During the month of December 2006, Fox Sports Network and the HSUS mislead the public about trapping in North America. The sports network gave free commercial time to the Humane Society of the United States to spread an anti-trapping message to the networks viewers.
The commercial opens with the sound of a Bear Trap “clanking shut” with it’s teeth of death. Why they chose to open with the sound and look of this trap is beyond me. That is unless your message needs to mislead the public to action. These traps have been banned for decades now and are not allowed on trap lines.
When they add a bit of ‘sensationalism’ and pictures of baby animals, like seals and foxes, on their websites and promotion venues groups like HSUS and PETA have the makings of a propaganda machine.
It happens in Canada too. Certain celebrities (who must feel they do NOT get enough attention anyway) jump on the anti-seal hunt crusade. The media and various groups hitch a ride with them plastering pictures of baby seals all over tv’s, the internet, and posters. The truth is it has been illegal to hunt baby seals for some time now. Baby seals are never hunted and seal populations are GROWING. Why mislead us like that?
Check out their websites. What do you see? I see baby faces of cute, cuddly animals everywhere. Some organizations sell posters with naked celebrities to raise money for their CARROT Crusades! Yes I said carrots! If these extreme animal rights groups continue to convert the unsuspecting public, we will only be allowed to eat carrots and various other vegetable family members instead of meat.
Still don’t believe me? Check out this comic book cover that PETA has made available to school children and teachers across North America. Fishing Dads are now killers to their children. A similar comic exists depicting mothers as killers when they prepare a chicken dinner.
The truth is that a huge majority North Americans have no problem killing unsuspecting animals. If you are wondering if you are one of these people, put your fork down and think about it before you eat your Christmas Dinner beast this season.
These anti-hunting/trapping groups claim to benefit wildlife and champion their cause with wasteful lawsuits and protests. One of the truths they will not tell you is that sportsmen have contributed more to wildlife conservation than these Carrot Crusade Organizations. In 2001, 13 million Americans spent $1896 (avg./year) on hunting + excise taxes that fund other natural resource agencies and conservation projects. This is a total of $24,648,000,000!! The excise taxes delivered $292 million dollars to sport fish restoration and $188 million on wildlife restoration. (Source:International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies)
In Canada, hunters alone contributed $824 million dollars to the Canadian economy. (Source: Outdoor Canada)
This means animals/fish and their habitat benefit from sportsmen (trappers/angles/hunters) more than any fund raising campaign that anti-hunting/trapping groups can muster. Management plans based on science and not emotion ensure that animals and humans can better co-habitate the same water and soil. If hunting, fishing or trapping were stopped the delicate balance would shift to over population of species which could provide horrible images of fatal car accidents, animal attacks, starving animals, and habitat degradation-to name a few. The International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies says that:
Without hunting and trapping, the survey revealed, wildlife damage would rise 221 per cent across Canada and the U.S., costing $70.5 billion a year…that most provincial and state wildlife agencies argue that no budget increase can replace the value of hunting and trapping as wildlife management tools.
I admit that images of animals being killed can be gruesome, bloody,and hard to look at for people who are not accustomed to this. It makes sense to me that these kind of people are the targets of the anti’s mis-information campaigns. The purpose of this post is to not get you to appreciate these images or to even get you to become a trapper or hunter. My intent is ask you to not give into the hype created by anti-hunting/trapping groups but to appreciate the fact that numerous Canadians and Americans are involved in these activities and that they contribute (in a major way) to conserving wildlife and their habitats.
These are the same people that Fox Sport’s Net has just slapped in the face. I guess the network would like it’s Christmas dinners with just some carrots from the stove.
Bill Anderson
Muskoka Outdoors
To let Fox know how you feel (or don’t feel):
Contact Rupert Murdoch, Chairman/CEO, News Corporation, 1211 Avenue of the Americas, 8th Floor, New York, NY, 10036. Phone (212) 852-7000. Fax (212) 852-7147.
Sample letters to News Corporation are available using the Legislative Action Center at www.ussportsmen.org.
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