Social media has become the leverage needed to appease societal outrage, whether real and needed or manufactured and advanced as part of an agenda. And “fake news” has become a mainstay for the animal-rights movement.
Contrived, exploited, and exaggerated, outrage around hunters killing “charismatic megafauna,” such as lions, elephants and wolves, or more mundane animals, such as wild goats or even turkeys, has allowed activists and organizations to gain airtime on mainstream media and to spread the animal-rights narrative to the masses – all framed in the absence of facts and a misconstrued light.
After every social-media blow up, knee-jerk legislation results in the US, abroad or surrounding the import of those hunted animals. Whether or not it passes is irrelevant; it receives more media coverage and contemplation, which opens a subconscious door that increased regulation is perhaps needed.
We are going to use the ballot box and the democratic process to stop all hunting in the United States… We will take it species by species until all hunting is stopped in California. Then we will take it state by state.
Legislated regulation or litigated rulings are the bread and butter of the animal-rights movement. Wayne Pacelle, the former CEO of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), clearly stated as much in 1990 when he said: “We are going to use the ballot box and the democratic process to stop all hunting in the United States… We will take it species by species until all hunting is stopped in California. Then we will take it state by state.”
Those sentiments are now echoed by the Nonhuman Rights Project, and just like HSUS, the group will work to undermine wildlife management in the courts and state legislatures. Like it or not, protecting the future of hunting, fishing and trapping boils down to the ability to pay lawyers and lobbyists.
It’s not the fight we want. But it’s the fight we’re in.
We can sit back and continue to pursue our individual passions until HSUS, NhRP or another well-funded animal-rights group takes it by legal channels, or we can stand up today and challenge them in courts and congresses nationwide.
Either way you look at it, protecting our passions in the legal realms, now and into the future, takes capital. Without lawyers and effective lobbying, we will eventually lose the war by attrition. To fight for the future of hunting, give to the Sportsmen’s Alliance Legal Defense Fund, upgrade your membership or join today.
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This article originally appeared in the 2019 issue of the Sportsmen’s Alliance members-only magazine. Join the Sportsmen’s Alliance today and be the first to read articles like this with a subscription to The Sportsmen’s Advocate, The Official Publication of the Sportsmen’s Alliance.
About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
