How trophy hunting in Texas became a multibillion-dollar industry

[Dial H For Hero]

Interesting. I didn't know exotic hunting in Texas was such a big business ($2 billion per year). A couple of friends of mine and I are planning to hunt wild boar in Texas this fall, but the cost will only be a tiny fraction of the costs associated with hunting exotics.

[Ferrets are Cool]

1. If ONLY they would hunt each other

that would make great television.








kinda

[ret5hd]

2. "Hunger Games" would never work in Texas:

[empedocles]

3. Seems like a tremendous number of exotic animals killed. [From the numbers].

[Me.]

4. So These People Have So Much Money

they have to kill innocents to use it up

[Kali]

5. actually the boars are invasive exotics

find the right places, and they will pay you to take them.

[Dial H For Hero]

6. Quite so, but we want to stay somewhere nice on site and have the staff do all the real work.

Transporting the boars after they've been killed, butchering them, etc.

(I'm almost 60 and have Parkinson's...I know my physical limitations).

[Kali]

9. I hear that...

tay somewhere nice on site and have the staff do all the real work.

[2naSalit]

7. This activity needs to end, right away.

[Dial H For Hero]

8. Why? Per Texas law, one cannot hunt endangered or even threatened species.

[Kali]

11. Why?

Do you know anything about wild boars and the damage they cause to both ag and wildlands?

[Ferrets are Cool]

21. It doesn't appear to me that the poster is opposed to boar hunting, but rather exotic animal hunting

BUT, I could be wrong.

[Kali]

24. you could be right

Texas has some weird wildlife laws.

I'm not into hunting but at least they aren't endangered and it provides and outlet for folks who are.

[Dial H For Hero]

25. I think it's worth pointing out that none of these species are endangered or threatened.

[Kali]

26. do I remember correctly that the Arabian Ibex was recovered from endangered status

due to private breeders or was that something else?

[Dial H For Hero]

27. Arabian Oryx. Quite the success story!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_oryx_reintroduction#Operation_Oryx

[Kali]

28. oryx, of course

and that is where I leaned about it, used to live very close to the Phx zoo. I thought there was some collaboration with Texas breeders.

[Ferrets are Cool]

32. And? Who in their right mind would PAY to go out and kill a

fucking zebra????? How GD sporting is that shit?

Sorry, I'm a kind hearted soul that doesn't believe that killing animals for SPORT is a good thing.

[Dial H For Hero]

34. I have no particular desire to do so, but as long as the animal isn't endangered or threatened and

all game laws are followed, it doesn't bother me. To each their own, I say.

[wendyb-NC]

10. This is depraved

Paying large sums of money to kill animals. This makes me sick.

[Phoenix61]

12. Good on you. Wild boar are a huge problem.

They destroy the environment where ever they are. They have no natural predators and they breed like crazy. Populations reduced by 70 percent return to full strength within two or three years. The fact they are ridiculously smart just adds to the problem.

[YoshidaYui]

13. I am a hunter!!

but all my hunts come on a little screen with really big animals who actually don't exist in the first place, and I never use a gun.. but either arrows or dual Blades... and most of my hunts, the animals are trapped, study and released back into the wild...

In fact I am going hunting now..

[Martin68]

14. I can't fathom the mind of a person who would pay good money to go to a Texas petting zoo to kill

an African animal. How much courage and skill does it take to kill captive Zebra? That's like shooting a donkey. Or goldfish in a barrel.

[Dial H For Hero]

16. The hunts featured in this video seem to be free range and fair chase,

and not all of them result in the taking of game.

That having been said, I don’t know the proportion of these to canned hunts in Texas.

[Martin68]

19. "Fair chase." I don't know why the definition of that is, but I suspect there's very little about

the "chase" that is fair. I'm sure every danger that could be encountered on the African savannah has been eliminated in this environment.

[Dial H For Hero]

20. Here's the definition, per Wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_chase

Fair chase is a term used by hunters to describe an ethical approach to hunting big game animals. North America's oldest wildlife conservation group, the Boone and Crockett Club, defines "fair chase" as requiring the targeted game animal to be wild and free-ranging. "Wild" refers to an animal that is naturally bred and lives freely in nature. "Free-ranging" means an animal that is not restrained by traps or artificial barriers, so it has a fair chance of successfully escaping from the hunt.

