NORTHAMPTON — Holding up placards that read “trophy hunting is a crime against nature” and “killing isn’t conservation,” about 20 members of the Western Mass Animal Rights Advocates stood outside the First Churches of Northampton on Main Street, joining the Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting on Saturday.
Event organizer Sheryl Becker of Agawam said the action was one of many taking place all over the world, including places like Ireland, England, Brazil Canada, Austrialia and Zimbabwe.
Many states across the country also held similar protests or educational events to draw attention to what Becker calls the “appalling killing of wildlife for the mere fun it.”
Becker was quick to reassure that her group was not protesting subsistence hunting, adding that some members of the group are themselves hunters.
“We have a member who is a hunter and he feels that trophy hunting is disgraceful and unethical,” she said. “I think many hunters feel the same way.”
Becker, who has a Master of Science in environmental science and wetlands conservation, said trophy hunting has nothing whatsoever to do with conservation and is simply a money-making venture at the expense of wildlife.
The group hopes to shed light on guided wilderness and safari trophy hunting and “canned hunts,” which are done on shooting preserves or game ranches and allow people to shoot captive animals who are raised for the purpose of “becoming a trophy on somebody’s wall,” Becker said.
The Humane Society of the United States estimates that there are more than a thousand captive hunting operations across the country. Approximately 500 of these operations are in Texas alone.
The Humane Society also notes that it can cost up to $50,000 to participate in a canned hunt.
“This happens all over the world,” Becker said. “The people that run these businesses claim to be helping conservation goals and keeping wildlife populations alive, but in reality many of those species are in decline.”
In 2016, the Humane Society, together with the Humane Society International, published a study entitled “Trophy Hunting by the Numbers: the United States’ role in global trophy hunting.”
The study found that American trophy hunters had a significant impact on wildlife in other countries, having killed and imported trophies of more than 1.26 million wild animals between 2005 and 2014, comprising more than 1,200 different species.
The report also noted that during a 10-year period, American trophy hunters imported nearly 32,500 trophies tasken from African lions, African leopards, African elephants, southern white rhinos, and African buffalo, most of which are threatened with extinction.
According to literature being handed out at the event, other commonly hunted species for trophies include black and brown bears, wolves, bobcats, cougars and polar bears.
Becker said that her group has taken part in the Worldwide Rally Against Trophy Hunting for the last three years.
“It is extremely important to educate people about this,” she said. “It is just horrible cruelty.”
She says that Western Mass Animal Rights Advocates have just over 500 members.
The protesters came from cities and towns throughout western Massachusetts, including Northampton, Chicopee, Springfield, and as far away as Taunton and Townsend.
Carrie Whitmore of Townsend attended the event with her aunt, Elizabeth Nett of Northampton.
“It is terrible to kill animals just for so-called sport,” Whitmore said. “There is absolutely nothing environmentally sound about it at all. It is just the opposite.”
Nett agreed, adding that humans and animals “are more alike than we are not alike. We all feel pain, and we experience fear and terror.”
The Western Mass Animal Rights Advocates have participated in other animal protection activities, including trying to shut down pet stores that sell puppies from puppy mills as well as the use of animals in circuses, traveling “petting zoos,” and elephant and camel rides.