BAD SHOT

Idaho Commissioner Called to Resign After Graphic Hunting Photos Surface

The photos include a family of slaughtered baboons.

Several former Idaho Fish and Game commissioners are calling for the resignation of current head Blake Fischer after he emailed colleagues a series of disturving hunting photos from a trip for Namibia, the Idaho Statesman reports Saturday. Fischer and his wife shot and killed more than a dozen animals, including giraffes, leopards, and a family of baboons, and sent those photos unsolicited to some former commissioners. One former commissioner took particular issue with a baboon photo, in which the animals’ corpses are stacked next to a smiling Fischer. “They killed a whole family, including small baboons, and I think that’s revolting,” the commissioner told the Statesman, adding that “It just puts a bad light on us.” Another said, “I’m sure what you did was legal, however, legal does not make it right.” Fischer defended the hunt, arguing that “I didn’t do anything illegal. I didn’t do anything unethical. I didn’t do anything immoral.” In defending the graphic baboon photo, he said, “In every picture, we try to pose the animals in a natural position, wipe the blood off the mouth, place the rifle or bow over the bullet hole,” he said. “These are normal hunting photos. You shoot an animal, you take a picture of it.”