FAFO Buffalo Style

From the top, I will say, yes, I am a carnivore, and if you want to go out and shoot a deer or something and then eat it, go for it. I do not go out and track down 1/4-lb. beef patties in the wild, but if I had a mind to, I would.

But killing animals for the sport of it, I can't see. Anyway, here's this, from People.com...

An American millionaire and big game hunter has died after being killed by a buffalo during a hunting trip to South Africa.

Texan ranch trader Asher Watkins, 52, was stalking a 1.3-ton Cape buffalo in Limpopo on Sunday, Aug. 3, when the animal charged at him at 35 mph and fatally struck him, according to multiple outlets, including the Daily Mail and Metro.

The trip, reportedly worth almost $10,000, was organized by Coenraad Vermaak Safaris, according to the Daily Mail. It’s unclear whether the buffalo was killed following Watkins' death or whether the animal was able to escape.

“It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts we confirm the tragic death of our client and friend Asher Watkins from the USA,” Hunter Hans Vermaak said in a statement to the outlet on behalf of CV Safaris.

“On Sunday, while on a hunting safari with us in South Africa's Limpopo Province, Asher was fatally injured in a sudden and unprovoked attack by an unwounded buffalo,” they added.

I have to question a lot of this. First, he's a millionaire, so he has money to spend running around South Africa shooting at buffalos? Why not do what a friend of ours does...he reduces the deer population in the rural areas by hunting them and processing the meat, which is then served at homeless shelters.

I don't understand hunting for the sake of hunting, but hey, if you're out there doing it, expect opposition in the form of a 1.3 ton buffalo defending himself. And don't tell me the animal was "unprovoked." From where I sit, this guy flew from Texas to Africa for the sole purpose of shooting a buffalo, and he's out there "tracking" it (euphemism for hunting) and you think the great beast buffalo is going to just sit there and be his target?

Not this time.

Jennifer Davis, a family friend, had these interesting thoughts on Facebook... 

"Yesterday, our dear friend Asher Austin Watkins, passed onto (sic) his reward, to be with the Lord," Jennifer Davis wrote on Facebook. "On an African hunting safari, surrounded by his beloved mother, Gwen, brother, Amon and stepdad, Tony….Asher came face-to-face with one of Africa’s legendary Big Five—a Cape buffalo."

"In a moment as fearless as he lived his life, he met the challenge head-on, leaving this world a man of courage, faith, and adventure," she added. "If you knew Asher, you knew his faith, his adventurous spirit, and that signature wink that always let you know he was up to something. He loved his daughter, Savannah, more than life itself. Asher was a steady presence in the lives of those who knew him."

So now, because he had to go there and try this nonsense, his daughter is without a dad and his ex-wife has to deal with that loss. He met, and failed, a challenge he instigated for no good reason other than to assert his dominance over the animal kingdom. That didn't take courage, faith, or adventure. A coward assaults an animal whose only defense is what killed the coward. That's a misadventure by any definition.

He didn't have to be with the Lord just yet. He chose his own rendezvous with death, and the barricade was disputed by the rightful resident of the land.  Alan Seeger wrote the poem I'm referencing here during World War I. 

Again, I'm not downing the hunters, just the ones who thrill-kill. Stay home in Texas and do something good with your millions.