Dear CA.S.H. Members, supporters and fellow anti-hunters,
There’s been a lot of enthusiasm for C.A.S.H.’s Hunting Accident reports lately, both on our blog:
https://committeetoabolishsporthunting.wordpress.com/and Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Committee-to-Abolish-Sport-Hunting-CASH with lots of fitting comments by members there.
The New Year started out with a bang…sadly, literally for some. (Admittedly, it’s hard not to sound inured when reporting on the facts about such a violent blood-sport as hunting clearly is.) For instance, a father and his 9-year old daughter tragically found themselves face to face with “friendly” fire—leaving them among the many victims of Hunting Accidents added to C.A.S.H.’s ongoing list at our Website. www.abolishsporthunging.org. Part of a “deer drive,” an unofficial team hunt in which some hunters—in this case, including the father and young daughter—try to “herd” deer toward the waiting guns of other hunters. But, as so often happens when guns are loaded and blood is up, things didn’t go quite as planned. Shockingly, the “herders” met the same fate of so many deer this time of year… On the first day of January, 2020, they became just another statistic, and the subject of this 911 call from their accidental shooter:
“Oh my God, no please, I think I shot somebody,” he told the operator…
“I shot through some bushes. I thought it was a deer, I ******* shot them,” the caller said.
“You said someone was shot? Was it you that got shot?” the 911 operator asked.
“No, no, no it was my buddy and his daughter I think man, oh my God,” the caller responded.
“Is he breathing at all?” the operator asked.
“No. I don’t think so man. I don’t know man, I can’t even tell,” the caller replied.
“Was his daughter shot?” the operator asked.
The caller answered that he thought so, adding no one was moving.
The gun used in the shooting was a 12 gauge shotgun (a formidable weapon for any man, or girl, or deer to meet up with).
No matter how much the pro-hunting faction would like to deny, distort or colorize the growing menace of heavily-armed hunters plaguing the fields and woodlands in search of sport-prey, while sending bullets flying at every sound or movement they happen upon, 2019 was yet another banner year for hunting-related accidents and deaths. Despite nearly a dozen cheerful articles in New York papers declaring that states’ stats for hunting accidents were down compared to previous years, such as 1966—when 166 hunting accidents resulted in 13 fatalities—a quick check on C.A.S.H.’s list of Hunting Accidents reveals the somber truth about casualties of the bloody sport there.
Meanwhile, other states have had their share of noteworthy, needless hunter-caused deaths last year, including some surprisingly young participants—a seven year old boy is shot by his father while they were out hunting rabbits on Thanksgiving day, also in South Carolina. The oft-cited consolation that the boy’s organs were donated to others could not make up for the terrible loss of such a young child.
Not to be outdone, Idaho lost nine hunters representing four generations—an extended family of pheasant hunters, including some as young as seven or eight years old—when a chartered plane crashed in South Dakota while traveling for a hunting trip on December 2nd. Clearly the sport’s not all fun and games for everyone involved.
I hope you all stay well during these tough and trying times.
Jim
Jim Robertson
President, the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting