News: World Hunting Association: Competitive Hunting

Here I was, all the time thinking and believing that hunting is a age old heritage and a useful wildlife management tool. I actually thought that hunting never could be reduced to a mere competitive sport with thousands of dollars cash prizes to win.

Boy was I wrong!

The World Hunting Association founded by David Faberman, a real estate executive has just announced plans to launch a competitive hunting tour around the world, with the inaugural season beginning in Gladwin, Michigan. Competitive Sport Hunters will shoot game animals with tranquilizers. This is what the World Hunting Association refers to as “catch and release hunting”.

Faberman got the idea from the bass fishing tournaments and like them the winner of his hunting tournament is offered more than $500,000 in prize money for the first two tournaments. Faberman has big plans and likes to talk big too. He claims that this hunting competition “…fills a void by providing a platform that benefits the entire international hunting industry today and for generations to come.” Another bold statement he made is; “For to long, hunters have looked forward to the day when we would eventually get our own professional sport league.”

Well, it looks like Faberman may choke on his own big plans and words. The hunting community if anything is outraged by the mere idea that their heritage is about to be reduced to a spectator’s sport for the highest bidding participants. Rumor has it that the phone lines and email inboxes are jammed with complaints from the hunting community. The last I heard is that due to hunter pressure some of the World Hunting Association sponsors have pulled out or at least reconsider sponsorship.

If the World Hunting Association should get off to a start then there are some very negative aspects to conceder. I hope that hunters all over the world will keep up the pressure on the World Hunting Assiciation and their sponsores to stop this money driven insanity by a person who obviously cares more about making big bucks than about the hunting heritage and real hunters for that matter.