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Col. Townsend Whelen In his book on Wilderness Hunting and Wildcraft makes the following statement, which I think is a pretty good philosophy for the Trophy Hunters :
I believe that one should never kill except as a gentleman and a sportsman. The primordial instinct to kill for food and trophy, the matching of the human brain against the instincts of a wild animal, and the test of manliness which a wilderness demands, will usually be the call which induces one to take up big game hunting. But I do think that a gentleman will always feel a desire to curb the almost inborn tendency to kill, and that he should limit himself to one or two good heads of each species. If he shoots these in a sportsmanlike way he will have no regrets, and he will learn the delights of the unspoiled places of the earth, and its fauna and flora. He will appreciate the attractiveness of wild life, the glorious scenery, the sense of solitude, the exhilaration of hard exercise in the purest air, and the test of manhood. Thereafter he will be only too glad to confine himself mainly to photography instead of shooting, and to the study of the habits of the game. After one has obtained a trophy, photography and the study of wild life offer far greater promises for reward than merely more shooting and killing. It takes much greater skill to obtain a really good photograph of a wild animal in its native haunts than it does to shoot the same animal, and the picture is quite as good a trophy on one's wall.
I believe that one should never kill except as a gentleman and a sportsman. The primordial instinct to kill for food and trophy, the matching of the human brain against the instincts of a wild animal, and the test of manliness which a wilderness demands, will usually be the call which induces one to take up big game hunting. But I do think that a gentleman will always feel a desire to curb the almost inborn tendency to kill, and that he should limit himself to one or two good heads of each species. If he shoots these in a sportsmanlike way he will have no regrets, and he will learn the delights of the unspoiled places of the earth, and its fauna and flora. He will appreciate the attractiveness of wild life, the glorious scenery, the sense of solitude, the exhilaration of hard exercise in the purest air, and the test of manhood. Thereafter he will be only too glad to confine himself mainly to photography instead of shooting, and to the study of the habits of the game. After one has obtained a trophy, photography and the study of wild life offer far greater promises for reward than merely more shooting and killing. It takes much greater skill to obtain a really good photograph of a wild animal in its native haunts than it does to shoot the same animal, and the picture is quite as good a trophy on one's wall.