Yes, that is President Theodore Roosevelt standing behind a bull elephant he took on Safari.

I’m not a hunter.  My dad is, my sister is, I’m not.  I had, what you would call, a “bad hunting experience.”  My dad took me on a feral pig hunt on a sod farmer’s land in central Florida.  I gut shot a pig with a 7mm Rem Mag.  Anchored it on the spot, but the noise that pig let out, just squealing and squealing, until the farmer finished it off… I broke down and knew I’d never hunt again.

I still shoot.  Love to shoot.  Don’t hunt.  But I have nothing against hunting by other people.  My father and sister have been all over the world hunting together.

I’ve noticed that antis break down in to two groups when it comes to hunting.  There are those who mouth pieties about “not wanting to take away grandpa’s deer rifle” when talking about gun bans restrictions.  Then there are those like in the post below who come out foaming at the mouth against hunters.  Those who want to see hunting banned and hunters dead.

As a non-hunter, I wanted to take a moment and lay out the case for hunting.  Hunters are dollar for dollar the greatest force for environmental protection in America.  Sure, I’ll concede that hunters are motivated by self interest.  Hunters want more land to hunt on and more game to take.  But so what.  That’s capitalist economics for you, toots.  Birdwatchers don’t shell out like waterfowl hunters do.

There are more protected forests and marshlands today because of the Boone and Crockett Club, Ducks Unlimited, and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation than all the tree huggers and anti-gunners combined. Even the largest non-hunting wildlife conservation society in the world is a bake sale compared to the $1.6 BILLION hunters contribute to conservation, annually, through donations and purchase of tags and licenses.

Dear antis, you can hate hunters all you want, but there wouldn’t be nearly as much wilderness without them.  It is no coincidence that our most killingest president was also “the conservation president.”

P.S.  This doesn’t even touch the 2.8 million pounds of meat that hunters donate to feed the hungry every year.  Even the left leaning NY Times took note of hunter’s charity to the hungry.  When was the last time the CSGV fed the hungry?  Oh yeah, that’s right, your sugar daddy Bloomberg actually banned food donations to NYC homeless shelters because the food might be too high in salt and too low in fiber.  You know, the last thing starving people need is an unhealthy meal.