- Joined
- Jul 16, 2005
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Below is a letter of protest I am sending with regard to the "World Hunting Association." This organization proposes to "change" hunting from a tradition and a hobby to a "professional sport" with leagues, sponsored players, televised tournements, and "non-fatal" hunting with tranquilizer darts. It actually states right on their website that all of this is in an effort to increase the profits of the hunting "industry."
You can check it out at www.worldhunt.com .
Contact info for those heading this boondoggle:
WHA - Worldhunt Media Contacts
WHA Worldhunt Commissioner and CEO, David Farbman
[email protected]
Ken Mandelkern
[email protected]
John McCartney
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
For an automated email protest page, go to: http://tradgang.com/worldhunt/
------------------------------------------------
Please feel free to plagerize the below all you want, if you should find that any of it echos your sentiments.
My response:
------------------------------------------------------------
I am writing to voice my sadness and disgust at the perversion of the time-honored tradition of hunting which has been proposed by the "World Hunting Association."
The WHA's focus on competition and its view of hunting as an "industry" is deplorable. Hunting is not a competition sport and it always saddens me when I encounter any of the few people who do view it as such. Boone & Crockett, Pope & Young, and similar registries or trophy forums are not there to promote competition, but merely as a forum for individuals and the majestic animals they outsmarted to be recognized. The only competition in hunting has been, is, and should remain the competition between the hunter and the quarry--competitiveness between hunters has no place in the recreation, the tradition, the experience of hunting.
Neither I nor anyone I have ever met or even heard from in magazines, on television, or through talk forums has EVER expressed a desire for the tradition of hunting to become a "sport" or to be "professionalized."
I don't give a rat's ass about "boosting the INDUSTRY." The OVERWHELMING problem with hunting today is that far too many people think the "stuff" being sold to us will actually make a significant difference in our time afield. It won't. More time afield and more intimate knowledge of the species, the individuals animals, and the sacred ground being hunted are the real factors in hunter success. And they will certainly yield far greater long-term satisfaction from the time and money spent than the fact that the hunter was carrying/wearing/shooting/driving a "brand new, improved, space age, totally redesigned" "IT" when they made the kill.
There are many problems with the WHA proposal that I could focus on. I could talk about how, without any doubt, placing "non-fatal" hunting (the very term is an oxymoron) will induce a very real and significant push from non-hunters to mandate "no-kill" methods of hunting nationwide. But issues such as those are not the real problem--it is the attitude and the motivation behind that choice and the others that is the problem. The WHA's own website proclaims that "non-fatal" methods will be employed in order to increase viewership. In other words, generating dollars is the only thing that matters to the WHA in these decisions.
It amazes me that anyone could keep a straight face while trying to tell us that the "hunting INDUSTRY" needs a "shot in the arm." How ludicrous. Sales of hunting apparel and accessories account for a percentage of recreational sales in this country that FAR outweighs the proportion of citizens that participates in the hobby. The last thing that we need is increased commercialization of the ancient art and tradition of hunting. The decline in the numbers of hunters is something that we should all try to reverse, but not at the expense of intentionally commercializing it.
The WHA does not propose to increase participation in hunting or to change public perception of hunting--no, their proposed "sport" would replace hunting. Hunting is a solitary encounter between man and creation, an experience which increases one's awareness of his or her place in the order of things, which reminds that despite our concrete and metal lives, we are part of the living web of life, either created or evolved. It forces one to appreciate at a deep mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual level the beauty, harmony, conflict, and balance that exists within that web.
I don't doubt that the "professional hunters" chosen to participate in the WHA tournements may understand those central experiences of the tradition. But "professionalizing" the "sport" and focusing on competition will leave only one focus and perceived motivation in the minds of everyone of the new participants or interested non-participants that WHA spawns. That is, the attitude and misconception that "hunting" is about two or more people competing with each other. The very reason that virtually all hunters enter the woods is to avoid other people, to escape competition with them, to participate in an ancient ritual of mental, experiential, and intuitive strategy, involving man, animal, earth, and Creator. The kill, or at least a willingness to make one, is an integral facet of the experience. It is the act which forces one to confront the nature of this world It is to be shown by the most simple yet profound of acts that for any person to live and eat and consume, some other part of this natural world must give way--whether it be for the sake of physical appetite, clothing, shelter, energy, recreation, or any of the myriad of other human pursuits. It is to admit, "I am at the top of the food chain, but I am dependent on it also. I am in the web, not outside it. I am a steward of this world, not a consumer only."
Affording viewers a glimpse into that experience is one thing, but transforming the entire tradition into a public spectacle in which all that really matters in it--the spiritual, the ancient, the natural, the smallness of man, the still voice of God speaking through His creatio--is lost in the roar of the crowds would be a tragedy of unspeakable proportions.
Please, for the sake one of the purest forms of rejuvination left in our fragmented and overly-fortified world, please rethink this proposition and withdraw your support and participation in the WHA. Whether this attack on the heart of hunting has been inadvertently conceived or intentionally engineered, I will withdraw my support, through purchases and refusal to make them, from all vendors who sponsor it. Perhaps it will be good for me, even, if it forces me to focus more on the hunting and less on the "stuff" I carry into it. But I will do everything I can to make sure that the WHA leads to decreased sales, not higher profits.
