Competitions organized for hunting small game are becoming popular year after year. At the same time, hunting in the archipelago receives a nature conservation award.
The hunting competition organized in Suomussalmi in Kainuu has caused a stir on social media, and the stir has also been discussed in public.
Competition that encourages the hunting of exotic animals is frowned upon, but at the same time, hunting of the same species in, for example, the archipelago or in the Finnish Lapland does not raise the blood pressure of some people to the same extent.
– From that point of view, the fact that someone would make killing animals entertainment – what competition is – this is a very understandable reaction, Aaltola criticized.
Death threats were sent to the organizer
– It’s sad that the conversation no longer seems to be black and white, Heikkinen sighs.
According to Heikkinen, the latest death threats came on Monday. He plans to file a criminal complaint against them.
According to Aaltola, this tells above all about the discussion culture of social media. He himself says that he receives threats and inappropriate comments.
– Of course it’s wrong. You should always speak to people with respect, and I myself have always emphasized that only factual feedback should be given. Unfortunately, in social media discussions, no matter what the topic, things often get rushed.
In her Facebook update, Aaltola asked people to give \”substantial feedback\” to the organizer of the competition, the municipality of Suomussalmi and the Kainu ely center.
WWF awarded the archipelago’s small carnivore campaign
– There have been small game hunting competitions for decades. Perhaps this social media and this kind of bubbling is one of the factors in the fact that this kind of thing takes such unreasonable proportions, Grenfors thinks.
For example, in the archipelago, raccoon dog populations have been hunted down to the last individual in order to protect the bird population nesting on the islands. The financier is the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
This summer, the Saaristoluonto care and protection association, which does animal hunting, received the WWF Suomen Panda award for its activities, which take over the living space of the highly endangered polecat.
There have been no social media storms that crossed the news threshold against these campaigns in the national media.
According to Arfman, both the archipelago’s and Upper Lapland’s campaigns are purely conservation activities that have wide acceptance. He also has reservations about competing.
Badgers are not found in Kainuu
In Aaltola’s opinion, the problem with the beast competition is also that the competition uses unethical hunting methods, such as cave hunting, and the hunt targets, for example, foxes and badgers, which are not alien species.
According to Jarmo Heikkinen, the organizer of the race, the badger has remained on the race list, even though it does not appear in Kainuu. According to him, in the nine years of the competition, the participants have not killed a single badger.
According to Heikkinen, the idea of \u200b\u200bthe competition is by no means to make people happy by killing. According to him, especially the spread of foreign animals mink and raccoon in the area causes concern. In Suomussalmi, there are not very many hunters, and the competition has been a good way to attract hunters to work in game management.
Ere Grenfors of the Hunters’ Association is also on the same lines. According to him, the benefits of small game hunting for biodiversity have been scientifically proven.
– In my opinion, the small game catching competition is just one way to motivate this important nature conservation work, which is already quite strongly recognized by nature conservation circles. There is clear research evidence that this is beneficial for biodiversity, says Grenfors.