Before I refute every hunting lie ever espoused,
let me begin with a quote from the great philosopher Pythagoras: "As long
as humanity continues to be the ruthless destroyer of other beings, we
will never know health or peace. For as long as people massacre animals,
they will kill each other. Indeed those who sow the seed of murder and
pain will never reap joy and love."
Antithetically, here's a comment from Ted Nugent,
the world's most outspoken hunter: "I contribute to the dead of winter and
the moans of silence, blood trails are music to my ears. I'm a gut-pile
addict. The pig didn't know I was there. It's my kick. I love shafting
animals."
Animal rights humanitarians are fed up with
hunters, their government cronies and their sick mentalities. Hunting is
not sound science. It is sound fun for unsound individuals who commit
unrepentant violence against animals.
Furthermore, the so-called experts who work for
animal-killing state agencies, such as the Department of Natural Resource,
the Natural Resources Commission and the Huron Clinton Metropark
Authority, are not "experts." They're hunters and hunt supporters.
And it is remarkably scandalous that these agencies
make decisions about the fate of wild animals. Using this logic, we should
allow pedophiles to enforce child protection laws and misogynists to
govern domestic abuse crimes.
Here's an idea: How about discarding the hunting
propaganda and employing a tactic rarely used by hunters: the truth.
Hunters hunt for the thrill of the kill. They
receive a heroine-like rush to the senses. Hunting is blood lust and
dominance. Hunting is hatred and violence. Hunting is murder. And it's
obscene.
Most people are unaware, but in 1971, there were
about 500,000 deer in Michigan, but that wasn't enough to appease the
hunting community. So the DNR decided to change Michigan's "old forest"
situation by instituting the Deer Range Improvement Program. The DRIP
clear-cut 1.2 million acres of forest to create a more accessible food
supply for deer and further stimulate reproduction.
Add to this the disproportionate number of licenses
issued to kill male deer and you have a major increase in numbers. Killing
male deer increases the herd by causing the females' internal reproductive
mechanisms to go haywire, resulting in the births of twins and triplets.
Any wildlife biologist not associated with the hunting community will aver
that this is fact.
The DRIP program and buck-hunting caused the deer
herd to reach two million last year, an increase of 1.5 million since
1971. That makes the hunting community solely responsible for the increase
in deer-car collisions.
Here's what Dave Arnold, a DNR executive, told the
Free Press on Jan. 1, 1980: "Don't lose sight of the purpose of the (DRIP)
program. When the DNR decided several years ago to try and increase the
herd to about one million animals, we knew the auto collision rate and
crop damage would rise."
In the early 1990s, pro-hunting Gov. John Engler
created the Hunting and Heritage Task Force. In paragraph six of the
edict, it states, "While Michigan offers widespread opportunities to hunt
and fish, more could be done to encourage participation, especially in
high population centers. All divisions within the DNR should work
together, making hunting and fishing more accessible on both public and
private lands. Where possible, expand opportunities to hunt and fish
within urban parks and recreation areas."
This was the sole purpose behind the recent deer
killings at our Metroparks. The hunting community claimed that deer were
eating up the trillium plants. But the hunters wouldn't know the
difference between trillium and helium.
The hunting community wants to perform deadly
rituals closer to the anti-hunting suburbanites to make them indifferent
to their blood sport. Hunters know that apathy benefits their bloody
rites. Neutrality only benefits the oppressors.
Moreover, this nonsense about how killing deer
helps donate food to the hungry is only a clever public relations gimmick
to try to place a halo around those who murder animals for fun.
These animal killers also pulled a typical
deceptive act. In an amazing attempt to discredit my activism, a few
hunters claimed that I threatened to gut a hunter's child and blow up some
cars over the recent deer killings at our Metroparks. Those charges are
untrue, insidious and outrageous.
I threatened to take a bullet for the deer via
civil disobedience and form my own deer-police unit.
However, I did challenge six hunters to show me how
tough they really were. I wanted to beat them down and show them what
oppression, violence and domination was all about. Unfortunately, they refused
my challenge.
If there's one thing I've learned in six years of
intense activism, it's that all hunters, vivisectionists, circus trainers,
furriers, trappers, rodeo cowboys and factory farmers are cowards who
never fight those who fight back.
Gary Yourofsky is founder and
president of Animals Deserve Absolute Protection Today and Tomorrow
http://www.adaptt.org/ in Royal Oak.
Liberation Front Guidelines
To liberate
animals from places of abuse, ie laboratories, factory farms, fur farms,
etc, and place them in good homes where they may live out their natural
lives, free from suffering.
To inflict economic damage to those who
profit from the misery and exploitation of animals.
To reveal the
horror and atrocities committed against animals behind locked doors, by
performing non-violent direct actions and liberations.
To take all
necessary precautions against harming any animal, human and nonhuman.
Any group of people who are vegetarians or vegans and
who carry out actions according to A.L.F. guidelines have the right to
regard themselves as part of the A.L.F.
The Animal Liberation Front
consists of small autonomous groups of people all over the world who carry
out direct action according to the A.L.F.
guidelines.
