As is evident from my last blog I enjoy hunting. I hunt ducks, geese, rabbits, grouse, and deer. Rabbits and grouse are scarce these days in our neck of the woods, and I’ve gone hunting for geese only 3 times this year. And, of course, I’ve hunted for deer.
There are many people who think hunting is a cruel sport. Hunters are cold-blooded killers who enjoy killing animals. Perhaps some are, there is always the exception, but most hunters actually love animals. It seems paradox but it is true. I love watching birds, I feed them all year. I get enjoyment from watching rabbits hopping around (as long as they don’t eat my shrubs ^_^ ), and I find pleasure in seeing does with their fawns coming out of the bush and grazing in the fields when there is no hunting season. When I hunt I shoot only what my bag limit allows me. And I eat what I shoot.
Many anti-hunters suffer from the ‘bambi-syndrom’, the Disney version of the animal world. In reality nature is cruel. At least it seems that way. Survival of the fittest...that is the law of the jungle and anywhere else in this world. Some animals are prey and others are predators. It has always been that way. Humans have hunted for their food since beginning of time. Humans have also been hunted by larger, stronger predators as food since the beginning of time. Fortunately, most of those large animals don't exist anymore; fortunately for us Humans. There are still Grizzly and polar-bears, tigers, and lions, but they are no threat to the majority of Humans.
For the Native Americans hunting was a way of life. The tribes moved with the buffalo across the prairies. They hunted deer and other animals for their survival. Parts of the animals were used as food, for clothing, shelter, weapons, and even ornaments and jewelry.
Modern man doesn’t have to hunt for food. We buy our meat in the grocery store, nicely cut, packaged, and labeled. Now we hunt for sport, for enjoyment, but also for the meat. Hunters enjoy venison, ducks, geese. Venison is not always available in stores. The regular stores don’t carry it, and the ones that do ask a hefty price for it. I’ve never seen wild ducks, geese, turkeys, wild rabbits, or game birds for sale anywhere. Heck, you can hardly find domestic rabbits in stores. They taste just as good as chickens, but when they are available they cost a fortune. The price of farm-raised geese and ducks is prohibitively expensive. Turkeys are only available for a descent price at Thanksgiving.
Of course, there are some people who think we shouldn’t eat meat at all.
The Vegetarians.
Poor misguided people. They don’t know what they are missing ^_^. Humans are part of the animal world; actually we are omnivores, which means we eat vegetables and meat. Vegetarians would not have survived for long in the northern parts of the country. The earlier people had no choice but to eat only meat in the winter. Nothing grows in the snow and when the temperature plunges to minus 20 C and colder.
Yes, we have to kill an animal to get the meat, but most hunters try to put an animal down as quickly as possible, make certain it doesn’t suffer. Lions, tigers, wolves, and other predatory animals have no such compunctions. They will rip their victim to pieces, and eat parts of it while it is still alive. Anyone who has the stomach to watch documentaries from Africa can attest to that. I’ve seen two lions chase a gazelle and rip it in half when they caught up with it. I’ve seen the fright in the eyes of a wildebeest when a lion jumped on its back and sank its teeth into its neck. The deer we shoot don’t suffer from that kind of fear.
It is not only the shooting of the animal we enjoy. The pleasure comes from being in the outdoors, breathing the crisp air, walking through the bush following a trail made by deer, elk, or even moose, getting excited when finding a deer track in the freshly fallen snow, looking at the stars on a cold, clear night, seeing the bright disk of the full moon, hearing the coyotes barking and howling in the bush, walking in the dark to our tree stand, spending time with friends, talking about past hunts, successes and missed chances. That is what hunting is all about for us.
Some people play golf, drive snowmobiles, ski, play football, hockey, or any other sport. We go fishing and we hunt. Some hunters may do all those other things, too.
Hunting is a huge industry. It creates jobs. Plenty of jobs and brings in millions of Dollars. Many people don’t think about that. All they see are a bunch of bloodthirsty rednecks with rifles killing innocent, cute animals. That is not what we are. We are regular people who just happen to enjoy hunting, a sport that is slowly becoming more and more difficult to pursue for many reasons.
Chickens are cute in their own way, so are cows, but we have no problem eating chicken eggs or buying a barbequed chicken from the store, we have no problem drinking the milk from the cows or eating steaks or roasts. Pigs are intelligent, more intelligent than dogs, and kinda cute with their snouts and curly tails, but we love bacon for breakfast with our eggs, or ribs (preferable all we can eat) when we go out for supper.
People who are against hunting have their reasons, but we don’t stop them from having them. We have our reasons for going hunting. I have mine and I will go hunting as long as I am physically able to do so. I’m not looking forward to the day when I don’t have the strength anymore to climb my tree stand, or the stamina to walk down a lonely trail through the bush on a cold fall day, looking for grouse or rabbits. But until that day comes I will enjoy every hunt with pleasure and appreciation for the privilege to do so.