I know that I am not alone.
Most sincerely,
Nathaniel S. Goggans
Chattanooga, Tennessee
[email protected]
You can check it out at www.worldhunt.com .
Contact info for those heading this boondoggle:
WHA - Worldhunt Media Contacts
WHA Worldhunt Commissioner and CEO, David Farbman
[email protected]
Ken Mandelkern
[email protected]
John McCartney
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
For an automated email protest page, go to: http://tradgang.com/worldhunt/
------------------------------------------------
Please feel free to plagerize the below all you want, if you should find that any of it echos your sentiments.
My response:
------------------------------------------------------------
I am writing to voice my sadness and disgust at the perversion of the time-honored tradition of hunting which has been proposed by the "World Hunting Association."
The WHA's focus on competition and its view of hunting as an "industry" is deplorable. Hunting is not a competition sport and it always saddens me when I encounter any of the few people who do view it as such. Boone & Crockett, Pope & Young, and similar registries or trophy forums are not there to promote competition, but merely as a forum for individuals and the majestic animals they outsmarted to be recognized. The only competition in hunting has been, is, and should remain the competition between the hunter and the quarry--competitiveness between hunters has no place in the recreation, the tradition, the experience of hunting.
Neither I nor anyone I have ever met or even heard from in magazines, on television, or through talk forums has EVER expressed a desire for the tradition of hunting to become a "sport" or to be "professionalized."
I don't give a rat's ass about "boosting the INDUSTRY." The OVERWHELMING problem with hunting today is that far too many people think the "stuff" being sold to us will actually make a significant difference in our time afield. It won't. More time afield and more intimate knowledge of the species, the individuals animals, and the sacred ground being hunted are the real factors in hunter success. And they will certainly yield far greater long-term satisfaction from the time and money spent than the fact that the hunter was carrying/wearing/shooting/driving a "brand new, improved, space age, totally redesigned" "IT" when they made the kill.
There are many problems with the WHA proposal that I could focus on. I could talk about how, without any doubt, placing "non-fatal" hunting (the very term is an oxymoron) will induce a very real and significant push from non-hunters to mandate "no-kill" methods of hunting nationwide. But issues such as those are not the real problem--it is the attitude and the motivation behind that choice and the others that is the problem. The WHA's own website proclaims that "non-fatal" methods will be employed in order to increase viewership. In other words, generating dollars is the only thing that matters to the WHA in these decisions.
It amazes me that anyone could keep a straight face while trying to tell us that the "hunting INDUSTRY" needs a "shot in the arm." How ludicrous. Sales of hunting apparel and accessories account for a percentage of recreational sales in this country that FAR outweighs the proportion of citizens that participates in the hobby. The last thing that we need is increased commercialization of the ancient art and tradition of hunting. The decline in the numbers of hunters is something that we should all try to reverse, but not at the expense of intentionally commercializing it.
The WHA does not propose to increase participation in hunting or to change public perception of hunting--no, their proposed "sport" would replace hunting. Hunting is a solitary encounter between man and creation, an experience which increases one's awareness of his or her place in the order of things, which reminds that despite our concrete and metal lives, we are part of the living web of life, either created or evolved. It forces one to appreciate at a deep mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual level the beauty, harmony, conflict, and balance that exists within that web.
I don't doubt that the "professional hunters" chosen to participate in the WHA tournements may understand those central experiences of the tradition. But "professionalizing" the "sport" and focusing on competition will leave only one focus and perceived motivation in the minds of everyone of the new participants or interested non-participants that WHA spawns. That is, the attitude and misconception that "hunting" is about two or more people competing with each other. The very reason that virtually all hunters enter the woods is to avoid other people, to escape competition with them, to participate in an ancient ritual of mental, experiential, and intuitive strategy, involving man, animal, earth, and Creator. The kill, or at least a willingness to make one, is an integral facet of the experience. It is the act which forces one to confront the nature of this world It is to be shown by the most simple yet profound of acts that for any person to live and eat and consume, some other part of this natural world must give way--whether it be for the sake of physical appetite, clothing, shelter, energy, recreation, or any of the myriad of other human pursuits. It is to admit, "I am at the top of the food chain, but I am dependent on it also. I am in the web, not outside it. I am a steward of this world, not a consumer only."
Affording viewers a glimpse into that experience is one thing, but transforming the entire tradition into a public spectacle in which all that really matters in it--the spiritual, the ancient, the natural, the smallness of man, the still voice of God speaking through His creatio--is lost in the roar of the crowds would be a tragedy of unspeakable proportions.
Please, for the sake one of the purest forms of rejuvination left in our fragmented and overly-fortified world, please rethink this proposition and withdraw your support and participation in the WHA. Whether this attack on the heart of hunting has been inadvertently conceived or intentionally engineered, I will withdraw my support, through purchases and refusal to make them, from all vendors who sponsor it. Perhaps it will be good for me, even, if it forces me to focus more on the hunting and less on the "stuff" I carry into it. But I will do everything I can to make sure that the WHA leads to decreased sales, not higher profits.
I know that I am not alone.
Most sincerely,
Nathaniel S. Goggans
Chattanooga, Tennessee
[email protected]