(end excerpt)

This is certainly different from a canned hunt in which the animal is in an enclosed area.

I'm sure every danger that could be encountered on the African savannah has been eliminated in this environment.

I think you may be overestimating the danger of hunting on the African savanna. Despite the occasional well-publicized incident, fatalities when hunting big animals for sport are vanishingly small.

[Martin68]

31. The definition is not grounded in either science or ethics. It is a self-serving excuse to

ease what little conscience this kind of "hunter" has. I know people where I live who hunt to supplement their food supply because they can't afford not to. I also hear about people who hunt bears by releasing their digs with GPS collars and follow the chase when they find a bear on the road as the hounds chase the bear over ridge after ridge until is exhausted and the hunters can get out of their vehicles and walk up to shoot it. I used to live in the woods where hunters would release their dogs on one fire break and drive down to the next one to to sit on their coolers and drink beer until their dogs chased a deer across the fire break so they could gun it down.

I agree, the modern safari hunt is a sanitized tourist leisure activity with very little risk of any kind. But I don't think there is anything ethical about raising African animals on a Texas farm for wealthy hunters to shoot. I notice your definition doesn't mention whether the animal has to hunted on foot.

[Dial H For Hero]

35. Actually, "fair chase" is a registered trademark of the Boone & Crockett Club. Be that as it may,

to answer youo question:

https://www.hunter-ed.com/alaska/studyGuide/Fair-Chase/201001_86886/

Fair chase rules include banning the use of vehicles, airplanes, and radios; electronic calling; or shooting in a fenced enclosure.

[markpkessinger]

37. I suspect the prohibition of the use of vehicles . . .

. . . means that you can't chase game using vehicles, and that you can't shoot game from vehicles. But setting loose a dog with a GPS collar, and then jumping in your vehicle to catch up to the dog, wouldn't violate either of those. So the regulation seems to be more cosmetic than anything.

[Martin68]

39. You don't quite understand. Hunters don't jump into their vehicles to catch up with their dogs. They

follow the hunt by gps as they drive along a road below the hollows and ridges along the way. They wait until the bear has been exhausted (the hounds have stopped because the at bear is at bay) to get out of their vehicles and walk up thee hill to shoot a bear at bay. That's like playing a video game. Sure, the bear sometimes gets away, and a dog or two might be killed or injured, but it's a fun way to spend time together with your buddies. Before you cut the sole off that bear's foot, and extract an organ or two, to sell in the black market trade in Chinese medicine. One of those gangs was busted, and it turned out the sons of some well-respected local families were represented among the poachers that were arrested. But then, that's the country. My parents lived in that area and hounds often got separated from the pack and came begging for a meal. They'd call the number on the tag and they'd pick it up the next day.

[markpkessinger]

46. I understand this perfectly well . . .

. . . But I'm talking about the original intent and purpose of the ban on vehicles in hunting. When these laws were written. GPS systems weren't even on anybody's radar.

[Martin68]

47. mark, you seem to have very legalistic point of view. Some of us are more interested in ethics and

morality. Enslaving Africans used to be legal too.

[MerryBlooms]

40. You take the word for these places as "fair chase", fair chase is still enclosed and

and canned hunting on private lands. What defines private lands? Fences, men with guns protecting their lands? This is blood thirst killing of exotic animals is nothing more than exterminating beautiful animals for sport. Boar hunting is in a different class, and you know it. You defending these canned hunts of exotics is something else. No animal should be killed for man's ego.

[Dial H For Hero]

43. There is, from what I've read, a real difference between the sorts of hunts described in the video

and what are commonly termed "canned" hunts. As for me defending them: While I have no particular desire to hunt a kudu, such hunts are perfectly legal. Should someone wish to spend $20K on such an endeavor...it's their money. These animals are renewable resources, and aren't endangered or even threatened as a species.

