spectators. The guilty party farting either giggles while flaunting their putrid smell, or shuffles away to ingest some Gas-X, much to their chagrin.

I asked myself, “Is everyone trying to be the Clint Eastwood of Hunting?” If the person is not trying to be Ernest Hemingway, Daniel Boone, or Fred Bear, who are they really?

Is not the cup brimming over with a magnified example of the worst human kind has to offer, in the way of behavior and actions on everyone's part?

I see the problem as this: the mental and verbal attitudes and actions of hunters posting commentary with photograph. This is what fuels the gap between non-hunters and hunters. It is no more than an elementary school yard fight.

How many people have you seen in the hunting community, hold the red fabric up so the bull will charge directly at them?

The matador is standing inside the ring with a Toro. In the reality of social media, you are not going against one lone animal in the tundra, with the advantage of a lethal weapon. You are pitting yourself against a million social vampires, who will swarm you, and bleed you dry. They need only smell one drop of blood to draw them.

This has become a train wreck that will eventually end up in our homes, polluting up our lives, and eventually making it hard on people hunting, who are not standing on a dry hill, waving their hands for celebrity and attention.

What do we consider hunters as, when hunters intentionally make themselves targets?

Where did humanity's ability to think and assess problems to find solutions go? Why is there no diplomatic way to deal with the issue of trophy hunting asides from calling for murder? Why can people not act like intelligent human beings in times of crisis? Why do we attack each other as a first response to anything that would bring about conflict?

Why is Africa not stepping up to deal with their problem, that is happening on their soil, at the expense of American dollars?

Should the person, who is merely an instigator with a gun, be held up as the representative for all who hunt in asundry? If they self-appoint themselves, can we fire them from the job no one hired them for?

Does there come a point when hunters in mass say to the hunting participant doing us all damage, “Just stop talking. You are not doing us any favors by using your position in life to make hunters look like instigators, entitled spoiled brats, and people willing to do anything to put their face out in the media, in the most negative way possible.”

Could this be possible?

I saw a post that stated, “When you find yourself digging a hole, stop.” Someone out there is not just digging a hole, it is a crater. That crater is going to be just like the hunting pits of old, where all the hunters are being pressed over the edge, metaphorically speaking, just like the wild game hunted.

Then again, it could be where some thugs show up and dig your grave outside your house to scare you into backing off. In this case, some of the trophy hunters are outside their house digging their own hole.

This will come home to roost because legislation will change to fit the majorities belief that something is dreadfully wrong and something needs to be done about it. Think about the gun control issue.

I could also go into questioning the News media. Should not the News media be looking at individuals to ascertain if the person they are about to expose to the masses, is indeed a relevant narrative, or National Inquirer sensationalism.

I remember loving to watch the news because of Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Ted Koppel, and Connie Chung. Where did the great news anchors and journalist go? Did they jump on the boat with Bilbo and Frodo to go to the never-never place of Keebler Elves?

Has humanity come to the end of the road where journalism is concerned? There is no other story writ, or are we waiting on the next catastrophe?

Somewhere in my head, I hear Rita Skeeter speaking,

“As hunters, are we just as guilty for standing by and letting what will happen, happen? Concerned!”

Written by: W Harley Bloodworth, Concerned Citizen

Once Upon A Time In A Hunting Stand

Remember this: Once upon a time in a hunting stand there was a woman who thought.............

During one of my first re-con sitting marathons in the deer stand, I sat back in the white faux leather chair to ease my mind. The cobwebs were quickly swept away as I could hear the sounds of things moving in the swamp. I knew whatever was in there was investigating from the bush so I paid no never mind. It would either come out or not. I was maintaining my coolness while mentally making a closer inspection of the machine of merchandising and sport shows.

The place these thoughts were coming from was the ever increasing concern that my concept of hunting could be indirectly/directly influenced by media and the messages it sends through advertising or informative hunting shows. I asked myself some questions.
How has media influence me positively or negative in my hunting endeavors? What messages have I received from exposing myself to these constructs?
Hunting does support a huge amounts of individuals and their families. On the other hand there are people that feed money into the machine only to get poorer. The discerning huntress has to navigate through this forest to find the trail that leads to a personal defining viewpoint she is comfortable  living with. No apologies or explanations should be required. It is what it is.

I thought about the big business of merchandising.
Do you often ask yourself when buying something is it a necessity? Is it a relevant product? Am I going to benefit from this purchase or will it make things too easy?
To me this is like picking up a book and reading the last chapter while skipping the body of the text.
I personally do not buy a lot of the things necessary to improve my hunting. Nor do I want all the information that could be available to make my hunting experience so easy that I get bored of it then quit. I like a more natural approach to stalking deer or in the case of a stand: sit and wait. I do not use scent blockers because I have found that I actually like a level of difficulty to outsmarting a buck.
On a more personal note as compared to information I gleaned from informative hunting shows, I have noticed the following. Even though this is definitely not the norm it seems to work for me.
Most of the time I spray a Honeysuckle scent on because wild jasmine grows in my hunting spot. Washing in a sodium bath followed by a floral underarm deodorant doesn't bother the deer either. I have noted they will smell and react to a male before they will a female. Also not eating tons of meat so it can ooze out your pores is another habit I have. If you don't smell like a meat eater they don't see you as a threat. I remember seeing the guy who studied wolves even said he had to feast like wolves by eating liver for them to smell and accept him. Its a different way of looking at the situation for sure. Even though this is contrary to known information on how someone should hunt is it wrong? Probably not. Are other peoples' ways of doing things wrong? No. Whatever works for the individual or gives them confidence is probably not a bad thing. No way of doing it is created equal.
I recently had a conversation with a nice hunter from England concerning the changing requirements of guns being used during fowl hunting. One interesting comment was on whatever was the fashion at the time. Can hunting be fashionable or unfashionable? Why not. This could pertain to the weapon of choice, bullets, dogs, boots, vehicles, etc. At the core of it is merchandising for profit.

In some countries, people that hunt dress up in fashionable regalia to go hunting. Depending on what the fashion of the moment is, that is what you will enjoy. Is it required? It would depend on who you associate with or the club. Is there something wrong with hunting clubs having a level or fashionable decorum? Certainly not. You always retain the option of saying yes or no.These are more formal social events geared to enjoy hunting but also hold fellowship with other like minded souls. In other countries, people that hunt will dress up like commandos with high powered weapons to enjoy their time. In other parts of the world you might find the lone hunter sitting out in a deer stand much like me with a pair of blue jeans and a red hoodie on waiting to claim that nights supper if you're lucky.
Even though each one of these scenarios is different are any of them wrong? I would say no. One would have to extend to the other a certain amount of respect for their way of doing things because it is the custom or the requirement. Its like the old saying goes, when a man is in a strange land, he should do as the locals do so as to not insult anyone which could cause his death.

I knew that this perspective stemmed from the many hunting based activities that existed outside of hunting in the actual woods. I thought of the hunting expos I had attended with rude people, vendors that sized clients up based on looks without offering a service, or the way women were sold the more prettier things such as clothes or ambience instead of something concrete.

My thoughts on this were not negative but more of a thoughtful exploration on how I perceived these issues. I would hope that others would examine these as well. It is something to think about.

Written by W Harley Bloodworth

~Courtesy of the AOFH~