63,000 People Don't Want Royse City Man to Shoot a Black Rhino to Save Black Rhinos

Ron White on deer hunting - two minutes of hilarity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdApyFlf6DU

I know a little something about big game rhino hunting. In Far Cry 4, they charge you and tump your machine-gun mounted truck over and start goring you. They are very hard to kill, especially with a bow and arrow. 

But not as hard as the honey badger, those fuckers are vicious! I have to unload a whole 12 from my grenade launcher at just one, and when I'm done, the pelt is in bits and I can't even use it at Kyrat Fashion Week. 

My hope in the story is that the "hunter" dude will NOT shoot the animal and still  donate the money and allow all the publicity he created to help save these incredible animals. Texas had more than firmed up it's status as the number one redneck state and the world knows we love to kill anything and are not shy about it.   So allowing this creature to live will not hurt our street cred.  

The reality is that shooting a fenced in animal (like our new super butch gov) is taking an unfair advantage to the extreme.   Respecting animals does not distract from your masculinity.  Simply look at me, they don't get anymore mas macho than this amigo. 

Look...I don't get it...hunting that is.  I love to shoot, but paper targets and cans are all I've aimed at. It doesn't appeal to me on many levels, especially early morning hours, ugly clothes, and of course the killing.  Deer in particular are lovely to look at and make me feel serene.  Not so much with a bullet in them.

All that said, the folks in Namibia have come up with a pretty clever way to raise a lot of money for conservation of these animals.  It seems counter-intuitive to non-hunters, but so what?  That doesn't mean it isn't logical and effective.  I would prefer he have to capture it alive and keep it as a pet (that might discourage him), but it is what it is. 

Refusing to let this guy bring home his $350,000 trophy won't accomplish anything but keeping this one rich guy from doing something he thinks is cool.  Rich people are hard to entertain. 

I say we give it a rest...

I consider it more than a little weird that a guy would be willing to pay so much money to go half-way around the world, see an incredibly rare and endangered animal, and kill it. However, if the money is going where everyone says it's going, and the rhino is expendable, I'll choose to give a shit about more pressing matters. Like, oh, curbing the demand that causes people to poach the things in the first place.  

@Sharon_Moreanus channeling William Golding?

@leftocenter I completely concur with you. But, I also want to add a couple of things:

1. Deer are very tasty.

2. There is a reason that farmers call deer "rats with hooves." They (and other herbivores) can do massive amounts of damage to fields. These fields provide food and livelihood for farmers.

Hunting raises tons of money for wildlife conservation and habitat preservation. Hunters have learned that conservation and controlled hunting is the best way to preserve future hunting opportunities. There is a reason that the world's largest populations of several species are here in Texas (I believe gemsbock is one of them). If people were not willing and able to legally hunt them, those large populations would not even be here.

@RTGolden1  "Before Panthera, the leading big cat conservation group"

They were also a kickass metal group.  RIP Dimebag!

@ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul  Give me a link please because I am not finding this information. Are you getting it from a magazine that promotes this sort of killing?   Also how is the killing of this ONE animal going to control herd management?  

I honestly don't believe anyone who spends that sort of money to kill an animal or those that hunt and kill lions and tigers on safaris have any interest in preservation.   They are out to kill a majestic animal in a totally unfair fight.   Killing an animal with a gun is no different than killing an unarmed person with a gun. 

However, if it is legal to do so, I fully support anyone's right to do it.  I proudly just successfully completed years of work with Dan Matthews to get the horse drawn carriages in NYC removed and the horse are being placed in retirement pastures all around the east coast.   So my animal activism is more focused here in the US.   And as a member of the Animal Beta Project we are focused on those who videotape themselves or others abusing animals and posting them online.  Tracking the down, making certain they get the harshest sentences available and supporting legislation to lengthen the sentences.  

I have noticed that as divided as or nation is and becoming more divisive every day, the love of animals is usually the one thing that will bring both sides together.  Yet when it comes to hunters it is a different story.  I can't imagine intentionally killing an animal while hunter can kill several, place them on their car and not give it a second thought.   Just a difference in people.  I think it is called divershitty here.  

We can study the herd of ill-informed right here!

@Montemalone  M. Killing a fenced in animal is about as much of a sport as the gay rodeo having a "putting panties on a goat" contest.   Didn't you win that title several years in a row.   Fastest goat pantier in the west!  

