As a meat-eating, gun-owning, do-it-yourself kind of guy, it would only seem natural that I would also be a hunter.
I’m not. However, that doesn’t mean that I’m against hunting. In fact, my father hunted to feed my family when I was younger. As a boy – into my teens – I hunted varmints almost daily.
Those who are critical or hateful toward hunters puzzle me. Unnatural death is everywhere – and some form of death brought those critics their last meal. Even raw vegans have to “kill” vegetables before they eat them in an essentially natural state. I guess that’s different because vegetables don’t have faces or respiratory systems, but on some level it’s still the end of a living thing. This is something I’ve thought about from a young age. Who was I, at twelve or fourteen years old, to fell a tree older than my father’s father? When hunting, I didn’t go so far as to say a prayer before or after taking a life, but I did silently promise the animal that I would make it quick.
After I left the military, I went on a few hunts, alone and with friends. On most of these occasions, there were no good shots to be taken. When they were… I had crept ridiculously close to animals standing still in silhouette, with a firearm and ammunition appropriate for the quick death of an animal that size. My sights (or the scope) were aligned with the vital zone. I was in a stable firing position and my breathing was under control. The only problem was that I simply couldn’t pull the trigger.
Interestingly enough, I have no problem with hastening the end of a dying animal. I have done so on several occasions in the past few years with knives and guns alike. I just can’t bring myself to kill something that I don’t need to kill.
Again, I’m not opposed to the idea of hunting. It gives us tasty meat. I think it’s vital to the management of an ecosystem, and some animals do present a threat to the natural habitats of other animals as well as the livelihoods of farmers, ranchers, and so on. Thus, the wholesale slaughter of feral hogs by warrior dentists shooting machine guns from helicopters does not keep me awake at night. Nor do state-sponsored coyote eradication programs involving aerial shooting as well as poisons and other methods. I’m not bothered when I see photos of friends or relatives with their latest kills; I respect them for getting out there and doing it.
Hunting is necessary, hunting is fun, hunting is natural. Hunting is not something I plan to do again.
Very interesting. I am an avid hunter, have been since I was a young boy. I appreciate you writing this, as less and less people support hunters. I understand your reasons why you don’t. Killing an animal, even when it’s meat goes to feed my family is a very somber thing. My daughter( 5 years old) recently assisted took part in her first hunt, and it is something that I stressed with her; that taking of an animals life is not a laughing matter, but something that is at times necessary and not to be made light of. Thanks for writing this, Sir.
I have a lot of respect for your position on this matter. I have seen the same attitude from my Uncle after he came home from Vietnam. I also believe that most true “Sportsman” have a sense of regret/compassion for their kill. I was wondering if you blocked my comments on FB or I just am not “techie” enough to figure it out, regardless I enjoy your post.
I have often gone over the same thing in my head. I am an avid shooter and love the outdoors, yet I have never been hunting. I have often mulled over the idea of going on a hunt, but I always come back to the necessity of killing an animal. I don’t need the pelt for warmth, or the meat for food. I have nothing against hunting, and I have great respect for responsible hunters. Maybe one day I will go out and give it a try.
Thanks for the post
Here in Belgium it just came to light that in recent years our deer population doubled and our hog population tripled due to hunting restrictions & protection measures set in place. Now, the government realizes that they’re destroying the ecosystem & will need to cull the beasts. Just raising quotas will not be enough to rectify this situation in the short term, they will have to hire professionals to hunt full time & restore balance.
The problem we face has a few very specific origins:
1) Hunters are currently allowed a quota of 2 big animals and a large number of small ones (when talking about deer/hog, not ducks etc obviously). This however leads to hunters refusing taking the shot on many smaller once, because they fear that after classifying the kill, they might find out it was actually just in the lower end of “big”, thus wasting one out of two kills allowed.
2) The legal hunting season for this kind of prey has become more limited over the past decade.
3) People (and towns) that wish to open up their private hunting grounds to hunters do so by selling hunting rights. The price of these rights have inflated so hard that many belgian hunters are now going to hunt in Germany or even going to the Czech Republic. If buying hunting rights locally costs as much as funding a hunting trip to CZ, wouldn’t you go there instead? 🙂
Hunters in Belgium have a fairly bad image, especially in Flanders. While I’m not a hunter myself, I find this very undeserved. In Belgium licensed hunters are forced to contribute to the maintenance of parks abd hunting grounds all year round, for the privilege of hunting during the season (with the exception of specific culling requests which can be sent out to controle pests all year ’round). They keep imbalances down in the eco system (one example is that we have a large problem with rabbits in some areas & this is problematic because they both dig under levees and eat farmers’ crops).
