Disturbing photos of varmint hunt ( in my local paper)

great_hunter

New member
Hello guys/gals,

This got me a little worked up, and before I show you the story that was printed in our local paper I will give you a little info.

The local whitetails group put on a predator hunt that was held though the month of Jan. It was not your normal hunt, because the coyotes, bobcat, and fox could also be traped. You got 1 ticket and a 5 dollar bounty for every critter you brought in. All the tickets were but into a can for a final drawing (4 items). It was put on by the whitetails unlimited in hopes of decreasing some of the predator population in the area. The only catch was that they had to be brought in in the round and most guys opted skinned there animals and only brought in the animals they harvested the few days before the check in date (3 yotes and 3 bobcats, one yote was mine). The local paper took a picture of the critters hanging on the pole with 2 kids (sons of one of the hunters). The picture was put in the paper a few weeks back with a short story. Well in this weeks paper was a short story from some lady in WI (Kelly Robenhorst, from Pulaski, WI), and she was not very pleased LOL. Here is the story word for word, and I would like to here what you guys/gals think? I know I was not very happy!!!!!!!!!

To the editor,
The pictures and write up about the "Whitetails Varmint Hunt" on the back page in Jan. 31st Sentinel, literally made me sick to my stomach and caused a sleepless night.
What kind of thoughtless parent would let their little children pose with dead animals? Those beautiful bobcats and coyotes should be running free. They are not varmints! Rats are varmints, people who teach their children immoral behavior are varmints, and beople who kill innocent animals are varmints.
I hope Stu Lahti and his gang of killers are real proud of their little prizes they won. Now you have lots more non-varmint animals to kill and eat!
P.S. Please editor, do not publish any more disturbing pictures like those.

Does the word PETA come to mind!!!!!! I just do not understand some of these people and am not going to waist my breath to try and change there minds. As far as the kids in the picture go, I can remember posing for pictures with dead animals before I could even shoot a gun, and think it is a good way to get our younger generation iterested in the outdoors. I have been taking pictures of my daughter with animals I have taken since she was 4. She is 7 know and has a great interest in hunting when she gets older, and I even bought her, her first gun last year.

Well enough rambling on. I just thought you guys/ gals might want to see this, and would like to here some of you thoughts.

Great!!
« Last Edit: Today at 1:11am by greatwhunter » Link to Post - Back to Top Logged
 
FWIW I have thought for some time that the photos of bloody dead coyotes, in bunches, are a time bomb waiting to explode in terms of bad publicity for predator hunters. Just think what the lady who wrote to the editor would write if she saw one of those pictures, of a pile of coyotes, not just a few with some kids. And the editor would use the photo, selected Bubba quotes and public revulsion to create a local storm about cruel hunter overkill and sell lots of papers if he is a normal editor.

Please, if you can, make a distinction between my personal position of enjoying predator hunting, and the perception of non-hunters who see such pictures. YMMV but ultimately the mileage that counts will be the majority of voting public. I've got great pictures of my dad and me with predators we got when I was a kid, and I,I,I, d,d,du,don't think it werped me yet, at least not m,m,m,mucch. Same with me and my sons who grew up to be real adults, much better than their dad.

FWIW, I try to take photos that make the animal look good, fur natural, no blood if possible. That's a standard for major hunting magazine publication, for the express reason of not offending the non-hunting public, or offending them as little as possible. With enemies like PETA, there is no sense in helping them with photos that make us look bad. Try to look at a photo with the eyes of a non-hunter, through the viewfinder, before you snap the shot, or at least before posting in public. This is probably a hopeless education attempt, but might be worthwhile for Predator Masters to strengthen photo submission guidelines, for OUR own good.
 
i thought this country was founded on people who hunted for there food for survival. And the fur berrors for clothing. Its funny how the democrats are saying bush is not following the constitution. But they are the ones who want to make the 2nd ammendment dissappear. Just like peta jerks trying to stop what is our rite. It seems like it's the democrat creeps that kiss peta butt, that want to change our country. And it just makes me sick when i here of someone who says they like to hunt, but they voted democrat.
this country is full of people with no common since.
 
The picture was of 3 yotes and 2 bobcat that were hanging across a pole, and the 2 kids where standing infront of the critters. There was no blood nor could you make out the animals really good (more or less just looked like fur and tails). It was on the back page of the paper where all the outdoors stuff is such as dead deer and fish pictures. To me the lady was most upset with the kids in the picture. What I took from the picture is that it was not just a bunch of guys out there just killing animals so they can brage about it in the local paper, but that most of these guys were DAD's that incorparated hunting with educating there kids in the outdoors and also spending time with them. So if that lady does not like that kind of picture she should just not look at that page or just keep her big mouth shut. Anyway, she does not even live in this state let alone this town, so why does she think she has the right to comment on what we put in our paper.

Sorry, I am starting to get carried away, but I just makes me a little made!!!!!
 
The Lady wrote:
Quote:
Those beautiful bobcats and coyotes should be running free. They are not varmints! Rats are varmints, ....



I don't think she would think twice about killing a rat or mouse in her home. She probably eats meat, too.
It's strange that some people don't object to killing certain animal species (like rats), but, consider it immoral to kill some other animal species (like coyotes). /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif
PC
 
PineCone:
I agree with you. It seems the "pretty" ones are the only ones they care about. What makes a bobcat's life any more important than a rat's? Not to mention they dont have a clue about things like carrying capacity, mange, rabies, livestock and pet predation and on and on. I wonder if she thinks about all the "cute" bunnies and fawns the "beutiful bobcats and coyotes" eat?
 
People that dont like hunting or eating meat should not even be here. The way I see it anyways is that we were brought up to hunt and fish for food and clothing. Now maybe that was back in teh day, but thats how we all got here toda, isn't it?? They didn't exactly have a Safeway down the road to go and buy groceries. People had to go out and kill for food to eat. Stupid people anyways. They dont deserve to be treated any better then any varmint.
 
That Petaphile Baraga rag has printed worse than that;maybe you oughtta take the editor out for a walk in Pelke.

Edge
 
I have herd that Stu Lati will be putting his response in next weeks paper. So I will just wait and see what he has to say. I hope he handles it in a profeshinal mannor, but I do agree that her opinion sould have never been published in this paper. In an area such as ours I do not think that the papers editor will gane any browny points with most of the general public.
 
**In an area such as ours I do not think that the papers editor will gane any browny points with most of the general public.**

The UP is becoming more urban,with a lot of flatlanders moving in.As long as you have ballot initiative,you need to be pro-active in keeping the hunting,trapping rights that you have;ie,the Dove hunt.Write your own response,your wolf coordinator(get his number from the DNR) can help you with predation details,even if the reply from Stu is good,two will be better.

Edge
 
some people don't really understand who predators are and what they do, they have no clue what its like having livestock and wild game being destroyed by these "beautiful animals who need to be running free" costing some people thousands of dollars after the damage they've done
 
Back
Top