After the media storm that erupted over goat hunting images being posted online, BASC has given some valuable advice to shooters about how they can avoid being the next tabloid headline.
The UK’s largest shooting organisation was responding to the furore that erupted over American hunter Larisa Switlyk’s photos.
On its blog Offbeat, BASC said: “If you look beyond the sensationalist headlines and extremist rhetoric, there are plenty of organisations like BASC jumping in to explain the use of shooting for the essential control of feral goats. Our members expect no less of us and it is right and proper that we highlight the importance of lawful and legitimate methods of population control.
“But it is a much tougher ask for us to defend photographs that may give the impression of glorying in the death of an animal.
“Ms Switlyk says she is passionate about educating people to the clear benefits of shooting. There are more subtle, more constructive ways of doing that than smacking the general public around the face with a photograph of a dead sheep dripping blood from its nose onto the rocks below.”
BASC’s main advice is that photographs pose the most risk and we should always think carefully before posting them online, especially where shot animals are involved. “We do not run scared of these things, but weighing up how your picture could appear in a newspaper is a useful method for deciding whether you should use a picture,” they said.
BASC has also reminded shooters that most smartphones automatically geo-tag images, meaning you could inadvertently broadcast the location of a shoot if you post a photo online.
Leave a Reply