Canned Hunts? Banned Hunts!! (Jan Ravenwolf - 2/9/06)
Leyton's "Daddy, I Want a Wallaroo" (Howling Reporter, Winter 2005) dredged up memories of my first exposure to another dark destiny for exotic animals in the U.S.In 1992, World News Tonight showed a Bengal tiger relaxing beneath a tree. As the camera panned out on the fenced enclosure, I froze in disbelief at the man aiming a rifle at that tiger. This "hunter's" first shot did not kill. It was a heart-wrenching ending for such a magnificent being. Next we saw a small black leopard forced out of its cage to face 8 or 9 hyper-excited dogs. There was no place to hide. The dogs, as big as the cat itself, surrounded it. I left the room when this former pet, who had never known a moment of fighting for survival--till now--began spinning around on its back, flailing futilely at its tormentors with clawless paws. The "great white hunter" finally stopped the mauling melee by shooting the helpless victim.Welcome to "Canned Hunts!" Set inside a fenced area, the animal, a cast away exotic pet or discarded zoo animal, has no concept of defending itself, and no chance to escape. Typically, the canned "hunter," unexperienced with weapons, enters the pen. Getting as close as he dares to the unsuspecting animal, he then tortures it to death, wound by wound, with his ineptitude.Since 1994 animal organizations have been working to get state and national legislation passed outlawing this depraved practice. True hunters scorn this activity as being totally devoid of skill, sportsmanship or ethics. It's cause for wonder what prevents the banning of canned hunts.The Humane Society Legislative Fund estimates at least 1000 canned hunting businesses, which charge thousands of dollars per "trophy hunt," in at least 25 states. This group has also exposed the latest, even more diabolical, electronic "upgrade": Computer-assisted remote hunting.Yes folks. Now a mouse really can kill an elephant. Sitting at your computer in your PJs, your fingerclick can fire a loaded, mounted rifle aimed at a trained exotic animal herded into position at its habituated feeding area, hundreds or thousands of miles away! How sick is that?Fair? Sporting? Ethical? What kind of mindset accepts torturing and blasting a defenseless, unsuspecting victim as an achievement?These sad, sad human beings maim and murder lions and tigers and bears, and giraffes, gazelles, cape buffalo, jaguars.... A recent CSI episode depicted a rhino, all but suspended from a tree in a harness of chains, crumpling as yet another great white "hunter" acted out some pathetic internal dysfunction with an elephant gun.
I tremble with the terrified Corsican ram in another video, pleadingly pressed against a fence, 6 arrows sticking out of him, more to come because the "marksman" 10 feet away didn't want to
end the torture with a gunshot and ruin his trophy. My heart aches for the tortured animals, and the tortured souls of the human perpetrators.
Although canned hunts have yet to be banned hunts, there's hope! 13 states have banned Internet hunting, with 7 more considering similar bills. The Computer-Assisted Remote Hunting Act introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, with pressure to introduce a companion bill in the Senate, would make Internet hunting a felony.
As of 2/21/06, a bill to ban "Cyber Hunting" in New Mexico awaits Governor Richardson's signature in a mountain of proposed bills on his desk. While the Governor is generally a friend to animals, it wouldn't hurt to encourage him to sign this one:
phone: 1-505-476-2200.
email web page: www.governor.state.nm.us/email.php?mm=6&type=opinion
or by letter: Office of the Governor,
490 Old Santa Fe Trail, Room 400,
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501.
Contact Info for U.S Government:

The President President@WhiteHouse.gov
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Honorable Jeff Bingaman
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

Honorable Heather Wilson ask.heather@mail.house.gov
House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515


Honorable Pete Domenici
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510

senator_domenici@domenici.senate.gov;

Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121.
Ask the switchboard operator for each of your Senators. Your zip code identifies your Congressperson. It takes three phone calls, although someone out there is probably smarter than me and has discovered how to do in with one call.

Google "canned hunts" for more information.

"When one tugs at a single thing in nature,he finds it attached to the rest of the world." -John Muir