This weekend, while you’re recovering from your Thanksgiving feast and possible Black Friday shop-a-thon (or protest thereof), wolves and other predators are running for their lives in Idaho. The 5th Annual Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife Idaho Predator Derby started this morning, and it’s a circus of senseless killing.
Here’s what wildlife advocate Matt Skoglund has to say about it on the NRDC Switchboard:
I love to hunt, and I can’t wait to spend my Thanksgiving morning on an island in Montana’s Madison River hunting ducks. But as a hunter, this Predator Derby is unrecognizable to me.
The Predator Derby is about organized competitive killing, not hunting. And the sponsors, organizers and participants will do a great job of trashing the name of hunting along the way.
The rules are quite simple: each team tries to kill as many predators as possible in one day. Points are awarded as follows: 2 points for each coyote, 2 points for each fox, 2 points for each bobcat, and 3 points for each evil, Satan-loving wolf. The team with the most points wins (with heaviest weight breaking any ties).
The entire impetus for the Derby stems from a hatred of predators (even though, ironically, predators such as wolves greatly benefit the ecosystems they inhabit).
Admittedly, there are a lot of hunters out there who use responsible practices and even work to preserve wilderness areas that we environmentalists hold so dear. But there’s a big difference between ecologically sensitive hunters, and those who do it as some pathetic attempt to feel manly or powerful.
It’s a shame that so many beautiful animals will have to die this weekend just because these men are insecure about their penis size.
Link [NRDC]
