When it comes to this topic, I actually care about animal rights a lot but I don't have a problem with hunting or hunters at all as long as the hunters don't break the rules or show cruelty. However, I notice that people who to hunt and animal rights organizations tend to constantly clash. Here is my opinion on this.
1.) Both groups have decent people
Let's not be harsh with either group, we have to admit that not everyone on both sides is bad. Both sides have decent people.
2.) Both sides have their bad apples
It's true, both sides have people that take things way too far, that's one of the main reasons why both sides tend to clash a lot. There comes a point were both sides just need to relax.
3.) Both sides do get bad reputations based on how they attack each other
Sometimes, there are people on both sides that make things way too personal which causes them to resort to childish ways of attacking each other.
4.) Some animal rights activist organizations are subtle bigots
One of the groups that has a reputation for being bigots are the "sea shepherds" a very controversial animal rights activist group that focuses on marine life. They are a organization that has supporters from all over the world but mostly from Australia and Canada.
The founder of this organization is named Paul Watson, he's a Canadian. However, Paul Watson has already dismissed claims of racism but he doesn't have that much control on the way of thinking his organization has since a lot of the sea shepherds constantly show hostility towards Japan.
One major blunder of this group happened around 2011, during the Tsunami and Earthquake in Japan. Many Sea Shepherds posted many disrespectful comments on social media mocking the Japanese during the Tsunami, a video featuring a compilation of negative comments from the sea shepherds went viral which caused the Sea shepherd's reputation to be tarnished.
Keep in mind that Japan's relations with Canada and Australia hasn't been the best because of WWII. While Japan and Canada are slowly starting to improve their relations, the sea shepherds make it very difficult for Australia and Japan to improve their relations.
5.) Some Hunters constantly try to provoke angry responses from animal rights activists
There are hunters who always try to provoke groups like PETA by posting pictures of their trophies while mocking PETA. Seriously, in cases like this you can't really blame PETA for being upset about things when they are purposely being provoked. While I don't have a problem with Hunting in general, this kind of behavior is just appalling.
6.) Trophy Hunting
This all depends on what you do with the game you hunt. If you are going to eat the animal you hunted but want to keep the antlers or skull as a trophy then go ahead. However, I don't advocate hunting for trophies and don't end up keeping the trophy or having excess trophies because that's disrespectful towards life and pointless animal deaths.
7.) Mocking misfortunes
Occasionally you hear stories of hunters who met their demise after they became the hunted. For example you might hear a story of how a hunter met his demise at the hands of a mountain lion or a bear. When things like this happen, there are some hardcore animal rights activists who show joy and celebrate the hunter's death. That's just disrespectful, just because they don't agree with hunting does not mean that they should be glad a innocent person perished.
8.) Hunters getting threatened
Another thing that happens is that extreme animal rights activists make threats against certain hunters. Or they wish misfortunes against the hunters. This kind of behavior is immature, they don't even know the hunter as a person and they already assume the hunter is a bad person. That's just preposterous.
9.) Poachers
A major problem and threat to endangered species are poachers. Poaching is hunting or catching animals illegally usually as for profit. These poachers tend to give hunters a bad reputation since poachers hunt whenever they want even when it's not the right season. Some countries allow people to shoot poachers on sight.
10.) Some Hunters and some animal rights activists tend to get offended by everything
If a PETA supporter speaks out against hunting in a civilized manner, there will be a pro hunting person who will take it too personal and will start talking bad about that PETA supporter.
If a pro hunter tries to explain how hunting isn't a threat to the animal kingdom, a PETA supporter will get offended and start taking bad about the pro hunter.
11.) Overall
A major problem with some(not all) animal rights organizations is that they are excessively defensive. Any little thing a person says can anger them. I follow a couple of animal rights pages on Facebook, I use to follow quite a lot of animal rights pages but I've noticed that a lot of them were filled with bigots and people who are very defensive, any little thing someone says, they get angry at the person even though the person didn't say anything bad. Which is why, one by one I started to unfollow those pages. Right now I follow only a couple of animal rights pages on Facebook
I've noticed that when Cecil the lion was killed, a lot of people were upset about Cecil's death. I think there were some hunters that were upset by Cecil's death as well, I was sad that the Lion got killed but I didn't take it personal like a lot of people did. However, there were some cold hearted cynical people who just relished in the sadness of the those people who mourned Cecil's death. A lot of the people who laughed at Cecil's death were a lot of pro hunters. That surely didn't help ease the tension between Animal rights activists and pro hunters.
I support animal rights but I'm not one of those hardcore animal rights activists that exaggerates everything. I also don't having anything against hunters as long as they don't hunt excessively to the point where they put the existence of a group of animals in danger. My opinion is that both sides should do their things in moderation.
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