Scorn greets high-fence tranquilizer hunt plan
Phil Bloom
Spend a few minutes on the telephone with David Farbman and you’ll understand he is passionate about hunting.
“Hunting is the most spiritual sport there is to me,” he said.
That passion led him to leave a lucrative career in real estate to form the World Hunting Association, an organization he unveiled last month. He wants to do for deer hunting what Ray Scott did for fishing with Bass Anglers Sportsman Society tournaments.
Farbman looks at the declining number of hunters in North America and feels a need to recruit more youth and women.
“I believe the World Hunting Association is God’s vision,” he said. “Now our job, with the awesome team I’m working with, is to execute and make this a reality.”
The centerpiece of that effort is a competitive tournament series pitting hunter against hunter in a global pursuit of big game with six-figure payoffs on the line. Hunters won’t be killing their quarry, just tranquilizing it with drug-tipped darts.
The first event is set for this fall at Lost Arrow Resort, a 1,200-acre high-fenced shooting preserve near Gladwin, Mich.
“Consumer response has been awesome,” Farbman said.
He won’t name names, but he must be getting different e-mail and reading different news releases than what is being distributed publicly.
On the public stage, Farbman’s plan is being pummeled.
Jim Zumbo, a widely respected hunter and outdoor communicator, wrote on his Outdoor Life blog, “Pardon me while I go throw up.”
Organizations that have either expressed concern or taken a firm stance against WHA include the Pope & Young Club, U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance, North American Bowhunting Coalition, and Safari Club International, as well as the Michigan Bow Hunters Association and Women Hunters, Inc.
“The shooting of game animals within high fenced enclosures is a questionable practice in its own right,” Denny Ballard, chairman of the North American Bowhunting Coalition, said in a statement. “Adding drug-tipped projectiles to the process and the public spectacle of ‘hunters’ gloating over the paralyzed body of a deer would do irreparable harm to ethical hunting.”
Bass Pro Shops and Cabela’s not only issued statements of non-support but are encouraging their vendors to do the same.
Two companies initially linked to WHA as sponsors – Xtreme Scents and G-5 Outdoors – now say they are not involved. Hunter backlash influenced their decisions.
“We had a lot of phone calls,” said Craig Stawiarski, vice president of Xtreme Scents. “Our goal was to build our business. When we saw it would hurt more than anything, we wanted nothing to do with (WHA).”
Nevertheless, Farbman is forging ahead and plans to announce “a flurry of things” in the next few weeks that he says will allay concerns about his proposal.
“As far as arguing back and forth, I have no desire to do that,” he said. “I look at facts.”
Phil Bloom has been outdoors editor for The Journal Gazette since 1991. He can be reached by e-mail at
[email protected]; phone, 461-8257; or fax 461-8648. To discuss this column, go to the “Phil Bloom” topic of “The Board” at
www.journalgazette.net.
Topic: "I believe the World Hunting Association is God's vision." Farbman Interview! (Read 3271 times)