I’m not interested in hunting myself, but nature concious hunters have my full support.
I am a hunter and I have always felt some remorse for killing another creature. Hunting is an important part of wild animal management that instead of governments paying to keep a balance we pay them to do it for them. Thousands upon thousands of animals are killed by cars and in Maine where I live car and moose collisions kill a half dozen people every year. Biologists believe the deer population is stronger now than at the end of the 19th century.
I’ve only bird hunted growing up, but nothing larger that walked on land. Figured my dad just didn’t want to haul/clean game that large. Nonetheless, I agree with the sentiment of killing that which you will use. Irresponsible hunters however can go to hell. Some bubbas who were roadside hunting flushed a deer into the road and my friend totaled his car. Their immediate question after finding out he was okay, was to ask if they could have the deer. They took it anyways and ran off before he could get things straightened out. :/
I completely agree. I like to shoot–it’s a hobby but not a lifestyle. I used to hunt, and enjoyed the time in the woods, getting together with friends–but I came to realize that that taking the shot was a buzzkill for me. Not that I think that it was wrong or unnatural–I just didn’t dig it so I quit. One thing I ask to people who criticize hunters is, ‘Do you eat meat?’ If they do I tell them I’d rather be the deer at the other end of the muzzle than a cow lead to slaughter. Other hunters still use my family’s land, and I know it’s a necessary part of the natural cycle wish them the best of luck. I’m psyched for them when they bag a deer. I’l stick to paper, though, just ’cause that’s what I enjoy.
Some years I want to hunt, some years I don’t. I never say never but right now I really just don’t feel like getting up that early…
I shot a whitetail in Warsaw Canyon when I was 15. It was hard on me. I realized that all the fun I had experienced in my youth going deer hunting was simply getting out with my dad and friends, camping and hiking.
This was a common reaction with Veterans after WW2. I have met and known of many who had enough of the killing of war to find sport killing of animals pleasurable. My now recently deceased father in law who was a MG’er on Okinawa was like that. As I have aged, my interest in killing for sport has greatly diminished and I have largely quit hunting but I strongly support the sport.
i like that!
If I shoot I eat it…except for the coyotes on our ranch that harass and kill our calves. I have no desire to hunt coyotes other than our ranch and the mood is always somber after an animal is taken. Slightly disgusted when I see the hunting shows where guys nearly climax in their hunting blind from killing an animal.
On another note…preparing venison or feral swine with some of the french cooking techniques is delicious!!
Couldn’t agree more. I don’t hunt either but I think responsible hunting is probably a more humane way to obtain food than buying it at most grocery stores or restaurants. The animal gets to live its life free in the wild as was intended and hopefully dies a quick death with little to no pain. As far as trophy hunting or whatever that type of crap is that goes on, killing animals for entertainment/enjoyment… I couldn’t have more disdain for it and the people who participate in it.
I like the hunt but I’m not a big fan of hunting because of all the work required after the kill. I have no problem killing hogs or coyotes but cleaning and pulling a buck out of the woods is a lot of work. I think it is good skill to have if you need to feed the family and the local Grocery is no longer capable of providing the essentials.
I feel the exact same way. The last time I went hunting, nearly eight years ago, I didn’t even bring shells to load my shotgun. I instead packed a pillow and a light blanket, and took a nap.
I have no problem with hunting, and support other’s right to engage in the activity. I just feel that since I personally don’t need to hunt to feed my family, why take the animal’s life. This is not to say that if I needed the meat to feed my family I would hesitate. I’ve done it in the past and would do so agains, I just currenlty don’t have the need.
So I’m a “gun nut”, vegetarian-of~19years, scientist-who-kills-animals-for-research…
I’m actually considering taking up hunting and donating any meat I would get to the local foodbanks/shelters. Jebus knows I have all I need to hunt, and I’m clearly fine with killing animals if I have a reason, I just don’t feel like I need to eat animals. I think the NRA/nssf are right when they say we need to get more people in to the sport, because (at least in my area) the less people doing it the more likely we are to lose it. Also, keeping the animal population in check is better for everybody – and their cars.
BTW, not all vegetarians “kill” plants. There is a subset, fruitists, that will only eat nuts/grains/fruits/veggies/stuff that the plant can sheds, but doesn’t result in the death of the plant itself – I.E. no root crops (carrots/taters), no stalk crops (celery/asparagus), etc. I kind of respect their commitment to insanity, but I will never share it.