This just shows how out of touch and how clueless our media can be here in America. Our governor went hunting with hounds and killed a mountain lion- sweet! That's how most Montanans would react.

Hunting is a part of our outdoor heritage and culture. And hunting with hounds is how you hunt mountain lions.

But leave it to The Washington Post, NBC News, and some freelance reporter in Butte to make it sound like a scandal. The Washington Post had this headline: "Hounds chased a Yellowstone National Park mountain lion into a tree. Then Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte shot it." So? NBC News piled on: "Montana Gov. Gianforte hunts, kills National Park Service-tracked mountain lion." Again- so what?

Montana's own Kyle Schmauch weighed in with some common sense after a freelance reporter in Butte referred to the governor's successful hunt as a "weird, ugly moment in Montana." As you can see in the back and forth below, he made a very straightforward, non-emotional point with some basic facts about hunting. The bottom line- hunting with hounds is how you hunt mountain lions. For that he was blocked by the freelance reporter on Twitter.

The spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks also noted how the governor's hunt was legal, and added this in a comment to NBC News:

Mountain lion hunting has a strong history in Montana, and mountain lion hunters are some of the elusive predators’ strongest advocates and those most engaged in how lions are managed across the state.

I don't know how much of a hunting background the NBC News reporter covering this story has...but he did make sure to include his gender pronouns at the end of his story. Which is good. The mountain lion would want to know that if it were to confront you all alone in the wilderness.

By the way, if you wanted to learn more about hunting mountain lions, there's actually a character on the "Mountain Men" TV show that hunts them.

Here's one of the episodes on the History channel's YouTube page.

 

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