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Ingrid Newkirk

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Trump Brothers Make Themselves Look Like Barbarians

Posted: 03/13/2012 9:31 pm

Donald Trump's sons are no chip off the old block, as The Donald, who helped get the diving horse off the Atlantic City pier, is against hunting on ethical grounds. But Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump are the targets of more media scrutiny than Barack Obama's birth certificate after pictures surfaced online of the pair posing with wild animals they had killed and big fat grins on their silly faces. The photos were taken while they were on a pay-as-you-go "canned hunting" safari in Zimbabwe. Each "trophy" was procured for a fee -- how macho is that?

Dressed as if to play extras in Rambo, the brothers posed for photographs, including one sick enough to make a grown man, other than a Go Daddy CEO, lose his lunch: Don holds his knife in one hand and the severed trunk of an elephant he's shot in the other. An elephant! In another photo, Eric sits atop a Cape buffalo, using the animal's corpse as a gun and hat rack. Another photo shows both brothers standing next to a massive crocodile whom the Great White Bwana Boys no doubt had "the help" hang up by a noose from a tree branch. In a joint statement, the brothers said, "We have the utmost respect for nature and have always hunted in accordance with local laws and regulations." If this conduct constitutes respect, I really don't want to know what their contempt looks like.

Attempting to defend their behavior, the brothers further declared, "As hunters, we eat everything we kill." Well, now, if they ate the whole cheetah, I'll eat my hat. And if they did, my hat won't kill me, but chances are the cheetah liver contains enough vitamin A to kill them, which might just improve the gene pool. "In addition," say the brothers, "all meat was donated to local villagers who were incredibly grateful." Of course, when millionaires breeze in, even to blow away the local fauna, most poor villagers hope for some crumbs from the table. However, if the Baby Trumps' selfless interest is to feed Zimbabweans, they could have spared themselves the grueling plane ride and just donated the money, including for the airfare and fees, to the hunt organizers so that the villagers could plant crops that would have continued to grow and provide food for years.

I shouldn't call it a "hunt," as they barely had to walk from their jeep to the photo opp. In fact, they paid at least a $2,795 trophy fee to kill a deer-like kudu and another $1,997 to kill a waterbuck, and who knows how many thousands more for the other living targets. Imagine how "incredibly grateful" any world hunger relief organization would have been to get a donation of that size. But, Anton Chekhov wrote, "while two idiots went home and sat down to dinner, there was one beautiful... creature less in the world." Well, a lot fewer in this case.

The Trump brothers' destructive little joyride to Africa is something that they should apologize for. It won't bring back the lives they took or redeem America's image among Africans and others, but it would show something they need desperately: some humility.

The privileged apples have fallen far from the tree. Donald Trump Sr., who has worked with PETA in the past, prefers to hunt for new entrepreneurial opportunities, not animals to kill. While The Donald is a dignified-enough dad not to blast his own progeny, he did say, "I am not a believer in hunting and I'm surprised they like it."

Hunters are often thought to be lacking in self-esteem and perhaps more, and writer Allison Blaney of CelebDirtyLaundry.com summed it up best: "One particularly grotesque picture shows Eric Trump holding up a severed elephant tail -- perhaps as a size comparison for what he is NOT packing in the pants."

 
 
 
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09:20 PM on 04/08/2012
Some very interesting reading for all animal lovers, check out www.dianedew.com/animal.htm.
Its time you hunters got educated.
11:30 PM on 03/30/2012
Take a few moments to read Genesis 9: 1-3 and Gensis 27: 1-14 it may shed some light on the subject for you.
07:13 PM on 03/26/2012
I have read the articles on Petas website.
You slander the age old traditon of the hunter and his quarry with false claims and statistics. People who don't know take your wild claims and your grotesque and gruesome descriptions pertaining to hunting and hunters as the truth. Your characterizations are FAR from complete and/or accurate.
You do the animals you profess to care so much about a huge disservice by demonizing their strongest advocate .
Sportsman, hunters, fisherman, and conservationists care enough to manage wildlife populatios and not leave them to the extreme cruelty of starvation and /or disease .
Hunters accept this responsibility and work to preserve habitat and do our best make quick kills that result in minimal suffering . We utilize the animal for food and /or clothing when appopriate and keep trophies to honor exceptionally diffucult hunts and /or exceptional specimens .
In your eyes that makes us villians but in the real world we arewildlifed best friend.
How can you say it would be better to let them starve or or die from diseases brought on by overpopulation???? Compassionate?? I think not.
06:39 PM on 03/21/2012
Canned hunts are vile at it's very core. The utter cruelty & betrayal of culled animals far outweighs any monetary gain for Africa. The foundation of these so called "Safari'" operate & thrive on blood money, instant gratification for the insipid and weak. Bored rich, inferior little brats that need senseless, gratuitous violence to feel alive. Real men are compassionate to our non-human sentient beings.
12:26 PM on 03/26/2012
where do you get the "canned hunt" info ? Where is the evidence that these were captive animals ?
You rant without evidence or reason .
06:32 PM on 03/21/2012
The $100,000 each these pugnacious snobs reportedly spent for bragging rights to smugly pose with their victims could have been donated to Zimbabwe's poor. It would feed much of the country instead of the measly "meat crumbs" they "donated" from their kill. What a joke to use that excuse to justify the massacre.
12:05 AM on 03/18/2012
PETA....where are you? Last year the National Park Service removed fewer predators from the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Recreational Area than it did in 2010. Why......to protect less than 10 Piping Plover nests!

NPS trapped 117 raccoons, 37 opossums, 26 minks, 33 nutria, 41 feral cats, eight coyotes, and one red fox. The feral cats were captured in live cages and taken to the County SPCA. The other animals were killed or euthanized.

