Mich. Group announces competitive hunting

[SpanishFly]

http://www.mlive.com/news/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/news-37/1149690028286470.xml&coll=5

Mich. Group announces competitive hunting


GENESEE COUNTY
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Wednesday, June 07, 2006 By Elizabeth Shaw
eshaw@flintjournal.com 810.766.6311
First bass fishing became a competitive sport, now hunting is about to become one.
The World Hunting Association announced its plans Tuesday to create a competitive hunting tour around the world, with the 2006 inaugural season beginning this fall in Gladwin at the Lost Arrow Ranch.
Local hunters believe their home state was a natural choice.

"This is one of the top three states in the country for the number of hunting licenses sold, so it's only right they chose Michigan. And I'm sure this means we'll see stops in Texas and Pennsylvania too," said Marc Somers, president of the local chapter of Safari Club International.
Supporters hope the tournament will give the state's economy a needed boost. Hunting contributes more than $500 million to the Michigan economy, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. But the sport has been on a decline in recent years, due to such factors as an aging population, less interest among youths and shrinking access to hunting land. Deer hunting license sales have dropped nearly 5 percent in 2004.
David Farbman, a real estate executive and hunter, is the WHA's founder, commissioner and CEO. Farbman and a group of investors are funding the initiative, which boasts more than $500,000 in prize money for the first two tournaments.
"The WHA fills a void by providing a platform that benefits the entire international hunting industry today and for generations to come," Farbman said in a statement.
Hunters will shoot white-tail deer and other game with tranquilizers, which should not kill the animals.
"For far too long, hunters have looked forward to the day when we would eventually get our own professional sports league," WHA hunter Brett Hankins said in a statement. "Well, that time has arrived and we are extremely excited."
The catch-and-release format could help the sport's image among the nonhunting public.

"It could help get people past the killing part so they can see the amount of skill and work that goes into it," said avid hunter Arlene Minto of Davison Township.
Some wondered if it would be a spectator sport or just a televised event. Others wondered what animals would be hunted and who would be eligible to compete.
"If this is something anyone can enter and win prize money, there are a lot of adventurous people out here who'd do anything to get out there and be part of it," said Minto. "I won't do that, but I'll definitely be watching it on TV, that's for sure."

Game ranch hunting can be nearly as competitive as hunting in the wild, but it depends on the ranch, all said.
"There are parameters the Safari Club has set up as to what defines fair chase -- things like the number of open acres, how long the animal has been acclimated to the area, the number of animals and hunters per acre. If it falls within those parameters, sure," said Somers. "If they chose Lost Arrow, I'm sure it meets those requirements."
The bottom line, all said, is how the tournament is actually handled.
"If they were out shooting the state's wild game, I'd be highly upset. I'd hate to see a sport as old, private and individual as hunting turned into a contest," said Roger Moore, president of the local Ruffed Grouse Society. "But if it's just on a game ranch with tranquilizers, then I don't have a problem with it. Whatever they do inside their fence, that's up to them."
"Is it going to raise money for education or charity? If it's done correctly and they use the proceeds correctly, not just to benefit individuals, then it sounds like a good thing," said Somers. "Anything that promotes hunting in general in a positive way, Safari Club supports."

[Swampdog01]

This is something that ranks right up there with Trump offering me a job.

I just don't see how making a contest out of it, makes it "Hunting"?

If you take a blind child to Toys-R-us, they will eventually find the most expensive toy in the building. Does that make for good TV if you follow him around with a camera?
I going to say not and neither will this.
We all could possibly shoot a deer and win first prize if the deer were running around in a cage. Fair chase or not, Where's the sport? Where's the lesson? Where's the heritage? What will this teach our kids about hunting?
"If you spend gobs of money and go to the zoo hunting, you can get a Deer just like this one on TV Billy"!

In my opinion, the Outdoors Ch, and many others like it are all ready full of poor quality hunting situational content & programming, why junk it up some more. That does not mean that I'm saying they are useless Channels. We need them for our cause.
But, there's only so many ways you can show a person hunting a Turkey, Deer, and a Duck.

You want good programming, bring your personal Camcorder with you and tape your own hunts. When you get home, give yourself $100 bucks, get it mounted and have a first prize ribbon ceremony with the wife & kids. At least you'll have a personal connection with your hunt. You may even learn something from watching the tape?

Cool for promoting the sport, but they are killing our heritage with this project.

Might be old school, but that's my 2 cents.

