Anti: This was almost certainly a set-up and this is just another piece of hunting porn a la Mark Sullivan.

Company: Thank you for taking the time to comment on this video. We would like to inform you that this was not a setup. This company has, and never will, create situations like this to promote videos. This happened on a normal hunt, where the group of hunters had the intention to kill the lioness as quickly as possible.  Hunters normally don’t have the desire to let their prey suffer, and I assure you the hunters in this group did not want to cause a charge deliberately. Thanks again for your input.

Anti: Unfortunately there are a lot of hunters that do enjoy to see their prey suffer. If you don’t believe me trying going over to the Facebook pages of some of the hunters and you will find out.

Company: I agree, and they are mostly responsible for the hate anti-hunters have. I can assure you this was not the case here. Many hunters like to leave a wounded animals for an hour or so, then it’s safer to follow up. The animal might have died, or at least stiffen up. With this lioness everybody decided to take the risk and go after her to stop the suffering quicker. Believe it or not, most hunters I know do care about the animal also.

Anti: Then the ethical hunters need to sort out the unethical ones who enjoy inflicting suffering and setting packs of dogs on caracals and bears, etc. and then boasting about it. This is despicable and in the end will destroy the hunting industry. Something needs to be done about it.

Hunter: You can’t put all hunters in the same category. I have the utmost respect for any animal I harvest and always ensure a quick and clean kill.

Commenter 1: If you had respect for the animal, you wouldn’t be killing it, you ignorant piece of shit.

Hunter: Respect does not mean you have to leave it alone. Animals cannot maintain themselves like hundreds of years ago because man has moved in on their territory, fenced them in or fenced them out. Now it’s up to SUSTAINABLE MANAGEMENT to ensure the species survive. Even if you don’t like it, doesn’t mean it’s not true.

You are so fucking dumb I don’t know where to begin. You know what your probably way to fucking stupid to even comprehend that hunting has been around since life on earth. I respect the meat the animal provides and that it is another form of life just as I am. Go to the grocery store before it closes you fucking pathetic piece of shit.

Anti: Leaving hunters to manage conservation is like leaving alcoholics to manage a wine cellar.

Hunter: You are a total fucking moron. Do you realize hunters manage almost all conservation? All the game laws were put in place by hunters. Go see how set up it is when you get ripped to fucking shreds by that lion. God damn you people are as ignorant as they get.

Company: It’s not the same. You cannot compare game (good thing) to alcohol (bad thing). It’s more like: Leave people that love wildlife in charge of managing wildlife. Hunters protect wildlife, similar to a sheep farmer protecting his sheep. Kill all and you have nothing left to continue working. Breed more and increase the population, and therefore your income also. Hunting outfitters increase game population.

Commenter:  These idiots always invent stupid ideas to defend themselves. Saying that hunters don’t like to see animal suffer is a vulgar joke after all they are killing an animal for no reason except for their ‘fun’.

Anti: You are so right. They are so full of bullshit.  They like to think they are brave but they are so cowardly they don’t even have the guts to use the proper word for the killing they do. They use the word ‘harvesting’ like the animal is a vegetable or some grain. How despicable!  How is that respecting an animal’s life or death?

Commenter 1: As ignorant as you can get.  It’s a lot more ignorant saying “God damn you” to someone who is speaking out for animals, against people who murder them for fun.

Commenter 2: I couldn’t agree more.  While plants are living beings too, we usually don’t feel their pain just because they don’t show us emotions like animals do. use of word harvesting is downright pathetic. By any chance are you associated with some organization that work for animal rights?

Anti: Yes I am an ARA (animal rights activist or advocate).

Hunter: Let me put it down in basics. I’d like to point out how retarded you sound. plain and simple, you’re an activist retard. Ur expecting the world is to work in a specific manner in which wildlife isn’t killed for sport, food, or in whatever other way you are assuming an animal may be killed for.  Well it is, and it will always be killed, whether for sport, fun, food, or defence. Whether you or thousands of other people want to believe it to be truth. there are people who live in the countries that these animals are hunted in and protect them in ways which don’t appeal to you but has kept these animals alive.

So if you are so eager to help these animals why are you on Youtube watching hunting films? Shouldn’t you be out there in the savannahs in a hut making sure poachers and hunters are shooting the animals? Or are you some kind of internet hippy just trying to comment stupid shit on things u have no clue about?