And reasonable people have difficulty accepting why environmental groups, such as Defenders of Wildlife, don’t blink at eye at the number of animals that are killed to only minimally or modestly increase shorebird nesting success.

This killing is going on in America's National Parks every day in the name of preserving nature!!
12:05 PM on 03/16/2012
I can see how these photos might anger some people but this is actually the only way to stop poaching and INCREASE the number of endangered species animals. The reason for this is that the value of the animals to the locals is worth more in hunting... fees and the money generated from that activity than from poaching. The hunting license fee for just 1 elephant is $50k plus the costs for guides, supplies.lodging, food etc. If you want to protect an endangered animal, allow regulated hunting and give the locals a reason to protect it. Everywhere hunting is regulated and allowed, the # of endangered species increases because the locals are involved. BTW, all of the edible meat obtained from these hunts is donated to the locals as well.
04:09 PM on 03/21/2012
Bla, bla, bla the Trump's are vile at their very core. Africa has also depended on the poaching of elephants for ivory. They massacred thousands cut off their husks & leave them as they lay to die. So is that acceptable because it helps the poor Africans? You insult the intelligence of compassionate people. The utter cruelty & betrayal of these animals raised in captivity, fenced in with no where to run in despicable canned hunts far outweighs any monetary gain for Africa. If they depend on such an abhorrent business to survive, then they are a lost cause. Need to think of humane ways to generate income that doesn't involve the slaughter of beautiful endangered species by cowardly rich little pricks who feel like big men when in reality the odds are stacked 100% in their favor. This is not hunting, it's an ambush & the revenue it generates for Africa is filthy stinking blood money.
11:57 AM on 03/26/2012
where is the canned hunt bull coming from? A safari is not captive animals in some little pen. Have you ever been outside??? What actual knowledge do you have of hunters or hunting? I suspect none because your arguments are full of insults and no facts.
It is obvious to me you know not of what you speak. You insult the intellegence of all conservationists who live with , utilize and or protect wildlife and their habitat all over the world.
02:53 AM on 03/15/2012
There were no altruistic motives here. They are urban dilettantes seeking a new thrill that money can buy, but it will never fill their emotional void. They should put their trust funds to better use, e.g., conservation/anti-poaching campaigns.
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07:27 PM on 03/14/2012
That was too much for one day.
05:56 PM on 03/14/2012
Crocodile meat is said to be quite tasty. It is slightly higher in cholesterol than chicken and other kinds of poultry but much lower in fat. Because of the delicacy of the flavor of the meat it is recommended that it be cooked with fruit and few herbs or spices.

It can be served as kabobs with pawpaw and sweetened bananas. Also popular is thin steaks drizzled with basil and garlic sauce and served with mango. Be sure not to overcook the meat as the moisture can cook away very quickly.

There are far more recipes for the crocodile's close cousin the alligator although the flavor of alligator is a bit stronger and less fishlike,

Cheers,
01:06 PM on 03/16/2012
You are clearly overthinking this both are great meats. Simply season as you normaly would and grill or make a batter, flour and batter the meat and fry. You could cook as you suggested if you don't like the taste of the meat but if meat flavor is what your are looking for don't waste the time.
04:37 PM on 03/14/2012
Little did they know that while guests of Robert Mugabe, that delicious BBQed pork they were eating was a recipe from one of Mugabe's favourite dishes- the fabled "Long Ribs" - you know: the "other white meat"
Presumably them Trump boys and Go Daddy Parsons sure loved them lip-smackin' Long Ribs BBQs.

"Long Ribs"? Google it.
04:15 PM on 03/14/2012
Money and privilidge seems to create a sense of arrogance. The Trump brothers should be ashamed of themselves, and they would be if they weren't so apathetic towards life.

This is also illegal since it's really a form of poaching. Isn't it? Or do those with money have such a delusion of entitlement, that they can do what they want with whom they want, wherever they want. Murder is murder and it's a crime nonetheless.
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averagezoe
Don't breed or buy while homeless animals die!
10:56 PM on 03/14/2012
And why couldn't they have accidentally stumbled into the path of a stampeding herd of water buffalo?
09:34 AM on 03/15/2012
Good question.
02:01 PM on 03/14/2012
I teach middle school in South Central LA. Somehow the topic of elephants came up in my classroom. I stopped the lesson to teach them. Did you know they live in maternal packs, and are basically related to each other. They actually grieve the death of a member of their pack. This has led scientist to conclude that they are highly intelligent and feel a wide range of emotions, just like us. They are majestic, amazing animals. I went on You Tube and showed them videos of these beautiful creature mourning the death of a loved one. My students were amazed and now have an abiding respect for these animals. How anyone could kill an elephant is completely beyond my comprehension!!! What those two brothers did was savage, and cruel. They are bad people to the core. They make me sick! Their father should be ashamed of them, and should question why he raised such terrible people.
12:15 PM on 03/26/2012
Did you show them the pictures of starving herds dying off due to habitat destruction. Did you find video of peoples entire crops and villages ravaged by hungry herds of these beasts that eat 500 pounds of vegetation a day.? Did you educate yourself to the positive side of the argument that shows why and how hunting is healthy and necessary for these animals and many other wildlife species. Did you explain that to the kids? NO ?? Then shame on YOU - you have acted as an uneducated lobbist not a teacher.
01:01 PM on 03/14/2012
There is absolutely no way to defend or justify this ridiculous "hunt." I'm happy to see so many people are appalled by this.
12:56 PM on 03/14/2012
"As hunters, we eat everything we kill."

That's a lie. Among the animals they killed is a leopard, whose meat is not fit for human consumption.