The Hunting Haters

In the past few years we have grown to see much more hatred towards hunting. It’s gotten so bad and violent that just a simple photo of a deer harvest will attract death threats towards children and families.

I was probably more proud of my 16-year-old daughter’s first buck harvest than she was.   Of course I had put most of the effort into the hunt with months of preparation, scouting, blind maintenance and the like.  It was a great moment I don’t have to tell other hunters how time spent hunting builds a special bond between you and your children.

And like every other proud dad I posted a photo of her latest harvest to social media.  Granted I have a bit larger platform than most hunters since my photo reached over 109,000 people with 4,000+ likes and 150 shares.  But that’s when the haters arrived.

I instantly block such foolishness on my page to keep things family friendly and since there is no point in arguing with such. Curses were spewed towards my daughter and myself, death threats were given, ignorance streamed like a river from the online trolls.  A few screenshots of the hateful comments I found on a quick scroll through my feed are posted below.  The language has been blurred out, and some aren’t posted since everything would be blurred.

Why the hate?  Do these haters not realize that hunters are the #1 conservationists?  I’m sure they don’t realize that we passed up dozens of deer in the past few years waiting for the right shot. And unless they are strict vegans then they are also hypocrites if they disapprove of eating an animal.

Some claimed it was cruel.  This is again another ignorant statement if you have ever visited a slaughterhouse or commercial chicken coop.  Others said they only approved “if the meat was eaten”.  Of course it was eaten!  Every bit of this meat is always eaten.  It’s even illegal to waste wild game.

But what gets me the most are the death threats.   Since we legally and ethically harvested and ate a deer you wish to kill us?  Really?  There is no way to reason with one with such an evil view.

As responsible hunters, it’s important to engage in rational conversations with those who don’t understand the way man has survived by hunting since the beginning of time.  But others might be beyond hope and just need the social media ban hammer.

Story by Dustin Ellermann