An Email From An Anti-Hunter

© Othmar Vohringer

A few days ago I received an email from an animal rights activist. It’s not the first time and like the ones before, mostly contains the kind of language that cannot be printed in a publication such as this. The thing that baffles me time and again is how these people can put “love”, “respect” and “compassion” in the same sentence with wishes “… that you will die a gruesome death.” And to add emphasis to their universal hatred for hunters: “people like you should all be rounded up and summarily shot.”

Make no mistake, I am a great supporter of animal welfare organizations and have even volunteered my time for such. My faithful dog “Gazu” came from an animal shelter and the hard work volunteers do there every single day earns my deepest respect. But I deplore the many animal rights organizations, like PeTA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), the HSUS (Humane Society of the United States), and the slew of similar organizations that raise vast sums of money, most of which disappears into the pockets of their board members. These groups resort to lies and fabrications that are designed to tug on the heartstrings of children and city folks, to get them to donate money.

While PeTA claims that they do not endorse violence against people to intimate others a little research about that organization quickly shows that they readily support radical and militant animal rights terrorists, that blow up, or set fire to, farms and other animal husbandry systems. PeTA founder and president for life, Ingrid Newkirk, even went so far as to say; “The activists of the ALF (Animal Liberation Front) are the true heroes of animal liberation.” This is the organizations that the FBI and the US government officially declared “Domestic Terrorists”.

How far this hatred can go became evident a few weeks ago. A father posted a picture on his facebook site of his son with the first deer he shot. It took all of 24 hours to get over 150 comments from animal rights activists. Most of the comments in some form or other voiced not only displeasure about the image but also a violent death to the child. One of the animal rights activists recognized the boy and revealed his address on facebook, commenting “…someone should go there and kill that little f… the same way he killed that innocent deer.” I followed some of the protester’s profile links and to my horror learned that these comments were made by adults, most of them parents too. It begs the question of how low can someone sink in his political views that he wishes someone would inflict harm or kill a child. The father of the boy felt the need to contact the police and seek protection for his son from these radicals. This is by no means an isolated case. There are thousands of cases on social media where hunters are threatened. How are animal rights activists even made aware of hunters on social media? From organizations like PeTA which posts 24/7 “alerts” on their sites with the urging of “take action against this atrocity”. With that these organizations openly engage in the spread of hatred.

The fact animal rights folks overlook, and purposely so, is that all life on this planet is sustained by ending another life. Even vegetarians and vegans, which are some of the most hateful, ignorant and violent among the animal rights crowd, have blood on their hands. The crop fields, fruit and vegetable plantations were at one time wildlife habitat, and so are the towns and cities vegetarians live in and the roads they drive on with their cars. Pesticides used to protect crops kill billions of insects- insects which are the food source of songbirds, mice and other animals.

The wildlife that called these places home did not just yield willingly, they were displaced or killed. Vegetarians and animal rights activists wear shoes that are made from the skins of slaughtered cattle. Nutritional supplements like Iron and Vitamin B 12 that vegans need to supplement their diet, are for the most part derived from animal by-products.

Everybody dreams of a fantasy world where the lion sleeps with the lamb. But that is not how nature works. Nature works on the principle of eat and be eaten. Every living thing on this earth, even plants, prospers because something else died. It’s an endless cycle of creating life through death. It has been so since life first took hold on this earth and no animal rights terrorist agenda is going to change that.
When I kill an animal I do not gloat about it. I am proud of the fact that, as a hunter, I am able to provide healthy, organic and nutritious meat for our dinner table. Unlike animal rights activists, I have not lost touch with the real world around us and the part we play in it. I realized a long time ago that death must occur to sustain life. The difference is that some people can accept that fact and are stronger for it while others prefer to ignore the facts of life and choose to commit violent acts to support their radical political agenda.