[SpanishFly]

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060611/SPORTS10/606110647/1058

OUTDOORS: Made for TV, not for hunters

Proposed tournaments are not what hunting is about
June 11, 2006

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BY ERIC SHARP
FREE PRESS OUTDOORS WRITER


H.L. Mencken told us, "No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people." David Farbman apparently thinks that also applies to American hunters.
Farbman, a Detroit-area real estate executive, has come up with one of the worst ideas I've heard -- a World Hunting Association that will stage competitive events similar to the B.A.S.S. and FLW fishing tournaments, complete with commercial sponsorship and television coverage.
Even worse, Farbman says his events will feature non-lethal hunting at high-fence game preserves, where the animals will be stuck with tranquilizer darts from guns and bows, knocked out and revived later.
One of the constant critical drumbeats from anti-hunting groups is that we hunters use animals merely as living targets. The best counter to that argument is that we eat what we kill, and what we do is no different, and less cruel, than the way slaughterhouses treat animals that non-hunters eat.
Now Farbman wants to show hunters knocking Bambi down with tranquilizer darts and reviving him so he can be shot again. You couldn't hand the animal-rights activists stronger propaganda. Farbman proposes using deer merely as living targets.
That's not to say Farbman's show wouldn't draw an audience. In a nation where more people are concerned about who's ahead on "American Idol" than what's going on in Iraq, I'm sure plenty would watch, if only for the novelty. But I don't think the people Farbman wants to reach would be among them.
Farbman talks in grandiose terms and says his hunting competitions eventually will include places like New Zealand, South Africa and Russia, although he's vague on exactly where and when. He plans to hold the first events in October and November at Lost Arrow Ranch near Gladwin, where pre-selected hunter-cameraman teams will try to tranquilize the highest-scoring whitetail buck (using both guns and bows).
Farbman said in a telephone interview the purse for each event is about $300,000, and while he insists that he has the capital for them, he's counting on increased sponsorship for financial support.
However, while he talks about eventually drawing "mainstream" advertisers from outside the hunting industry, I don't see Budweiser, Ford or the Geico gecko signing up for a program that treats deer like carnival kewpie dolls.
The fact that these events are being conducted behind fences should be enough to turn off a sizable number of hunters who think a deer ranch is a perversion of the concept of fair chase.
After stories about Farbman's plans ran in newspapers Wednesday, I received 14 e-mails and telephone calls from people who identified themselves as hunters. Every one thought Farbman's scheme was a terrible idea that would only help anti-hunters. Farbman replied that 90% of the responses to his Web site were favorable.
Farbman says he is a passionate bow hunter, and after listening to him, I don't doubt that. But he jumped into this without doing enough research, although I suppose the idea is a natural, if wretchedly excessive, progression from the success of B.A.S.S.
The B.A.S.S. professional bass tournament trail made its owners rich, turned unknown anglers into minor celebrities and spawned a host of copycat televised fishing circuits.
But when you watch those tournament shows and other fishing and hunting programs, you realize they're glorified infomercials, less about fishing than about tackle companies, big outdoor retailers and boat and engine manufacturers marketing their products.
Wal-Mart sponsors the FLW Outdoors fishing tournaments only because Wal-Mart sells lots of fishing tackle. B.A.S.S. was bought a few years ago by ESPN, not because the ESPN execs love fishing but because they saw a chance to sell advertising time to companies that make fishing gear, boats and motors.
I think that narrow, commercial focus explains why despite a vastly increased presence on television, fishing has hardly grown in the last decade, and hunting numbers have declined.
I hope many hunters will tell Farbman that his is not a good idea. And I also suspect that proposing to use deer as living targets will run him afoul of animal cruelty laws.
We hunters know that Elmer Fudd is a cartoon character whose antics don't bear any resemblance to real hunting. And Bambi bears little resemblance to real deer. Farbman needs to figure out that we don't need one of our own making it easier for the opposition to convince non-hunters that those cartoons reflect reality.
Contact ERIC SHARP at 313-222-2511 or esharp@freepress.com (esharp@freepress.com). Order his book "Fishing Michigan" for $15.95 at www.freep.com/bookstore (http://www.freep.com/bookstore) or by calling 800-245-5082.

[mcflyfisher]

I sit here stunned. As hunters and anglers we need to stand united against political groups that would like to see both activities nixed. I just don't know how I can support this idea in any way. What is done inside the fences of these hunting preserves is the buisiness of the people inside the hunting preserves. I don't watch the hunting shows that take place inside of them, because I don't agree that this is fair chase. The best analogy I can come up with involves a brothel, so I won't illuminate it further. Is this guy an anti-hunter? This seems like a stunt that PETA would pull in order to further show hunters as idiots.

[SpanishFly]

I'm not a hunter, but this is crazy stuff. Reality TV sells. Before long it won't be whitetail deer being tranquilized, it will be people chasing people. A new twist to "Survivor".