The only good sheep....

The sale of 'Trophy Tags' has been an important source of revenue for the conservation of animals like bighorn sheep. In a typical year the auction of just twenty permits at the Foundation for North American Wild Sheep’s annual convention  will raise over $2 million - ninety percent of which goes to wildlife agencies for wild sheep management, herd restoration and research.

However, this practice leaves even some hunters uneasy:
Trophy Tag Auctions Bad Business.

We might not need to read about yet another example of hunters assuming the role of their own worst enemy in the war to save our hunting tradition, but I can’t resist writing about this one.
Here in the New West, we’ve had at least three recent headliners about our state wildlife agencies and conservation organizations condoning and even promoting the practice of the super-rich paying obscene amounts of money to buy big game licenses. Does this practice really promote the future of hunting or give it another self-inflicted black eye? 

It was interesting to check out some of the comments on the two articles referred to in the post. Hunters clearly come in many forms.


I do not have a problem with hunting for food, if that is how you choose to eat. I do have a problem with hunting culture and trophy hunting. It is stupid to hunt mature, healthy adults (it is a shame these are referred to as Trophies) since this depletes the gene pool of the most successful traits in the population. It is equally a shame the kill shot photos that are taken after the animal is killed. This shows utter disrespect to life and the spirit that was taken from animal. It used to be that deep reverence and honor was considered for the animal. The act of the hunt was also sacred. We need hunting policy that really serves conservation and is not an arm of hunting culture.