The Field Guide to Anti-Hunting

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Hunting is one of the only legal blood sports left, and results in the death of 200 million animals yearly, and wounds and maims countless others. Thousands of people, hunters and hikers alike, die yearly in accidents involving falling from tree stands, shooting at objects believed to be “game animals”. Hunting also causes damage to the ecosystem by disrupting the natural balance of predator and prey. Luckily, hunting can easily be stopped by following the simple and field tested tactics described in this book. These tactics have been refined over years of experience, and can be used by anyone wanting to stop the murder of innocent creatures in their own area.

Locating Areas Where People Hunt:

The first thing one must do when planning to bring their local hunting season is to find out where people do the actual hunting. This can be accomplished in many ways. The most practical is to simply drive (or bike) around in the early morning in forested areas on opening day, or on a weekend in hunting season. You will be looking for cars parked on the side of the road during the early mornings of weekends in hunting season. You would be surprised how many cars you will find along the edge of the road belonging to hunters. Mark any areas where you observe vehicles on a map with an “x” and return to those spots at a later date when no one is around. A quick reconnaissance is generally all that is needed to reveal if the hunters are in the area by simply checking to see if a vehicle is parked in the vicinity of where you saw one during your weekend scouting. You can also scout out forests a few days prior to season to look for hunting blinds, tree stands or deer feeders that have been set up early for the upcoming season. A successful hunt saboteur will carefully scout out areas of forest preseason, in hopes of finding a tree stand. (Locating tree stands on foot will be described in detail later in the pamphlet.) A third way is to contact your local Department of Conservation, and see what government lands are being used for hunting, but most hunting is done on private lands.

The guaranteed and most effective way to stop hunting is to destroy the blinds or tree stands when the hunters are away. The amount of people hunting increases dramatically on the weekends, and then it shallows out during the week when the hunters have to head back to work. Hunters can typically be found hunting from 1 hour before sunrise, to one hour after sunset. Any longer and they are probably poachers.

Disabling Tree Stands:

Once you are in an area with a tree stand when nobody is around, you can vent your frustrations on it in any way you can imagine, just try to be as quiet as possible if you are close to any houses, or a road.

A homemade, wooden tree stand can be secured to a tree using a ratchet strap. All that is necessary to do to this tree stand is to cut the ratchet strap, and then push the tree stand off of the tree. Once it is on the forest floor, you can:

1. Stomp out the rungs of the ladders if they are flimsy enough to be broken, or you could use a hatchet or ax if they are sturdier.

2. Cover the tree stand with spray on deodorant.

3. Spray paint it fluorescent pink.

4. Roll it down a hill or off of a cliff.

5. Cover it in fly attractant.

6. Piss on it.

7. Use a permanent marker to write nasty messages.

8. Spread human hair (from barbershops) around the tree stand in a 20 foot radius.

9. Cover it in Vaseline or other grease.

10. Rub it in heavily scented soap.

Note: The best way to get rid of a tree stand is to just dismantle it, but if you are going to use paint, soap or grease, do so responsibly and in a way that you do not cause unnecessary environmental pollution. Try to keep it all on the tree stand!

The way tree stands are made is very diverse. They can come in many other forms then the one pictured in this pamphlet. There are commercial models made of steel, which can be easily dismantled with 2 sets of pliers (to remove the bolts) and can then be pulled apart. We have personally come across a tree stand that was destroyed 3 times until the owner used a chain and a padlock to attach the base of the tree stand to the tree. The padlock was cut off with a pair of bolt cutters, and the owner finally gave up and stopped putting the tree stand in that area of forest. We have even seen homemade tree stands made of welded steel. The main thing to remember when dealing with tree stands is to be creative in your methods of sabotage, and to always remember that finding and destroying a tree stand saves the lives of countless animals.

Disabling Deer Feeders:

Deer feeders consist of a large hopper of corn (or other grain) that is either suspended from a tree branch, or attached to a tripod. These are used to attract deer to the area that is going to be hunted. A black box under the hopper is what disperses the corn around the area by spinning a little propeller blade at a specific time of the day. The black box also holds a battery and a timer, which control the propeller. This part can be smashed up quite easily. The removal of this piece will cause the grain in the hopper to pour out onto the ground. The grain still attracts wildlife at this point so it is important to cover it in a spicy substance like pepper spray, cayenne powder mixed with water, pureed habaneros, etc. This will stop the animals, such as deer, from eating it for obvious reasons.

Note: Some hunters will put a trail camera up around their feeder, which is motion activated and takes pictures of passing wildlife. These will not prevent a problem as long as you cover your face up well with a ski mask or a bandanna around the mouth when you are sabotaging a hunter’s feeder or tree stand.

Blinds:

The same strategies used on tree stands can be used for sabotaging blinds. Blinds can be toppled over, like tree stands. If the hunting blind has a lock, it can be glued shut by inserting a piece of a staple or wire about half the size of the length of your thumb nail, and then secured inside the lock with some superglue. If the blind is the pop up cloth variety, it can be slashed to confetti with a sharp knife.

Active Sabotage:

If the above methods cannot be used, or the hunt takes place on foot and doesn’t involve a tree stand or blind there are many other ways to sabotage a hunt. The most effective way to do this is to buy a hunting license, a shotgun, and some ammunition, and “hunt” on public lands. By “hunt”, we mean open fire on the ground, at dead trees, and at old tree stumps. This method is actually legal, as long as someone doesn’t see you shooting at inanimate objects. Just don’t shoot at rocks, as this can cause dangerous ricochets. Also, do not shoot into bodies of water with lead shot, because of the hazard of pollution. Do not be too obvious that you are intentionally scaring away game from other hunters. By not being obvious we mean do not fire a dozen shots in a couple of seconds. Just fire a shot or two every ten minutes or so. This is efficient at letting the local creatures know that there are hunters in the area, which makes them much more cautious and gives them a chance to retreat to denser wilderness and thickets. Just be sure to avoid being directly sighted by any game wardens or hunters.

If you cannot buy a hunting license, you can just go for a hike. Be sure to bring your MP3 with portable speakers and blast you favorite music into the forest, in between the hunters and the deer, facing towards the deer’s direction. Feel free to sing along. Also wear some sort of visual colors, preferably blaze orange.