Heck, my father used to hunt geese. Now granted, we always ate what he killed. But he didn't do it because we needed the meat, he did it because he enjoyed hunting. And that was (and is) just fine if that's what floats your boat.

[Ferrets are Cool]

22. Fair chase in my mind would be to take them on in hand to hoof/claw combat.

That seems fair to me.

Killing a wild/captive animal from 100 yards away with a high powered rifle is chicken shit cowardness.

[Dial H For Hero]

23. We've been using ranged projectiles to hunt animals for at least 30,000 years.

I don't think we're going to stop any time soon.

[Ferrets are Cool]

33. Of course we are not. I'm just saying what would be "FAIR" to both parties.

[Dial H For Hero]

36. Fair chase rules are designed to make it more challenging as is appropriate for a sporting activity.

No one is pretending that the game has anything but the slightest chance against the hunter. Even in prehistoric times, a human hunter would only get killed by his prey a tiny fraction of the time.

[MerryBlooms]

41. Killing animals for sport and ego is not appropriate.

[Dial H For Hero]

44. Then don't do so. Problem solved.

[The Mouth]

17. Yep

Disgusting.

I think the trophy hunters (as opposed to people who actually eat what they shoot or help get rid of pests) should be placed on a list like pedophiles; dangerous and deranged people who might or might not ever be curable but who should be ostracized and regarded with disgust.

[MerryBlooms]

42. Indeed.

[The Mouth]

15. Boar are pestsq

big, smart, mean and very damaging pests. Non native, too, here in California

Screw the people hunting those exotics, though.

[YoshidaYui]

18. I am a Hunter!

But the Animals I hunt come on a small screen, are normally twice the size of me, and most of my hunts are catch and release to study them, to understand how they interact with nature. I don't hunt with a gun, but arrows or up close and personal with dual blades which I am actually love using! I hope in the future this is how people will hunt, on the big screen and not in someone's back yard.

[MFM008]

29. I never

Never understood the urge to go out of my way to kill anything.
the only nuisance animals are man.
Plenty of food in grocery stores everywhere.
Shooting a confined passive almost tame creature calls in alot of bad karma for me.
Hardly a "sport".
That's just my feelings when you post something about hunting you asked for everybody's feelings and those are mine.

[Dial H For Hero]

30. Well, regarding the animals I'll be killing in the fall:

the only nuisance animals are man.

Wild boar are an invasive species that cause $1.5 billion in damage every year.

Plenty of food in grocery stores everywhere.

Are you asserting that paying people to raise pigs to be slaughted is a superior moral choice to killing a wild boar and eating it?

Shooting a confined passive almost tame creature calls in alot of bad karma for me.

I go down to Texas, and upon seeing a wild boar, approach it.

"Um....Bob....you're getting a mite close to that boar. You better shoot it, and quick."

"No worries! The fence will keep him back."

"Um...there aren't any fences, this is a free range area, remember?"

"It's all right. Wild boar are passive, almost tame. I heard it on the internet, it must be true. Here, piggy, piggy! Who wants his ears scratched!"

"Bob, thiis is an extraordinarily bad idea."

"Worrywart. He's running my way, he must like me! Man, those are big tusks....AIEEEGETITOFFKILLITKILLITKILLIT!"

That's just my feelings when you post something about hunting you asked for everybody's feelings and those are mine.

No worries.

[markpkessinger]

38. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania . . .

. . . where virtually everyone hunted, especially deer. So much a part of the local culture was hunting that the first day of buck season and the first day of doe season were school holidays. For many families of meager resources, hunting was an economical way to put meat on their families' tables. Most of the people I knew and know from there would likewise object to the killing of caged or contained animals. In fact, among the hunters I knew, one group that was utterly despised were out-of-state trophy hunters who would shoot an animal, take its head or antlers, and leave the carcass behind.

At least in Pennsylvania, hunting is also a way to manage the deer herd, whose natural predators have been reduced to almost nothing. It is well managed.

[Elessar Zappa]

45. If you eat meat

it’s not morally better than hunting. I eat meat and don’t hunt but I’m not about to condemn responsible hunters.