I watched the entire video on PBS a few days ago and it left me with very strong opinions.
I felt that Joe Hutto was no different than the whacko Kid from California that tried to live with the grizzly bears in Alaska.
this film defines the term "anthropomorphism".
This film was the 2014 version of Walt Disney's Bambi, with an undeniable anti hunting agenda.
I watched knowing full well how the non hunting public will respond, with sadness, remorse and a strong dislike for hunting and hunters.
I saw where the film was spliced to prove the guys point, mixing fall and spring footage and then the grand finale when his pet buck and confidant was killed by the "evil" hunter.
I am truly surprised that the Mule Deer Foundation is supporting this propaganda (as seen on their Facebook page) as hunters are the main supporters and founders of this organization.
Might not be a popular opinion but it is exactly how I felt after watching this movie
Any non hunter that watches this piece will come away with a very negative opinion of mule deer hunters and hunters in general.
In this age of dwindling support of hunting and shrinking numbers of hunters, something that humanizes deer and paints the hunter as a threat to all wildlife is something we simply don't need.
We need to promote the good that caring hunters do, we need to show their love and passion for wildlife and wild places and how state and federal game managers regulate and restrict hunting permits where hunters sometimes wait decades to hunt in certain areas due to the incredibly limited hunting permits and highly scientific research that goes into modern wildlife management.
We need to show the incredible good that HUNTER FUNDED conservation organizations do in protecting and promoting wildlife habitat, but instead, we are showing a "cold hearted" "evil" hunter" that "heartlessly" kills Joe's friend?
I simply can't believe that this is being viewed as a good thing, all it will do is turn more of the general public against us.
whether we like it or not, it is the non hunters that are the overwhelming majority of this country that allow us to hunt, once the non hunters are transformed into anti hunters we will no longer be able to hunt anything....period.
Trust me, I live in Northern California and know exactly how it works.
I have watched the tear jerking television commercials that the anti hunters broadcast, as they promote ballot initiatives to strip us of our precious lifestyle, the non hunter can't stomach the images and punches the ballot with a vengeance then we are screwed.
I've seen it over and over in my 50 + years here.
The guy producing these films is smart and uses a passive aggressive stance to send his message that flies right over the heads of many.
In the film he dresses up like your good old Wyoming boy in wranglers, boots & a cowboy hat, he says that he has nothing against hunting, yet grabs his rifle when legal hunters move in on "his" deer, then the melodramatic scene where his beloved buck is killed when he nearly breaks down in tears, that alone speaks far louder than anything he verbally communicates with the viewers.
Sadly many hunters appear to be buffaloed by this guy's piece.