Some of you are aware of the spat that recently ensued on my Instagram account. Normally, my account is private, but I've entered a contest so it's been public for a few weeks now. In fact, the photo for said contest is one of a few that attracted negative attention.

I consider myself to be a conservationist, and a proponent of animal welfare. There are important distinctions that set animal welfare apart from animal rights. Animal welfare, in my opinion, is the side that all reasonable humans should be on. No reasonable human being wants animals to be abused, neglected, or tortured. As an animal welfare proponent, I want more humane treatment of animals in agriculture, the restriction of puppy mills, the most humane methods in hunting to be used...those kinds of things. I don't want people to stop hunting, stop having domestic animals, or stop studying nature through conscientious use of scientific collection. I love natural history museums, my stepfather grew up as a fur trapper and has had a nuisance wildlife trapping business for nearly two decades, and I clean animal skulls from legally hunted and trapped North American species. I occasionally buy animal skulls from fellow osteology enthusiasts. Never would I want to promote trade in endangered and threatened species.

Animal rights (AR), on the other hand, in its most extreme form, espouses no human ownership of animals and no use of any animal products whatsoever. AR activists often promote assigning animals the same rights as humans. There are lots of more moderate AR folks out there, who would probably never have a problem with the sight of say, a fox pelt and skull that had been salvaged from a roadkill animal. But the subject of this post is definitely not one of those. She is not only against all killing of animals, she believes that humans are sick and contributing to the "negative energy" of the world if they choose hobbies such as mine. She thinks even found deceased animals should be left alone because she equates admiring/collecting/handling any part of a dead animal to "playing with it" and "fukery." Yeah. Still not sure if she was trying to not formally swear on IG, or if she just likes to alter how she spells variations of the word.

A note on leaving animal remains in the environment - I'm not going to downplay the importance of enriching the Earth and the capacity for contributing nutrients to other life forms. Decomposition is a natural process of chemical cycling. In fact, when I go shed antler hunting, I am rather discriminating in what I will collect. I know squirrels love them and they're a great source of minerals. But my knowledge of chemical cycling is not going to prevent me from collecting a few things. I think it's really a drop in the bucket, so to speak, especially when one considers just how much humans have altered the environment.

OK, now to the unreasonableness! This is my contest post -- the contest is from the maker of the fox pins I'm wearing. And no, I don't normally "wear" pelts.

Nope, she doesn't care that this animal was not killed on purpose. She would have rather seen its gorgeous pelt and amazing skull pummeled into the pavement. 

And yeah, she's one of those people who would probably think that killing the most intelligent mammal on Earth - her fellow humans - would be perfectly acceptable if it got a message about use of animals across. A HUMAN SKIN ONESIE, she would wear. BUT *I* AM THE SICK ONE! Huh...how exactly...does. that. work?

How can someone collect things like this and have a live dog!!??

Yeah, must have nefarious plans for him alright!

Can I just say "ugh" to the use of "u lot" to describe a group of people? Ugh.

Must have plans for other peoples' pets, too! I certainly can't appreciate other animals, and I'm not qualified to assess whether I am or not. Surely a stranger from another country is the best judge of my character!

(I have no desire to possess a domestic canine or pet skull of any type).

...her full comment from above: 

Ha...not like I've ever volunteered for multiple humane societies or anything (I have, my own dog was a foster, and I've fostered other animals as well). Oh and ya know, I have friends, also with advanced degrees in biology, who work in zoos on animal enrichment. So yeah...not going to try to shut down zoos, either. They serve an important role in education and genetic reserves for life's diversity. 

I tried to tell her...

Before I saved her response to this, I reported a comment and blocked her. She basically said, no, I didn't help animals and I shouldn't think that I did, that the only reason cheetahs need conserving is because of "people like me" killing them for "trophies." Totally false, by the way - if anything cheetahs need to be protected from folks who want them for exotic pets. There is relatively little traffic in cheetah parts, and the main threat to them is habitat loss (#1 threat to most species) and farmers/ranchers in southern Africa killing them to protect their livestock, which is exactly what The Cheetah Conservation Fund works to reduce with its livestock guardian dog program and habitat restoration efforts. She also told me that just because something is legal, it doesn't mean it's right; take a law that allows 11 year old girls to be married in some country. Yeah, because collecting animal skulls/pelts is SO equivalent to sexual exploitation of children!

Then there was this. According to her, hunting is wrong and terrible and it's such a shitty idea to teach our next generation to hunt and be self-sufficient (it's extra ironic because this boy's family farms soybeans...)

Rest of her comment:

Does she hand-harvest all her own hand-planted vegetables, grown without the use of any pesticides, organic or not? Because industrial farming of fruit/veg kills MANY animals...

There is no talking sense to someone like this, but I tried. Considering I have literally been saving animals since the time I was 5 years old, I think my empathy levels and moral compass are both pretty damn strong. One of my favorite activities in the summer was to religiously check our little swimming pool and save the grasshoppers and other bugs that got trapped, and capture the tadpoles in polluted orchard run-off ponds, raise, then release them as tiny, adorable frogs. 

Oooh well...when someone who doesn't know you, doesn't even live in the same country, and who believes in negative energies from non-living organic matter tries to tell you what's up...it's probably safe to assume *they don't know* what's up at all. But I'm sure she'll continue to live in her little self-righteous bubble, trolling people on IG, because that's most definitely the best way to make a positive diff!