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Melissa Bachman and canned lion hunting

I can understand the anger towards this woman when her tweet began to trend.

Despite everyone in South Africa who has put a lot of effort into really wishing Rhino poaching would just stop, the Western Black Rhino has just recently been declared extinct. Then this foreign woman comes along and boasts, actually boasts, about hunting down and killing another member of our beloved Big Five.

"An incredible day hunting in South Africa! Stalked inside 60-yards on this beautiful male lion... What a hunt!"

She even posted a picture. She looks so pleased with herself. We hate her, and I don't blame us.

Of course, hating her has accomplished pretty much nothing. Hurl misogynistic insults at Melissa Bachman all you want, hate her all you want, but this gloating image of her that's been haunting us is not a cause, it's a symptom.

Melissa Bachman didn’t legalize canned lion hunting. Melissa Bachman is not the only person in the world who has ever come to South Africa and shot a lion. She’s not even the only person this week. Should Melissa Bachman die tomorrow, lions will still be legally hunted down and shot in South Africa for as long as canned lion hunting is a thing. I can understand feeling upset with Melissa Bachman, but what exactly is the point of raging at her?

There is a petition on change.org calling for Melissa Bachman to be denied entrance in South Africa. At the time of writing this, it has 223,587 supporters. Even The Oatmeal has shared it.

Here is a petition on a petition on change.org calling for canned lion hunting to be banned. At the time of this writing, it has 998 signatures. The Oatmeal hasn’t shared this one.

Something is horribly wrong here.

If you are against what Melissa Bachman did, and would like to see less canned lion hunting about generally, it should be more important to you to get actively involved in helping to put an end to canned lion hunting in South Africa than it is for you to tell this one woman you think she’s ugly and her mother dresses her funny.

Stop writing this woman open letters. Stop calling for her to be banned from the country. Stop trying to shove a plaster onto a gaping wound.

And sign the damn Stop Canned Hunting in South Africa petition.
 
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