BAN PHOTOS OF “PROUD HUNTERS WITH DEAD GAME” FROM INTERNET

December 3, 2018

KILLING ANIMALS FOR A CHEAP PHOTO-OPPORTUNITY IS DISGUSTING

DON’T COMPOUND THE STUPIDITY BY SHARING IT WITH THE WORLD

Yahoo News (UK) recently published an article with a photo of a fishermen in Queensland, Austrailia with a rare 700 kg ( @1,500lbs) Black marlin.  The authors report that thousands took to Facebook to call the killing of the masssive fish a “disgrace”.  Rightly so.  The captain of the fishing boat claimed that the marlin died of exhaustion while being reeled in.  The catch was legal...but it IS a disgrace to kill a magnificent beast—threatened by extinction and overfishing—-simply for the opportunity to take a picture with it—a photo-op.

This magnificent specimens —WHICH SHULD HAVE BEEN RELEASED AFTER BEING HOOKED AND —BRIEFLY PLAYED—may have been killed as a result of poor judgement and overzealousness of the game-fishier boat captain and crew.  However, it does NOT compare with the utter stupidity and waste of those who kill African (and other) wildlife simply for “sport” or “fun” or to take a photograph and post the evidence of stupidity on Facebook or some other web outlet.  Think of the magnificent elephants, lions, Cape buffalo, tigers, etc. etc, all threatened with extinction and other smaller beasts all of which  are alaughtered needlessly.  We are irreversibly altering an depauperating our planet—all for naught.

Just what are these rich folks  trying to prove?  That  they had enough loose cash to travel to some exotic place.  That they had more lucre to hire an expensive guide who would direct them to a shooting post— while other paid staff drive wild critters to this place of death.  Then the so called “sportsman or woman” is  directed where to point their powerful weapon and told when to pull the trigger.  Does that require great skilll or accomplishment?  Not in my book.

The Facebook “photo op” that sticks in my craw is a recent one of a woman sitting in an apparent African venue, holding her high-velocity rifle in front of the collapsed body of a huge male giraffe. The long mottled legs of this magnificent beat were crumpled in death and its graceful neck was coiled around toward the camera.  The limp—and innocent— dead beast stood out in stark contrast to the stiff, sport-clothed, floppy hatted,  proud-of-herself- woman posing with a happy smile for her photograph of death.  . Now that WAS disgusting!

The solution to the prevention of such idiotic behavior may be the following.  Simply ban such photographs from the web.  We limit pornography and we actually ban child pornography from the WEB.  It is illegal because children can not protect themselves from such evil.  Threatened game animals—like children— are also unable to protect themselves from base human predatory behavior.  They need our help and protection too..

Ban animal-kill “photo-ops” they are almost as disgusting as child porn.