Company: Sorry for the late reply. I was away filming a leopard hunt. Before you criticize me, please read the complete post:

Five years ago there was NO wildlife in the area. NONE. Not even an impala. Everything was poached out by local miners and villagers alike.  An avid hunter and conservationist asked the government to step in and proclaim the area to be a hunting area. Strange, since there are no animals, you would say. But there I was, 5 years later, filming a leopard hunt. Because the area was not protected, it means that poachers can be shot on sight (Zimbabwean law).

Animals started to move back into the area. First only duiker and impala, then kudu followed. Later zebra joined in. While on the hunt, I put up trail cameras, and have photos of two different males and three females. One of these males was hunted. The first one in 5 years, and only one will be hunted. The income generated will pay for the area to be protected for another year. Next year there will be even more game, which will be protected because it can be afforded to have an anti-poaching team in the area.

There is no way that you can say this hunter does not care for wildlife. Yes, he killed one leopard, he also shot one zebra, but look at what he has accomplished!

I saw cattle farmers and leopards getting along, where previously the cattle farmer will poison leopards. The farmers also gets a reward after the lion hunt, therefore he leaves the other leopard to live.

To sum up: I have respect for all ARAs on Facebook, Youtube etc, but there are people fighting the same fight you are, but in different ways. You need to be open to accept this fact. Not all hunters are poachers.

Thanks again for your input, I hope to hear from you soon.

Hunter: Wow You are as low as they come…Go eat a fucking leaf dumb fuck while I eat my steak.

Anti: People like you have a serious problem in that they can’t see how stupid they themselves are, and project that stupidity onto others. Read your statements and you will see they are the words of an uncivilized and uneducated imbecile. Still there is no shortage of those where you come from, where they have gone too far on the dumbing down.

Company: I haven’t seen a reply on my post about the leopard hunt. I’m not trying to pick a fight, I would honestly like to hear your opinion on the situation in Zimbabwe. Is this type of hunting a good thing, or still not acceptable to you as an ARA activist?

Anti: It’s wrong to kill any animal for anything other than need to survive for food and even that is disputable,  It is especially wrong to kill as a sport. How can normal people enjoy to end a creature’s life for a thrill?  The answer is they can’t, so it follows the people that do these things are NOT normal.

Hunter: Yea there are more people in the world that do it than don’t so you are the weird one. Many people live off the meat they take. Not everyone wants to be a skinny vegan.

Anti: Really so who eats cats?  Yes it’s true hunters try to make out that the antis are the weird ones.  However if you actually look at the surveys carried out you will see that every survey you look at says 85% to 95% of people are against trophy hunting in all its forms and actually trophy hunters are an extremely small minority of 3 to 5% at most.

Company: If killing one will save the species, it cannot be wrong, in my opinion. Thanks for your input, the world would be a dull place if everybody always agreed on everything.

Hunter: I never said I was for trophy hunting did I? I kill only what I eat. There is nothing wrong with having a few mounts on the wall as long as you ate the animal. I don’t know about lion but bobcat and mountain lion are some of the best eating you can get. I know some people go out and kill for the sake of killing but that is absolutely immoral. You may not think so but I highly respect the life of another animal. I never wish to see any suffering. I respect your opinion and choices but I have my own as well so I wish you do the same for me. No need to keep arguing.

Anti: Get an education. Did you know that thanks to people with your stupid ideas there are less lions left than jaguars?There are farmed lions who are sick due to weakened immune systems as they are taken away from their mothers shortly after birth, and many have TB and feline HIV.  Sick practices and all people involved in this are sick!

Hunter :I am done arguing with an idiot. Go die in a hole you worthless cunt.

Hunter: Wow I just read some of your other comments and you really are a psychopath. You belong in a mental institution.

Anti: Oh yes, sure. Well it would be very nice for you hunters if what you were saying was true. Hunters are the stupid mental cases who have a mass compulsion to spend small fortunes buying expensive camo so they can dress up to try to like a tree and make a treehouse so they can hide in one and then they call antis tree-huggers and treetards. What a joke.

Your day is over, now you have to face the truth which is that people who enjoy killing animals are the ones who are in fact sick in the head. We already have all the evidence we need. 99% of serial killers abused and killed animals before they turned their attentions to humans. Sorry to be so blunt, but it’s hunters who are the psychos.

Thank you for this conversation which as it is typical of an exchange between hunters and antis it will be reproduced elsewhere – without names – as an example.

[Thanks to the hunting company for their courteous responses along with their helpfulness in allowing this conversation on their Youtube video comments.  In recognition of this, the name of their company has not been mentioned.]