19-year-old girl from Cleburne, Texas, under fire from animal rights activist

[Leo]

I'm not trying to offend people here' date=' like I said to each their own, we all are entitled to our own opinions. Nothing against predator management. I would support her as a female hunter, I just don't necessarily agree with the species of animals she is harvesting...it's just based on my views and opinion. If she's proud of her accomplishments, great. Me...I wouldn't do it. If I did and published myself like that, then yes I'd expect negative feedback from the antis....[/quote']

Frankly, these species won't just be fine if no one hunts them.

If you cut off the income stream provided by the legal hunting of these animals, you will cut off the incentive for landowners and farmers to tolerate them. They will not be boxed up and moved to another location. They will be destroyed.

[Rhino]

I'm not trying to offend people here' date=' like I said to each their own, we all are entitled to our own opinions. Nothing against predator management. I would support her as a female hunter, I just don't necessarily agree with the species of animals she is harvesting...it's just based on my views and opinion. If she's proud of her accomplishments, great. Me...I wouldn't do it. If I did and published myself like that, then yes I'd expect negative feedback from the antis....[/quote']

Ruth,

I'm not offended but I was surprised that you weren't aware how conservation works for these animals in Africa. In a nutshell it's like Leo said. If there's no money in keeping them the general thought there is eliminate them. Now...I'd bet $ if you posted pictures of you with North American big game animals, especially a cougar or bobcat, like she did on facebook, you'd receive some of the same hate messages from the antis like she has.

[VermontHunter]

Me...I wouldn't do it. If I did and published myself like that' date=' then yes I'd expect negative feedback from the antis....[/quote']

Now my curiosity is peaked, and I have to inquire..... Two part question here ...

1) You stated you wouldn't do it, I would like to know and probably others here as well, is why that is Ruth ??

2) Just how did Kendall publish herself differently as other African hunters did to bring on justified hateful remarks as well as death threats ??

I apologize in advance if this seems like I'm calling you out, this is not the case. I'm just trying to get a understanding as to your mind-set with this issue.

[Rhino]

Gee Luke...we all have our preferences on what we enjoy hunting and what we don't. I for one will never make another bear hunt. Made 1...didn't care for it...done with that! I don't care a thing about hunting wild hogs either. I have before simply because they are a nuisance animal we need to try to keep in check. If I go with a group or just a friend that wants to hog hunt locally, I go along and don't take a weapon...an adult beverage instead. I'm sure there are other critters some here have an option to hunt & choose not for their own reasons. That's just 2 that come to mind that I don't care about hunting in the states.

As far as African animals...I have no interest in hunting lion. For 1...a male lion cost ~$50K and you have to have a PH backing you up with his rifle. I have no interest in hunting elephant either. Just don't care about killing one. They are expensive too. Leopard...no thank you...that's usually an all night hunt. Now...African plains game...I'm for that! Some day I hope to return and go for a Sable...they are expensive too. Keep in mind...I would only go back to bowhunt African game again too. Just my preference. Many hunters don't understand that either. With a bow as my weapon of choice I'm not interested in hunting African game that can hunt me. After all...if charged in an attack, you have to be faster than the slowest runner & with 1 bad knee...I'm certainly going to be the slowest. :helpsmilie::clown:

One more thing...I believe if Ruth had an opportunity to hunt African plains game she'd hunt them. Some are more challenging to hunt than whitetail...some less. All the ones I've had the pleasure to eat taste a whole lot better than whitetail too. Sucks the FDA doesn't allow us to take any of the meat back. Chow down while you're there though.

[VermontHunter]

I totally agree with you Al ... I have the opportunity to hunt Moose here, and choose not to just because it doesn't appeal to me, don't know why it just doesn't.( But I do love to eat it tho ). There was another post on here not to long ago when we were talking about shooting down drones and we got on the topic of shooting what I called TAME Pheasant, and I chose to not participate in that hunt, just didn't appeal to me to shoot something that wouldn't run or fly away, no challenge in it, in my opinion but I didn't begrudge anyone else from doing so.

As for African hunting for me, I can't comment if I would enjoy it or not, I've never been close to this type of hunting. I can only rely on other peoples experiences with this type of hunt. I think the travel time alone would turn me off, I hate flight travel .. lol I try in my mind to relate Leopard hunting with Cougar hunting, but again I may be completely wrong with this comparison, since I've never done either.

Like I said, I was curious as to what didn't appeal to Ruth on this type of hunting, and what she thought Kendall did that warranted being attacked in the manner she is. I in no way mean this as a personal attack, just curiosity on my part is all. ...

