IDFG Commissioner resigns over hunt photos

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It's number 3 on my google news right now, wedged between the Saudi incident and the continuing saga of Pocahontas. "Cecil the Lion" round 2...
 
Had he not had a picture with the baboons would he still caught the same flack? Kind of like the California game commissioner that killed a mountain lion in Idaho.

Yea I can see how it looks bad since it was a "family". I also wonder if family is his words or someone else. A likely scenario was that all those in range all got an arrow. No different that walking in on a herd of pigs, flock or covey of birds.
 
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You can't take that pic, and if you take it you HAVE to be able to keep it to yourself. You don't text that to a group of buddies.
 
Frankly it could be any dead animal and the animal rights folks come unglued.

^ Agreed and I think the pic with the giraffe would have be more than enough to get him in hot water.

That being said, I think there are a lot of hunters that draw the line at primates, (Rinella has stated multiple times he does) and while I'm not saying it's unethical to hunt them if you are a public official and you don't recognize that posting a picture of you and a dead baby primate is a terrible decision... well... maybe your particular DNA line hasn't branched off much from your quarry.
 
On a personal level I don't care.

From the perspective that we are all ambassadors of hunting it is probably not the best move.

Most of the folks who are deriving great outrage from this would probably be outraged at a picture of a hunter with a raghorn, and instead of a "family of baboons", they would refer to it as a "teenage elk."
 
Saw it on twitter. Guy that posted it is a local TV news man that is a fisherman. He was disgusted and said you sure didn't eat those animals. Yes people eat baboons and giraffes. Pictures were in bad taste I agree but I just don't get the hate for hunting African game. They wouldn't say a word if it was a pile of warthogs.

While I am not interested in hunting these things I have zero problem with people hunting anything that is legal. Just cause Disney says they are cute and cuddly doesn't mean we shouldn't manage them just like any other species. Thank god Bambi didn't ruin deer hunting!
 
I'm not sure why this is an issue. Shooting baboons in some parts of Africa is much like shooting coyotes in the US. I had many opportunities to kill them when I hunted Namibia. I had no particular interest in that, so I declined, but I don't really see an issue. In that area of Namibia, farmsteads were fenced with concertina wire because baboons were such a problem, to the point of being dangerous.

Was a particular picture distasteful for reasons beyond just showing dead baboons?

I suppose I could dig out this entire story, but I have better things to do - I leave in an hour for Unit 36 Wyoming Mule Deer.
 
Was a particular picture distasteful for reasons beyond just showing dead baboons?

Yeah... definitely belongs on the grip and grins I find distasteful thread. To your coyote analogy, I'm sure you would agree circulating a pic of you posing with a couple of dead coyote pups probably isn't a great career move.
 
It was a bad decision that cost Idaho a good commissioner.

Most hunters don’t care that he hunted baboons, probably don’t care he killed a “baby” baboon. However, when you show a pic with them sitting together with the baby on the mom’s lap with the statement “killed a family of baboons”, most people cringe hard.
 
It honestly doesn't bother me as long as it was done legally. I do agree that maybe the pic wasn't a great idea, BUT....
I see guys here in Indiana that shoot yearling deer that I swear still have milk on their lips...but nobody bats an eye. "meat in the freezer" is what they say....yeah, maybe 4 burgers out of that 40 pound deer that looks like a brown Doberman.
I think that a lot of non-hunters have the mindset that every animal in Africa is on the Endangered Species list....smh
 
Frustrating because he didn't really do anything wrong, but made the wrong choice to showcase something controversial. Just a bad look.
 
Killing a baboon is fine with me if it's done legally.....but. Shooting a family of baboons just because is dumb, he deserves what he got. I would have fired him because of his mustache alone!
 
I think trying to look at this from an outsiders perspective it's horrendous. I think we're getting to the point where the "public" is starting to view basically most species in Africa as a "trophy hunt". I personally know a little better, but I think that's where increasingly more people are starting to draw the line. I would like to think that most reasonable people don't have a problem with people hunting for meat. However I think they have a hard time justifying why someone needs to go to Africa to hunt for meat. I get that the meat doesn't go to waste in most instances, but I think the average person has a hard time connecting the dots on this type of stuff. This sort of stuff kills the reputation of "hunters" for those sitting on the fence about it. I think the time is coming where many of us are going to have to decide what is more important...sticking up for "fellow hunters", or not alienating those non-hunters who are on the fence.
 
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