This is such a perfect literary conceit, you have to wonder if it was preplanned. Nah, the people at NRA don’t have that kind of an awareness level, to construct a metaphor for the GOP’s mascot trying to survive an assault by NRA head Wayne LaPierre. Eight years ago, LaPierre went on safari to kill an elephant, so that he could show what a hyper-masculine, macho guy he is in a special on NRA television. What a dude, going out with a bunch of hunters — who ended up doing the killing for him — and pushing the elephant a notch up the endangered species list. But things didn’t go as planned and so the footage was never aired, a reporter at the Trace got hold of it, and now the New Yorker has it. Raw Story:
The video reportedly shows LaPierre and his wife, Susan, on an elephant hunt on Botswana’s Okavango Delta.
“The trip was filmed by a crew from ‘Under Wild Skies,’ an N.R.A.-sponsored television series that was meant to boost the organization’s profile among hunters—a key element of its donor base. But the program never aired, according to sources and records, because of concerns that it could turn into a public-relations fiasco,” the magazine reported.
“The Trace and The New Yorker obtained a copy of the footage, which has been hidden from public view for eight years. It shows that when guides tracked down an elephant for LaPierre, the N.R.A. chief proved to be a poor marksman. After LaPierre’s first shot wounded the elephant, guides brought him a short distance from the animal, which was lying on its side, immobilized. Firing from point-blank range, LaPierre shot the animal three times in the wrong place,” The New Yorker reported. “Finally, a guide had the host of ‘Under Wild Skies’ fire the shot that killed the elephant.”
You’ll have to hit the link to Raw Story if you want to see the video, I can’t embed it here. It’s eleven minutes long and hard to watch. I can understand the concept of hunting locally, having grown up in Colorado. People used to hunt deer and ducks. But going from that to going to a foreign country and paying a safari guide to help you entrap and kill an animal is something else.
Donald Trump Jr. and his brother Eric were famously depicted holding a dead leopard in their arms, and grinning. The way these “safaris” go, is these animals, especially the big cats, are caged. They’re hungry and dehydrated, and some punk, POS, like Donald Trump Jr. pulls a trigger and kills them. There is nothing manly about this. These are not the days of Dr. Livingstone exploring a new continent. This is pure carnage and mental illness.
I hate these people. I truly do.
Your hate, and ours, is justified. Believe me.
All hunters are mentally deranged scum. Period. How could any supposedly evolved being wake up and say “I’m gonna go kill something today and derive pleasure from it.s lifeless body at my feet”???
Disgusting pigs, one and all.
Well, nice (not really) to know where I stand. I’m mentally deranged scum. I grew up hunting and fishing too. Like others I knew, I was taught that you don’t catch or kill what you don’t intend to eat. My dad’s favorite wild game was rabbit which I never liked and once he stopped hunting himself I never hunted them again. As for taking pleasure from killing, I won’t deny a sense of satisfaction at having success and looking forward to the meals I’d be getting in return for my efforts, which often were considerable. But pleasure? No. I’d give thanks for the food I’d just obtained, and as I said some satisfaction in having put in the work to obtain it myself instead of buying it at the store. You may disagree and call that pleasure. If so that’s something I won’t debate. (And wild game is a treat – well prepared it beats the hell out of what you can buy at the store)
I haven’t hunted for a long time, and for some years have been physically unable to do so. Stomping around the boonies is beyond me given my disabilities. But since I had a civilized divorce if I were able come deer season I’d head an hour north of where I live and join up with my ex brother-in-law as there’s a lot of land in that family.
Trophy hunting as it’s known is something I find appalling and always have. Spending a fortune just to kill some unusual animal for the hide or the head on the wall is an awful thing to do. And given that the people who pay all that money spend, where they pretty much get transported to a spot to kill an animal just released from a cage or one that they’ve paid others to track for them isn’t hunting. It’s just killing. And wrong. I’ve always felt that way about it.
In all likelihood, Denis, trophy hunters WERE what Blue was talking about. Killing to eat is one thing. Killing to show off your…gun is quite another.
The famous short story “The Most Dangerous Game” speaks to your anger in its subtext.
I’m going out on a limb here, but I’m saying it. Elephants are sentient beings, and even if you don’t believe that, killing them is just wrong. I couldn’t watch the video, but appreciate this story being aired.
These folks aren’t hunters. They have no problem with dead exotic animals or a school full of dead 6 year olds. True outdoors people respect nature. These aholes only respect fawning for a camera or lining their pockets with blood money.