MN Hunting Celebrity Melissa Bachman Under Fire From Petition Group

Melissa Bachman grew up hunting with her family in Paynesville, MN.   (By the way she is not related to Michelle Bachman.)  Hunting became her passion and she soon was able to form a career around hunting, hosting her own show “Winchester Deadly Passion.”     The show features her hunting many different animals, and a tweeted photo of her standing over a killed lion started quite the outrage.

An incredible day hunting in South Africa! Stalked inside 60-yards on this beautiful male lion…what a hunt! pic.twitter.com/CGdDoRGTF2

— Melissa Bachman (@MelissaBachman) November 1, 2013

Now, a petition has been started on change.org for the Republic of South Africa (where the lion was legally hunted) to deny her entry back into the country for future hunts.

So far the petition has gathered 272,111 signatures.

You can read more about the specifics of the story at the city blog pages.

Now, here’s my take.

As a hunter and fisherman myself, I don’t see her doing anything legally wrong.   In fact she has done nothing illegal at all.   She paid her license, the hunt was legal, and I’m sure the government made a nice chunk of change.  So it comes down to morals.

I think the biggest issue here is that she is a young woman who is under fire for doing something that men have done for years.   It’s a shock to see a woman standing above her big game kill and excited about it.   That’s where the controversy is coming from.