How best to fight the anti's?
 

With this new Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Fund for Animals alliance I was just wondering everyone's thoughts since they are going after bowhunting first. I am a member of Wisconsin Bowhunters Assoc. and several other groups like DU. I know there are many groups out there but what are some that you belong too? Where do all of you think our money is best spent to help fight against these nut cases? I have talked to several people I work with and they think it doesn't matter because it will "NEVER HAPPEN". Well I feel if we don't do something it WILL happen somewhere. I know I don't want to be that state where these freeks get their first victory. DO YOU?

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

I used to be a member of the Humane Society![:'(]

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

zak are you serious? lol

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

We never hardly hear about those groups here in arkansas. Seriously, i dont think it would be safe for those people here. Hunting is life here. I could see problems if they made it down here.

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

In all seriousness, I am considering joining one of them in order to fight from within. Go to local meetings and be disagreeable and disruptive. Try to derail. Just think what we could do if we all joined these groups and voted down their initiatives.

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

I really don't let the anti's get to me or put too much stock into their agenda.There has never been any legislation passed nationally against hunting or shooting sports and I don't believe it ever will.There have been local instances but alot of these have been reversed by the courts.Hunting and shooting sports generate billions of dollars and billions are being spent every year by hunters and outdoorsmen.Pennsylvania hunters alone spent 1.5 billion dollars last year!Do you think the state governments are going to give up that kind of revenue?Absolutely not.

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

JimPic, that's what they thought in Ontario when the anti's successfully shut down spring bear hunts......don't close a blind eye to these organizations...they are well funded and have politicians in high places.....if your not part of the solution, your part of the problem...an old saying I know but everyone can do something.

And in our home state of PA, last spring when the was a legislation meeting about Sunday hunting, extending spring gobbler hours and the shooting of ferule cats only a handful of hunters showed up including a personal friend of mine really involved in the NWTF and he said antis showed up in buses.....that's sad. Needless to say, they may not have taken away anything from us as of yet, but you can bet they've stopped additional opportunities...

Everyone can visit National Shooting Sports Foundation, the NRA, NWTF, DU, Know Hunting by Dr. Dave Samuel and many other sites to get more involved.

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

Keep spending that cash and there won't be any problems.

The richest activist organization in the world can't touch 30 BILLION annually in revenue

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

That is a heck of an idea, but If I did that, I might get arrested at the first meeting for assault and battery.
While I dont think these wackos have much of a chance at passing any legislation, I would certainly keep an eye on them.

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

That is exactly what I am thinking Rob. If you think it won't happen to you that is when it will. Here in Dane county WI we had an anti get on the DNR board. We have spring meetings and only a few people would ever show up. Well when they had an open spot anti's came out in force. We were out numbered 3 to 1 and they voted in an anti to the Dane county board of the DNR. Granted it was just one person in about 150 state wide but they did it. Now the meetings are attended by hundereds of sportsmen not just 50. So I have also seen anti's succeed in their goals. We need to keep a very close eye on them and start fighting them NOW before they get any momentum. The cost to fight now to keep our rights is much less then it will be to try to get them back.

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

Good point wihunter402. Though today it seems most unlikely that hunting will be abolished, what the antis hope for is the opportunity to ease in a little at a time if hunters should ever become complacent. They will never take on the hunting community as a whole. That would be foolish on their part. How they will go about it is little by little, very subtly. This strategy can work very well with the general non-hunting public if we don't remain vigilant of their motives.


I've never read the book, but I've come across some good quotes from Sun Tzu's "The Art of War":

“Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril.”

“In war, numbers alone confer no advantage.”

“To ... not prepare is the greatest of crimes; to be prepared beforehand for any contingency is the greatest of virtues.”

“What is of the greatest importance in war is extraordinary speed: One cannot afford to neglect opportunity.”

“If an enemy has alliances, the problem is grave and the enemy's position strong; if he has no alliances, the problem is minor and the enemy's position weak.”

"In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack - the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle - you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?"

"Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted."

"The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable."

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt."

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

Let's face it - I only dream about infiltrating an anti group. I don't have the energy or time. It wouldn't work when they figured me out, so I would have to be like one of them, then I would be accused of actually being one.

Our bigger enemy is lousy, disrespectful hunters and poachers. They give the anti's more free fuel than they ever ask for. I know this applies more to rifles than bows, but it goes all ways. We have to police ourselves.

While the anti's are not to be feared, we can't ignore them either. I'm an SCI member and hope you all support some pro-hunting group, too.

RE: How best to fight the anti's?
 

We have state laws protecting hunters from harassment by these people. Some people were busted in our state recently for interfering with a lawful hunt. My neighbor (woman) sometimes bangs pots and pans when she sees me go in the woods. I shot a doe last year while she was doing it as the deer was used to it and ignoring her. She was annoying me more than anything. Called the DNR and they went to her house and informed her she was breaking the law. Haven't heard her do it since.