@Montemalone ah yes another low-informed individual. thanks for sharing your ignorance

@Myrna.Minkoff-Katz @casiepierce I'm not sure if you're trying to be humorous but I was (and it is).

See, Far Cry 4 is a video game, it just came out a couple of weeks ago. In it, you are on a series of missions (let's call them "quests"), and in order to advance the game in some ways, you must go out and hunt the wild animals, so you can craft your clothes and your holsters and things, which are then used to SHOOT THE BAD GUYS. I think there is even a quest where you save some farmer and feed his family. Your character is appalled at killing the animals, but he has to in order to survive (he audibly groans every time he has to skin an animal, which oddly comes out looking like a wad of steak, except for the MacCaque monkeys, for some reason the game designers decided that skinning monkeys is too weird.) The one thing you can't kill, (on purpose), but you can ride them, is the Asian elephant, although I did accidentally blow one up when I ran him into a generator- oops.

And, BTW, in case you're worried that all this killing and maiming and skinning and shooting will someday inspire me actually go out and stalk big game animals IRL (or shoot up a school, or kill my family), it's a great escape. I highly recommend it. You should try gaming sometime, seriously, I think you could use the distraction.....

@Tim.Covington @leftocenter By "preserv(ing) future hunting opportunities" I presume that you meant preventing mass starvation among game herds - this is a great point.  Without controlled hunting the deer multiply to unsustainable numbers in the lush years, then die off massively in the dry and lean years.  It is similar to what happens to cattle during drought, as we have seen again recently.  Ranchers are forced to sell off their herds due to lack of feed.  Man is part of the equation, and our prudent intervention improves long-term prospects for wild game, both big and small.

Myrna, you clearly know nothing about wildlife conservation. Without hunters like Knowlton, the black rhino and countless other species would have vanished long, long ago.

@casiepierce @Myrna.Minkoff-Katz I was laughing through both of your descriptions, knowing what you were talking about. But please to not be running elephants in the generators please. :) Did you lose points per chance?

@Tim.Covington @ColonelAngus

BTW, I totally get the herd control aspect of hunting -- hunters play an important role in preventing over-population which can lead to animals starving.  I just don't get the enjoyment of hunting, but I don't judge anyone who does.

@ThePosterFormerlyKnownasPaul I am not really involved in animal conservation outside the US. My focus in on the abuse in carnival (my focus is in smaller carnivals that transport animals in harmful ways.  So while I dislike the killing of animals in foreign lands (especially elephants that I think are incredibly beautiful and smart), I do not spend my activist time with them   I will be honest with you though and say, I do understand the need for thinning out certain herd so that others (or greenery) may flourish, I still cringe at the thought of an animal being shot.  

All you would have to do is take one look at the horses that were forced to pull a carriage all day in Central Park and the dangerous streets on NYC and see how malnourished and mistreated they were.   We spent years lobbying to free the and we got lucky with DeBlasio who loved horses and made it the second law he signed.   The horse owners were going to have them all euthanized after making them a living all these years. Once they sent them to the glue factory, they were intercepted and sent to various farms that promised them full retirement.

Michal Vick?  The damage he created has had a massive domino effect.   Most personally, my friend Big Dick Hunter ended up with one of Vick's abused dogs.   The dog has spent years in re-training and on a ton of medications and to this day is STILL shy and trust very few people.   And even though Vick has to pay for the upkeep of these dogs, the example he set for those young fans of his is disgusting.  

@leftocenter I agree, culling herds is important because we've killed or run off most of their natural predators. However, when predators kill they tend to first go for the weak, the sickly, and the old, leaving the most healthy to continue to breed. I wonder if sportspeople trying to get the most "points" on their bucks are really leaving the best animals alone.

@markzero @leftocenter  Many, if not most, of the weak, sickly and old become coyote food.  Trust me, there are coyotes everywhere. 

I know a few folks who hunt deer actively every season.  None of them would pass up a buck because it was "merely" a six-point.  Deer hunting is expensive, difficult and time-consuming.  And the old bucks with the big racks did not get that way by taking chances - they are wily as hell.  There are trophy hunters looking for a great rack to hang on their wall, but in my experience they are a small minority.

Plus, the younger ones are tender and tasty.

@ColonelAngus @markzero @leftocenter good clarification :)

@mavdog @everlastingphelps I think everlasting phelps was being facetious. I may have walked through here at the wrong time, but did you not get the joke?