The cultural war on hunting knows no boundaries, but the good news is that hunters worldwide are increasingly becoming engaged in the fight through social media as reports from South Africa show the nation’s hunting community, like hunters across America, must mobilize to protect hunting’s future. As posted yesterday on South Africa's Wildboere.com, an industry news and information website for game farmers and ranchers, the article, "Urgent: The Future of Hunting in South Africa," written by game breeder and outfitter Phillip Mostert gained immediate traction. Mostert explains, "We are quick to cry wolf and complain that the greenies are vindictive against us and threatening our livelihoods, and once again we try to fix the blame instead of fixing the problem." His solution: Get engaged in the online world to use the power of social media and global networking.
For this very reason, in December 2015 the NRA Hunters' Leadership Forum (HLF) and American Hunter announced the launch of the “Hunters’ Leadership Forum” portal at AmericanHunter.org specifically to spotlight news and information on hunting and hunters’ rights. The portal provides America's 20 million hunters and 5 million NRA members a way to use our collective voices to influence the public conversation on hunting and wildlife conservation. In addition, American Hunter’s Facebook page continues to address the evolving cultural, political and technological challenges facing hunters and wildlife conservation in the 21st century.
In his article, Mostert makes a valid point, saying the South African hunting community also can help simply by cleaning up its act as needed to take away the anti-hunters' ammunition. He urges the hunting industry to promote the fun of the hunting experience and the benefits to the community hunters provide, including donating meat to local villages, rather than focus only on the trophy animal and to use discretion when posting hunting photos to social media.
In closing, it is no newsflash that we hunters are under constant, vicious attack by extremists from the United States to Africa and beyond who will continue priming the social media pumps in efforts to shut down hunting. The other side has a voice everywhere, which is why it is so important that the NRA lead the charge for American hunters.
Moral of the Story: Social media is our best marketing tool for winning the culture war on hunting as we fight the mob mentality of those who want to destroy us.
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