The Terrorist Within the Hobby Hunter
The leisure-motivated injuring and killing of wildlife by hobby hunters “cultivates” behaviours such as cruelty, violence, lying, injustice, and brutality — while simultaneously drowning them out ideologically — behaviours that must be eliminated in the realm of human relations.
The modern hobby hunter profits bloodthirstily from the suffering of others in order to impose their own interests on society.
It is not as though a hobby hunter has ever been nominated for the Nobel Prize. The murmuring about species or nature conservation is merely framed as a justification for hunting, in order to conceal the true motives, and does not withstand serious scientific scrutiny.
Following the various attacks carried out by supporters of the Islamic State in the past, it was clear — particularly in German-speaking regions — from a felt sense what terrorism actually is. The prevailing collective mood shifted abruptly — into subdued fear.
Yet the collective consciousness largely suppresses, in a self-serving manner, the fact that every day wildlife suffers, flees, and dies under the often senseless terror of hobby hunters. Even politicians applaud this form of terrorism and see no need for action. After all, it is not their lives at stake. More than that: politicians even organise this terror and hypocrisy. Those who court hobby hunters appear to have a defective moral compass.
Women, children, adolescents, and adults are radicalised by hobby hunters and drawn into a network of violence and contempt for life in much the same way as the pied pipers of Islam do. The victims are in some cases gradually shaped into members of this terror from childhood. Through the warped ideologies of hunters’ lore, those in search of meaning undergo a form of training in order to carry out violent acts in the animal kingdom.Foxes, martens, marmots, etc. are merely incidental game in their terrorist activities. Hobby hunters also proudly publish the faces of the severed heads of dead wild animals through photos, videos and statistics.
The militant propaganda material of hobby hunters for this purpose is widely disseminated in the media and accessible to ordinary citizens. Hobby hunting thus also gives a name to animal cruelty and terror.
Hunting associations are always also a form of terror cells. Hobby hunters do not only preach a culture of barbarism against natural predators. There are even hobby hunters who claim that it brings particular joy to shoot a living being that one knows. The Islamic State holds similar views. Hobby hunting and violence contradict any sense of justice and the rule of law.
When people hunted in earlier times, it was done with respect for life and only to feed one’s own kin. Foxes, birds and the like were not killed for fun out of boredom, relaxation or in search of recreation through a misguided notion of experiencing nature (which, upon closer analysis, does not work either – see hunting fever).
Those people who take pleasure in killing, who believe they gain prestige through a trophy made of flesh, have attained neither the moral nor intellectual maturity to recognise the primitiveness of their actions. This society calls itself civilised, even though the pursuit, the bodily harm and the killing of animals cowering in fear — this incredible conduct — is still called a sport. For killing out of pleasure or sport, there is no justification and no excuse.
Psychologist and neurologist Saper
What hundreds of hobby hunters in the canton of Geneva in Switzerland used to do inadequately, is today handled more exemplarily by 11 wildlife wardens who share 3 full-time positions, among many other responsibilities.
Preservation instead of exploitation
Humans have a responsibility to interact with nature on Earth in a conscientious manner. People should approach the animal world with respect for life and ensure species-appropriate living conditions in forests and fields, rather than being their hobby hunters.
One only needs to observe wildlife to see what terror and habitat loss they suffer. They never have a moment's peace throughout their lives, living in constant fear. While grazing in a hunting territory, they constantly raise their heads anxiously to spot a hobby hunter. There is no real freedom when one is forced to be nocturnal, and so on. That wildlife becomes ill under such unnatural and stressful conditions is yet another argument against hobby hunting.
The fear of humans in wildlife has been conditioned into them solely through hunting. Animals grow accustomed to hikers, cyclists, and other nature users. This is evident in protected areas, such as the Swiss National Park. There, red deer graze undisturbed even in broad daylight on open alpine meadows, despite enormous visitor numbers, causing no damage to crops — indeed, studies show they even promote biodiversity.
Added to this is the fact that large sections of the hunting community possess a level of knowledge from the last century. This is due primarily to the frequently inadequate training offered in courses for the hunting examination, which are largely conducted by fanatics with cult-like ideologies who require no formal qualification credentials. After completing their training, the hobby hunter moves exclusively within the echo chamber of the hunting press, which continually repeats its distorted and often outright false portrayals.
Within hunting clubs, members then mutually reinforce each other's worldview. In this way, a closed-off sect has formed that is barely receptive to new information. What makes this particularly alarming is that the local press and politicians still believe that expertise resides beneath the hunter's hat, and they readily consult the local hobby hunter on all matters relating to nature. In this way, the hobby hunter sect contaminates the public sphere as well.
HOBBY HUNTER RADAR
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