What a nonsense!

by Krzysztof Turowski

Yesterday’s evening passed slowly. After the hunt, I was sitting with my family in the living room, and suddenly, on TV, in „Fakty” TVN, I heard this slogan “Legalization of hunting with a bow is demanded by the Polish Hunting Association” and, as you can see from the very first moment, the material does not carry a positive message about hunters.

“Archers want to return to the forests and hunt, for example, wild boars, and invite children to this bloody fun. In the woods or in the city. “

After a while, we have a short introduction of a colleague arches and information about how many archers we have in our country. Then things go in a strange direction, quoting “Animal defenders revealed just a PZŁ (Polish Hunting Association) letter to the Minister of the Environment with a proposal for changes in the law” and then a photo of a Facebook entry of our hunter colleague appears.

I do not know what the animal defenders would reveal, because nothing like that happened.
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Then the slogan “Legalization of Hunting with a bow arouses the most controversy”. After which we see one of the editors of the portal Oko Press, on which the anti-hunting text also refers to television and says: “Even 50% of animals that are hunted by the bow are so-called not well shooted (wounded during previous hunt) speaking in a hunting language, that is, animals that were wounded and survived the hunt “and one of the pseudo ecologists jokingly adds” We want Robin Hoods, Indians and archery”. Of course, in the meantime, they tryes to balance it and we see archers, and topics around ministers, ASF and wild boars. However, If I had no knowledge about how hunting works and what is being said in a new project, then after what I saw, I would have tapped my head and I would say that those hunters have again goes mad!

Fortunately, I know what hunting is, I read the new Law project and despite the fact that I am not an archer, I perfectly understand what archers are talking about and why archery is not as scary as the media and pseudo-ecologists try to convince us.

Before I will write about archery, I would like to stop for a moment with 50% of the shots they are talking about. I do not know where this data comes from and where such statistics come from. Has anyone ever counted the acquired game and said specific numbers? Probably not, so maybe it would be worth giving the checked information, not the nonsense sucked out of the finger. It can also be said that 50% of crop circles make drunks, not aliens, and that would be the same level of journalist’s absurdity.

Especially that in Europe, archers work very dynamically in large cities. An example may be Spanish Madrid, where since 2012 the action of reducing the wild boar population has been taking place, which due to its number was the perpetrator of frequent attacks on people and many transport accidents. In addition, urban wild boars transported many infectious diseases.

Why in Madrid did the choice fall on archers? The bow is safe – there is no ball that ricochet, and the bow itself because it is loaded only when the bow string is stretched eliminates the risk of accidental firing.

The shot distance does not exceed 30 meters, and most of the shots are given a much shorter distance. Hunting with a bow, hunters choose trees for the seats, so an arrow shot in this way does not pose a threat to anyone.

In fact, even if a family with children is walking nearby, none of them will be able to see or hear that a hunter with a bow shot at some animal. They may hear the whistling of the arrow, or the sound of the game escaping for a few meters, but I am more than sure that they will not combine it with the hunt. Such reduction of animals in the city has a very high level of social acceptance.

The success of the Madrid approach may be proved by the fact that the population of urban wild boars was significantly reduced, and due to the high hunting pressure, invasive animals began to avoid the city with a wide arc. This is confirmed by the official statement that issued the authority of Spain, expanding the project to other large agglomerations. In the wake of Madrid, more European countries have started, and more and more countries are considering or have already introduced the possibility of bow hunting. How many of the obtained boars were wounded before? Probably none, but there are those who know better right?
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Despite this, the public heard once again – “blood sport”, “safety problem”, “threat to life and health”.

Probably the pseudo-ecologists would be much more suited to delivering poison like for the rats in cities as it is in the cellars of their blocks. The impact of rat poison is long, causes internal hemorrhage and slow, long and painful death of the animal, because the component contained in the poison has an anti-coagulant effect. They do not mind such poison in basements, so maybe they are ok to have it in the parks, right?

For them, probably this way is better than a clear and ethical shot from the bow cast from a short distance, after which game passes a few steps, with slightly increased levels of stress hormones (and yes, there are the studies that confirm this state)

I keep my fingers crossed for my archers’ colleagues because I know that they spend a lot of time and money on training or going abroad to be able to do their passion.

I refer a few of the redactors to their code of ethics that begins with such a sentence “- the task of journalists is to provide reliable and impartial information and diverse opinions, as well as to enable participation in the public debate”.

Recently, they forget about impartiality and reliability.

Happy Hunting!

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