[RangerClay]

not that I don't think it's great she's a female out hunting' date=' I just disagree with that type of hunting...elephants and what not are already endangered...to me African hunting is like shooting your horse (zebra) or your cat (leopard/lion)...she's probably not going to eat the meat, she's probably doing it for the trophy status.[/quote']

PETA absolutely loves hunters like you. Like Hoosier said, you need to do some proper research before you make comments like this in public. It's fine to stand up and say it's not for me, but please don't say that she is hunting endangered animals when that is far from truth.

Here are a couple links,

http://www.scienceinafrica.com/old/index.php?q=2004/september/elephant.htm

http://gulfnews.com/about-gulf-news/al-nisr-portfolio/tabloid/articles/over-population-forces-lion-culling-1.308448

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/11/1105_041105_elephants_2.html

[RangerClay]

not that I don't think it's great she's a female out hunting' date=' I just disagree with that type of hunting...elephants and what not are already endangered...to me African hunting is like shooting your horse (zebra) or your cat (leopard/lion)...she's probably not going to eat the meat, she's probably doing it for the trophy status.[/quote']

PETA absolutely loves hunters like you. Like Hoosier said, you need to do some proper research before you make comments like this in public. It's fine to stand up and say it's not for me, but please don't say that she is hunting endangered animals when that is far from truth.

Here are a couple links,

http://www.scienceinafrica.com/old/i...r/elephant.htm

http://gulfnews.com/about-gulf-news/...lling-1.308448

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...ephants_2.html

[Turkeygirl]

I guess it comes down to ethics...ethics can be very controversial and individually based. My ethics might be a little different than yours. Honestly, why I am not surprised she got attacked by the antis is considering a couple thoughts. Look at how the U.S. has portrayed African animals in the market - movies (Lion King for example), toys/stuffed animals. When people think of African animals, they think of how they are portrayed by society....I think of them as majestic amazing creatures, some may think cute, and in Africa they perhaps do view them as predator and game animals like we look at whitetail deer. Part of this has to do with education, culture, society. And then this was brought up not by me but someone at work who saw this...but how she presents herself, bear hugging the animals like they are stuffed animals...some people might view this as distasteful...She can do what she wants, that's fine, I am just trying to point out look at both sides of the picture.

I am not into African big game hunting, that is just me, I have no interest or desire in hunting those animals, plain and simple. I am perfectly happy with the challenge of hunting whitetail and North American game. May not be a good answer for some of you but it's good for me. Have a little humility.

[Rhino]

I totally agree with you Al ... I have the opportunity to hunt Moose here, and choose not to just because it doesn't appeal to me, don't know why it just doesn't.( But I do love to eat it tho ). There was another post on here not to long ago when we were talking about shooting down drones and we got on the topic of shooting what I called TAME Pheasant, and I chose to not participate in that hunt, just didn't appeal to me to shoot something that wouldn't run or fly away, no challenge in it, in my opinion but I didn't begrudge anyone else from doing so.

As for African hunting for me, I can't comment if I would enjoy it or not, I've never been close to this type of hunting. I can only rely on other peoples experiences with this type of hunt. I think the travel time alone would turn me off, I hate flight travel .. lol I try in my mind to relate Leopard hunting with Cougar hunting, but again I may be completely wrong with this comparison, since I've never done either.

I can relate to what you're saying about hunting pen raised pheasant. I once did a pen raised quail hunt with dogs. The guy had to throw a weighted sack at the quail to get them to fly. That's not for me either. Live & learn!

As I understand cougar hunting, it's nothing like leopard hunting. Leopard hunting (bowhunting) is mainly done at night from a blind with bait hung in a tree. Not unusual for a leopard hunter to hunt all night long & never get a shot. Then the hunter ends up sleeping during the day to rest up for the next evenings hunt. Blown daylight hunting opportunities IMO and you miss out on enjoying watching African game during daylight hours while your hunting. As with any hunt where you have to travel to hunt...my attitude is there is no tomorrow so enjoy it to the fullest extent that you can while you're there is more important than trying to hunt a critter at night. Cougar hunts as I understand them are usually done with dogs trying to tree the cougar. No telling how many miles cougar hunters may need to cover before the dogs tree the cougar.

[VermontHunter]

Thank you Ruth and Al for your replies ,, like I said and want to stress, I wasn't trying to stir something up or attack anyone I was just trying to understand and not draw any wrong conclusions to any statements that were made. Again Thank you for the replies.

Edited July 10, 2014 by VermontHunter

[wtnhunt]

Unfortunately Ruth the antis probably see little or no difference in African and north American game. You mention Disney movies, what is bigger than Bambi when it comes to misleading? Sooooo many non hunting folks out there are poorly educated or misguided. The antis can gain ground when they can divide hunters and unfortunately i think that is what it looks like here with your posts.

Hunting most of those animals would probably not be for me either, but the girl is accomplished and she should be able to share her success with others without being harassed like she has. Those same antis would slam you or me or anyone on here for killing deer.

Al and Leo have made some great points. Suppose i may have to look into selling some trophy yote hunts. lol

[Ravin R10 man]

I have no problem with African hunting, but like Ruth, I too have no interest in going there either.

[RangerClay]

I guess it comes down to ethics...ethics can be very controversial and individually based. My ethics might be a little different than yours. Honestly, why I am not surprised she got attacked by the antis is considering a couple thoughts. Look at how the U.S. has portrayed African animals in the market - movies (Lion King for example), toys/stuffed animals. When people think of African animals, they think of how they are portrayed by society....I think of them as majestic amazing creatures, some may think cute, and in Africa they perhaps do view them as predator and game animals like we look at whitetail deer. Part of this has to do with education, culture, society. And then this was brought up not by me but someone at work who saw this...but how she presents herself, bear hugging the animals like they are stuffed animals...some people might view this as distasteful...She can do what she wants, that's fine, I am just trying to point out look at both sides of the picture.

I am not into African big game hunting, that is just me, I have no interest or desire in hunting those animals, plain and simple. I am perfectly happy with the challenge of hunting whitetail and North American game. May not be a good answer for some of you but it's good for me. Have a little humility.

Neat insight Ruth. Just remember, when grab the horns of a deer and hold up it's head for a picture, it is the exact same thing as the young lady bear hugging (as you put it) her trophies for the camera. You just hold a lighter animal in a different place.

Edited July 12, 2014 by RangerClay

[Ravin R10 man]

~~Neat insight Ruth. Just remember, when grab the horns of a deer and hold up it's head for a picture, it is the exact same thing as the young lady bear hugging (as you put it) her trophies for the camera. You just hold a lighter animal in a different place.

well put Ranger..

also how about sitting on your deer like a horse for your photo, or in the back of a truck, it's tongue hangin out, deer covered in blood, we could ALL do a better job of showing better ethics and respect to the animal we just killed.

[VermontHunter]

I'm still trying to figure out where the bear hugging came into play ,,, I got to see all of Kendall's pictures before Facebook saw fit to take them down, and the only picture where so called bear hugging may have came into play was when she was with her Leopard. If this is disrespectful then there is more then a few guilty of this pose, here included. I have seen numerous post of cougars posed this way in photo's so I fail to see where this became disrespectful.

And as far as calling a certain animal MAJESTIC I think really that term is in the eye of the beholder, many here in North America call the Elk species majestic, but yet we hunt, eat, and mount that animal without saying that species shouldn't be hunted. I understand individuals have their own opinions on how they view things, but am I so off base to think that ECO Management needs to cover all species ??

We now have two women being attacked on social media sights for hunting legal animals, just because some feel it's wrong in their opinion, and because they feel it's wrong in their eye's it should stop. So to me I view it like the gun issue ,,, you want one thing to be taken away right now, so when you get that, where does it stop when the president as been set.

[stevebeilgard]

we all like different things. me, i do not like bears. i don't want to hunt one, touch one, or kill on. same with the elephant. i would not take a free trip to hunt most african animals, and would not accept pay to shoot an elephant. yet, i support hunters who do hunt elephant and bears. it's like luke's moose. i've shot 2 moose but luke has a reason, like a bear to me, not to shoot a moose. ruth simply does not like to hunt elephants. no big deal to me.

[fly]

If it's one thing I've learned over the years it's that hunters should support all forms of legal hunting. This is why... there are more anti-hunting activists than I thought and many are not intelligent and may not even be sane. However, they DO vote and write to the Facebook people, and try to ruin the lives of hunters when they get the chance. Therefore publicly I put all my personal hunting preferences and reasons why I hunt in my own personal inbox and simply support ALL forms of legal hunting. While hunting a 200 inch whitetail deer inside a high fenced in area is not my thing, as long as it's legal I support it.

[VermontHunter]

Just wanted to share this recent interview that SCI did with Kendall Jones ,,, It's a very good read and may give some incite on what she is about.

http://firstforhunters.wordpress.com/2014/07/21/an-interview-with-kendall-jones/