The Case Against Hunter Recruitment

[tt_johnsclist]

Thought many here would be interested in the read:

The Case Against Hunter Recruitment

The following opinion piece is written by my brother, Matt Rinella. He’s a research ecologist who has devoted his life equally to hunting and conservation. You’ve maybe seen him on old episodes of MeatEater or listened to him on more recent episodes of the podcast. For years now, we’ve been...

www.themeateater.com

 

[bsnedeker]

Lol....How much do you want to bet that the reason Matt Rinella removed his DDD page on facebook was because Steve offered to let him write this article and post it on his website? When he took it down so abruptly I was wondering what was up...makes more sense now!

 

[Ozarkansas]

It’s a very interesting read with some good points, but I feel that he doesn’t adequately address many of the advantages of increased hunting popularity- greater representation and social acceptance being the big ones.
He also just seems very caught up in the idea of reducing pressure- but by his own data tag sales have increased without license holders increasing so the issue is more people broadening their choice of quarry, not more people getting into hunting.

 

[RyanT26]

That’s the best thing I’ve read from meateater in quite a while.
As I was going through all the Wyoming draft quotas I thought multiple times we need more hunters like I need another hole in the head.
I really look forward to when this whole western hunting, hunt to eat, phase Loses some of its shine.

 

[Aginor]

“ I recently quit the board of a major hunting nonprofit over this”

Anyone know which board?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CJohnson]

Good on meateater for publishing this. I think I’d like Matt. I always thought most conservation groups push R3 because it gives them a bigger base to solicit money from. I’m a bigger fan of inviting all your buddies who don’t hunt to a banquet where they can eat oysters, get drunk, and donate money without having to worry about them actually hunting.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

I agree with everything said in that article. Awesome of Steve to post this.

 

[PredatorSlayer]

It’s a very interesting read with some good points, but I feel that he doesn’t adequately address many of the advantages of increased hunting popularity- greater representation and social acceptance being the big ones.
He also just seems very caught up in the idea of reducing pressure- but by his own data tag sales have increased without license holders increasing so the issue is more people broadening their choice of quarry, not more people getting into hunting.

Because the libs control social media and therefore control the thinking of weakminded youth, social acceptance will always be a struggle moving forward. I would rather be able to escape to my favorite honey hole and be alone than have social acceptance...

 

[Rob5589]

He makes some good points. The PR funds going up likely have not a lot to do with hunting; the shooting/tactical market has boomed in recent years. Not to mention gun purchase surges with recent elections.

Hunting is big business now. Meateater is a perfect example; TV shows, sponsors, podcasts, social media, buying up other hunting related businesses, and so on. There is no more running over to your local hunting shop or Cabelas, and ordering via phone/mail order (yeah, you used to call or mail in an order lol) to get your gear. Now there are dozens of smaller companies all vying for your business. And in order to stay in business, they have to promote hunting as a lifestyle and constantly compete for customers. Same with the .orgs; in order to remain solvent they need more members.

 

[ODB]

Article not coming up?

I had an in-depth offline conversation with Matt on this. I thought he was joking with the DDD thing. He most certainly was not.

 

[Bighorner]

I think that was well said and very relevant. Thanks for posting that.

 

[CJohnson]

Article not coming up?

I had an in-depth offline conversation with Matt on this. I thought he was joking with the DDD thing. He most certainly was not.

What is DDD?

 

[ODB]

What is DDD?

it was a thing Matt was doing, “Deglorify, Depublicize, Demonetize. hunting is best done quietly”

He was basically trying to say that the rise of the Instagram hunter, recruitment (under what he considered false pretenses as his article states), etc. was hurting what hunting is supposed to be - more of a personal/sacred pursuit.

he said he knows it seems hypocritical to have been on the shows....but things change over time.

 

[robby denning]

Some decent counterpoints in the article but I still believe we're weak without hunter numbers. And this statement:

"Basically, until we start hearing about landowners who have gobs of turkeys and deer on their property but can’t find anyone willing to come hunt for them, let’s stop fretting about attrition."

Is not a great vision forward to me.

But glad to hear the other side.

 

[Ozarkansas]

Some decent counterpoints in the article but I still believe we're weak without hunter numbers. And this statement:

"Basically, until we start hearing about landowners who have gobs of turkeys and deer on their property but can’t find anyone willing to come hunt for them, let’s stop fretting about attrition."

Is not a great vision forward to me.

But glad to hear the other side.

I agree with you- I think his points stand for western/backcountry hunting, but don’t hold up well to a lot of small game/upland and Eastern hunting that can handle a lot more pressure. I don’t want the East to lose its “hunting camp culture”, and we need strong numbers to keep that alive.

 

[rayporter]

mobility is a key issue that is not pursued. when the prey is declining the predator will move elsewhere in search of prey.

our mobile society allows us to head to the mountains where we hope to find more prey.

 

[hutty]

Interesting that his brother feels that way since Meat Eater is responsible for recruiting more hunters than any organization or campaign over the last three years.

Couldn't disagree more with the article and several of his premises are thin at best. I'll continue to participate in R3 and youth events. Short of being with my daughter when she got her first deer, being out with new hunters on their first hunts is infinitely better than me being alone and taking an animal.

Truly feel sorry for someone that is so consumed about themselves.

 

[dtrkyman]

Great recipe for keeping hunting, less people involved, less money for conservation and less input in regulation, yeah sounds great.

 

[HighUintas]

We can't just hope hunter numbers stay constant or drop (total, not per capital). In a couple of states, like Wisconsin, their total number of hunters has dropped and subsequently funding for conservation has dropped by alot. They're apparently pretty worried about that and looking for other possible funding sources because new hunter recruitment isn't working that well.

One of the possible additional funding sources is putting a tax on all outdoor gear similar to how our hunting/fishing gear is taxed. Or create other use fees for the people who generally just use public land completely for free.

I know this because my wife is studying environmental economic/policy something or other.

THAT is a problem. If the people who are anti-hunting are contributing monetarily to the upkeep of our lands and conservation, then they'll have more of a say in the land use and that will eventually lead to hunting not being allowed in far more areas.

While I want as few people to be out there crowding up the hills as possible, it's just not possible to have things stay stagnant because we'll eventually make up too small a percentage of the population. If we do want to be a small percentage of the population, we better have a damn good representative that can convince all of the anti-hunters that we should be allowed to hunt.

 

[Pacific_Fork]

We will always be the minority in society. We have plenty enough hunters as it is!! Think about it, instead of R3 what if we came up with a way to encourage more to actually get involved with political issues and donate more to non profits. Right now the vast majority of hunters just complain about their rights being taken on the computer or the bar stool and don’t actually get involved to stop/solve. That would be a far better project than recruiting more, non outdoorsmen/women, that show up to my honey holes sky lining themselves and camping in the middle of the prime feeding grounds ruining the hunting for everyone. They have all the fancy gear and do cross fit but have zero clue how to not pressure all the game out of the mountains. I always say, I’d rather share a basin with 10 Remi Warrens than just 1 newb because the newb will blow out all the deer and elk on the first day.