Wow, this thing is getting out of hand, WAY out of hand.

QuoteOriginally posted by vermonster13:
The WHA has a new video on their site with three of the "hunters" in it.

I just thought I might point out that just because this video is only recently released doesn't mean it is recently made. This video could very well have been made many months ago (and probably was) and it's release now doesn't necessarily infer that WHA is any closer to being reality that it was before it's release.


Keep the pressure on WHA and it's sponsors and it will die on the vine, an interesting but flawed concept that has caused great debate and helped remind many hunters of the core values of hunting.

Maybe when this is all over and the dust has settled we might find that hunting ethics have been strengthened by the debate.

Maybe we should send all the hunters for WHA a copy of Primal Dreams, for they obviously have totally forgotten the spirit of the hunt, or they never got a dose of it from the get go.

Terry,

I think thats about the best idea I've heard in a long time. Wonder how we could find their mailing addresses? I will pay for the videos if someone will get them ordered and sent to Terry.

We really need to know where other state DNRs stand on the possibility of this taking place in their states. I know it can't happen in Vermont, New York, Texas, Wyoming or Montana. Where else?

The other sites are really losing momentum on this WHA, so we really need to be the ones to carry the ball folks.

I have emailed the IN DNR for their interpretation.  Canned hunting operations were outlawed last year but a few are grandfathered in.  I'm positive that our DNR doesn't WANT this but I'm not sure whether or not they can prevent it.

TTT

This misuse of tranquilizers can be reported to this FDA hotline number.

1-888-332-8387

Lets start calling folks. If the FDA comes out with a finding against this, the WHA is done in this format.

To the top, this threat to hunting as we know it is very real and everyone needs to keep up the fight.

TR

Canned hunting illegal in IL.

Thought this article from Green Bay's newspaper was interesting...

Pat Durkin column: Hunting tournament draws fire

Occasionally, someone floats an idea that's so flawed and inflammatory you almost feel sorry for its creator because it's also so doomed it will sink faster than an anchor without its rope.


That's how I felt last week when a flurry of e-mails poured in with curses, warnings and battle cries aimed at the World Hunting Association, whose founder, David Farbman of Michigan, had just announced plans for a competitive hunting tournament with cash prizes.


The outcry against WHA came not from anti-hunters or nonhunters. All came from hunters, those who know there's a huge difference between a high-stakes, commercially sponsored competition and an everyday "big buck" pool between co-workers.


As a group, outdoors enthusiasts might tolerate big-money tournaments for bass and walleyes, but when someone floats similar schemes for hunting, look out. Picture dipping your foot into a pond of starving piranhas.


The WHA, meanwhile, promised its events would "take hunting to a new level," and feature "the world's finest hunters competing for hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money."


And — get this — the deer wouldn't die, at least intentionally. The "pro" hunters would shoot these fenced, game-farm critters with tranquilizer darts, and score points based on their size.


In a June 7 press release, WHA said its events would be broadcast via TV, the Internet, pay-per-view, on-demand and other outlets. It also said, "WHA plans to become the standard for professional hunting competition, and to grow and enhance the industry's image and presence."


Hmmm. Something tells me hunting's image needs a professional tournament circuit as much as FEMA's image needed Hurricane Katrina.


This idea is so hopeless I couldn't get upset when I read the press release. Why?


First, hunters need no prodding from me to get riled up. I knew their backlash would be so immediate, indignant and universal that no one in manufacturing or broadcasting would risk their business and reputation to such torment.


I recall a scheme in the late 1980s in which a promoter tried to get Wisconsin deer hunters to pay $100 entry fees to amass a multi-thousand dollar purse. Entrants would register their does and bucks at a parking lot in County Stadium in Milwaukee to be eligible to win large cash payouts for the biggest buck, biggest doe and so on.


Once the firestorm of hunter fury ran its course, the only sound to be heard was dry leaves skipping across the deserted stadium parking lot on opening day of deer season.


A couple of years later, a group in Missouri tried launching a deer-hunting competition and bought advertisements in national magazines. By coincidence, I started working for one of the magazines, Deer & Deer Hunting, a couple of weeks after the publishers ran that ad.


The readers' response was spectacular and righteous. They threatened mass cancellations and a boycott of every advertiser in the magazine if we repeated the ad.


Such visceral responses to hunting leagues, tournaments or any other commercial-inspired competitive hunt always will be there. Most people, and especially hunters, believe it's depraved to reduce wildlife to living, breathing raffle prizes.


However, when I consider some of the vicious e-mail and messages regarding the WHA's idea, I don't know what surprises me more, the WHA claim that a tournament and big-money prizes would bolster hunting's image, or the belief from elitist hunters that this idea would be embraced by common, everyday, Joe 6-Pack hunters.


When the WHA's plan soon disappears, consider it confirmation that Joe 6-Pack's moral compass retains its bearing.

Patrick Durkin is a free-lance writer who covers outdoors for the Press-Gazette

TOMANO

Great article - seems to sum it up pretty well...
I think a lot of people are fixating on the darting aspect, which in and of itself is obviously dead wrong - and will (hopefully) be stopped.  
But I hope the message is also getting out that the "tournament"/gameshow aspect of this is also unacceptable - perverting hunting by bringing a giant cardboard check into the picture is just vulgar.  If this is made clear, then WHA won't be able to reinvent itself as a lethal tournament either....

And wrt attacks on the "pro hunters" for the WHA:  I agree that going to their "day-job employer" or their family members is just not acceptable - but these guys have made a decision to hitch their wagon to the WHA.  In my opinion, this was a bad choice - if they can see that now, and decide to rethink that decision, then I wouldn't hold it against them.  If, however, the controversy over WHA hasn't made them examine their choice - or, worse yet, they examined it in detail and decided that thier own potential profit outweighs the damage to our hunting heritage - not to mention their own integrity - then these guys need to go put their big-boy pants on and face the consequences.  And that will include personal attacks.
Don't get me wrong, I'd try to reason with them first - but if they really think their personal gain is worth risking my kids' hunting future, then IT IS PERSONAL.
But going after their "day job" or their family is overstepping the bounds....

This misuse of tranquilizers can be reported to this FDA hotline number.

1-888-332-8387

Lets start calling folks. If the FDA comes out with a finding against this, the WHA is done in this format.


Sorry to keep posting this, but it needs to be seen and done by as many as we can get.

Martin Archery, Archery Talk.com, Whitetail Fanatic, Wild TV and the Alberta Bowhunters Association are all out against the WHA now or have said they will not sponsor.

Thanks Dave

Don't get me wrong, I'd try to reason with them first - but if they really think their personal gain is worth risking my kids' hunting future, then IT IS PERSONAL.


Very well said Jason.

TR

I did try to reason with one. It didn't work. But we still need FDA calls guys.

Just left a message on the FDA hotline - I'll try them again tomorrow if I don't hear anything back....

If anyone else gets feedback from them, please post what you hear.

So the WHA now has Chuck Sykes on their site talking up how safe drugging deer is. These guys just don't get it do they?

The FDA hotline guys, call, call and call some more.

1-888-332-8387