Conservation

While there is much about Ted Nugent to dislike, there is also much about him to like. He has hunts that raise money for kids charities.

This, of course, draws the ire of animal rights activities.

His epic response: Whenever I donate a hunting trip for the Children's Leukemia Foundation, Ronald McDonald Cancer House, all these children's charities, I offer the anti-hunters an opportunity: if you donate more to the children's charity than the hunters donate we won't go hunting.

So far, he's never canceled a hunting trip.

Now comes the story of a Texas hunter who ponied up $350K to shoot a rhino in Africa.

If you object to this, how much have you spent on rhino conservation in Africa? This $350K goes toward research, conservation, supporting the autochthons whose crops are ruined by rhinos and the meat went to feed them. How much money have you contributed?

Yeah.

SCIENCE!

A lot of people say this is not conservation. A lot of people won't bother to read, much less understand the science behind this hunt.

From the story:

The removal of limited numbers of males has been shown to stimulate population growth in some areas. Removing specific individuals from a population can result in reduced male fighting, shorter calving intervals, and reduced juvenile mortality.

Black rhinos have "the highest combat mortality rates of any mammal," Namibia'sOshili 24 reports. "Approximately 50 percent of males and 30 percent of females die from combat-related injuries."

The old males, targeted for death, can't breed any more, but are capable of killing breeding-age males and females.

If you are one who objects to this kind of hunt, how would you deal with these old males who kill other rhinos instead of breeding females? They're already effectively sterile.

You'd remove them from the population? How? Put them in a fenced enclosure? Really? You're going to take this majestic animal that has run free all his life and put him in a prison simply for doing what comes naturally.

If that's your opinion, I suggest you need to redefine cruelty.

You'd let him run free and kill other rhinos, further reducing the already endangered population? What's the real difference in rhinos killing each other and a hunter killing an old, non-breeding rhino? You'd let him be gored and spend days to more than week slowly dying from an infection v. being dispatched in a matter of seconds by a bullet?

Which is the real cruelty?

MARKED FOR... IDIOCY!

This hunter has received plenty of death threats, as have other hunters who visited Africa.

I am no stranger to death threats from the anti hunter crowd. It's been a while since one threatened to take me out and I don't mean to lunch. My response has been, to each one of these individuals, "Let's rock."

It takes a seriously special brand of stupid to send a death threat to a person who's been directly responsible for the death of hundreds to possibly more than 1,000 animals. It takes a special brand of blithering idiot to threaten a person who can bust a 4" bull's eye all day at any distance up to 300 yards, ESPECIALLY when the person making the threat is afraid of a gun. It takes a real Class A moron to threat to kill a person who's stood down animals that will kill the hunter.

YOU ARE A HUNTER

I hunt. Hunting is natural, even for human beings. You are descended from a long line of hunters. As am I.  Your digestive tract evolved to digest meat.

If you in ANY way use a product that comes from an animal, associate with people who use animal products, live in a house, drive, own any mode of transportation other than your feet, shop in stores or do anything except run around the woods naked and sleep in the open eating only roots, fruits, nuts and leaves, you are almost directly and indirectly responsible for the death of animals. If you own a vehicle and drive it, then you are directly responsible for the death of animals.

That you are reading this means you contributed to the death of many animals. The infrastructure that allows you to get online meant the death of thousands of animals and destruction of their homes.

You are a hunter, whether you accept this or not. If you don't accept it, then you are a hypocrite at best.

Certainly, if you consume meat, you are a hunter, just a step removed from the process.

I hunt. I am proud of this. If I ever get the opportunity to shoot a rhino, an elephant, a lion or some other creature like that, I'm going to do it and I will brag about it. I'm not going to be a hypocrite. I'm going to own up to what I did and not hide behind excuses, insults, empty threats and cognitive dissonance.