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Six Points in Defense of Hunting
My fourteen-year-old daughter got her buck last week, and a friend shot hers this evening. My husband posts photos on Facebook, and I admit I worry about backlash, since the practice of hunting is getting unpopular with the public. However, hunting is the culture where we live, and there’s even an official certificate for the first deer taken. Once I saw that there’s a group for sharing such photos, I felt better.
Although I’m no hunter myself, I’ve thought it through and do not believe hunting deserves moral outrage. I’m talking specifically about hunting deer and other animals for food, as well as killing pests. (Although the latest stir was over exotic animal hunting, some animal lovers hate all forms of it.) Here are six points in defense of hunting:
1.) Hunting is do-it-yourself meat. If you eat meat, you cannot be opposed to fair chase, quick-kill hunting. You may dislike the idea that the hunter perceives the challenge as a sport, but that doesn’t make the resulting meat less moral than packaged meat from farms. This is fresh, local, minimally processed food. Now, if you don’t eat meat, your position is consistent — I recognize that — but I disagree with the premise that eating meat is wrong.
2.) Hunting is a whole set of serious skills. The work has just begun once the hunter has located the deer and achieved a clean shot. Now begins the process of making sure the good meat is harvested. This is a long chore of gutting, skinning, butchering, packaging, and freezing. It takes hours and hours, at least for teenage girls. I should know; there’s a second deer of the season being processed in my basement right now. And the girls are fine taking care of this independently, and seem very knowledgeable explaining details to me. This is because the state recognizes responsible hunting as a skill and has done a decent job with its thorough hunters’ ed (with instruction in gun handling) before releasing young people to hunt. In a food crisis, I want to be next to people who can bag animals and prepare them for eating. Don’t you? I wouldn’t know the first thing about where to cut, what organs to remove, or how to skin the animal.
3.) Hunting for food is a long-standing tradition. I don’t think we should be too good for what sustained our ancestors for thousands of years. Yes, we are surrounded by plenty now, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get some of our food in a way that is less conventional by modern standards. Taking issue with hunting then, seems an insular and pampered position, even for vegans.
4.) Hunting dispatches the animal quickly, as opposed to less swift ways to die in the wild. The forest isn’t paradise: animals are killed by predators or struggle for food. Hunters are taught where to shoot to ensure that death is quick.
5.) Hunting can be necessary for controlling an animal population. Deer are beautiful, but also prolific and pesky. Hunting season helps with that.
6.) Hunting has other benefits. It is one way to get sedentary kids outdoors with vigorous, prolonged activity. Often, kids, dads, and grandpas spend time together outside sharing the experience. And, a common culture of hunting can generate connections and camaraderie amongst acquaintances.
My family has made endless trays of jerky with my daughter’s buck. We have lots of white packages in the freezer. And while I don’t oppose the practice and culture that brought us this, I hope a good portion of it is cooked and eaten while I’m out of town this month.
Published in General
The guys’ defense of hunting is not complicated.
I would love the meat if I were in need of food. Since I obviously get enough to eat, I am finicky about it.
All You need is just one point:
Daughter and friend out hunting on logging land:
That’s a great pic. All kidding aside there is no better spiritual bond than hunting with your children because you can pretty much instill the entire meaning of life and God’s blessing in one event.
Here’s hoping that your daughter has a long career as a hunter. I grew up hunting and have hunted with all of my boys. As time has gone by my hunting has changed. I’ve gone through the modern weapons, then handgun hunting, then blackpowder, then compound bow, and now I do recurve bow. The bucket list has me getting skilled with the English Long Bow. I’ve gone from big game (deer and boar) to upland game bird. I hope that she finds what I found: that when following fair chase laws the game is way better prepared to avoid you then you are to find them! It was this insight that got me to understand that no matter how much skill I acquired in the woods, no matter how comfortable I became, I was always the visitor and the game was always the master of the environment. The woods always belonged to them and my successes were more luck then skill.
may sound corny, but I always thank the animal for its sacrifice. I’ve also seen wonders while hunting, & some of my best memories are from hunts where I didn’t take anything…..
The meat is good, especially when it is brought to you by a son, daughter, or grandson/daughter.
All you need to do is look at the deer around my neighborhood (I see them around Clear Creek, in Johnson Space Center, and at Ellington Field) to understand why hunting is necessary, and merciful to the deer.
The deer become aggressive nuisances (nothing like getting chased to your car after leaving a late night shift at Mission Control), cause damage to property (often to cars, after being struck), and are frequently in a starving condition due to overpopulation. If they were harvested regularly they would be healthier – and less aggressive.
Don’t even ask about the feral hogs in urban Galveston County. In East Texas they are what’s for dinner. Around here people want them live-trapped and removed (to East Texas, where they will get eaten).
Seawriter
Nice list.
I have to admit I no longer think of deer as “Bambi” because of their destructiveness. When they hop onto your car from the bank’s lawn, and put a dent in the hood, it’s time for them to go into a pot, or oven, or BBQ grill.
Or eat your zucchini.
Considering the overflow of zucchini we get when we plant it, I could almost forgive that.
Seawriter
If I had the same affinity toward the meat, I wouldn’t have had to think so hard for these points.
We had one beautiful cluster of maturing plants. Then one day, they were bald. It was like a mean joke.
I do a lot with zucchini. I’d take a few extras off your hands gladly.
That is a wonderful picture that has been added to the post. I will say it’s a mite provocative, given the number of slain bucks slung over the hood.
I agree heartily with one of the edits early in the post–I had a problem with the line, too. It seems like any sentence I have to fuss with but still don’t like gets edited.
You could ship them to me as well. I pay about $2. for one lousy smallish zucchini at the farmers market. They charge by the lb at the grocery. I’m going to try growing them in a pot on my balcony this coming year.
Congratulations to your daughter and her friend. They are to be commended for their serious gathering of knowledge, care and responsibility with their hunting experience. You must be very proud of her.
Like a dozen times!
I doubt hunting is getting unpopular with the public. Shrill leftists have just decided to make a big deal about it. And the 20% of leftists in US simply agree with them, as it has always been for a while.
Somewhere, Kenneth is verklempt.
wait, wait, six “points” is a pun, right?
I would love to say that was my intent when I wrote the post. However, I had been waffling between five or six points and thought not at all about the double meaning. In my favor, though, I will say that I had the epiphany earlier today. This was a clever title!
Whole Foods and Wal-Mart have at least one thing in common, they both sell meat.
Not fresh deer meat. We know up here at least what they eat is organic, as they help the horses eat what is put in for the winter.
I was indulging in some subtle sarcasm. Some that are horrified by hunting have no problem buying packaged meat. I have spent time hunting deer and elk. Deer are browsers and those that eat juniper taste different than deer who browse in wheat fields. Ranchers that put feed out for their cattle in the winter have a problem with elk. Elk graze and when they have eaten their fill of fodder put out for cattle in the winter they defecate on what they haven’t eaten and cattle will not eat what’s left.
This may be too much information for the foodies at Whole Foods.
Foodies at Whole Foods are probably not into feed left out for cattle during the winter even before the elk get to it.
Seawriter
This reminds of a meal stop my partner and I made at a fast food place that specialized in veggie burritos, but they did offer a great chicken burrito. In all likely hood for Neanderthal cops. I ordered the chicken burrito. The young lady behind me in line said: You shouldn’t eat meat. I turned around and looked at her and then said: Aren’t those straps on your Birkenstocks leather? There was silence, but it was Portland after all.
Well, maybe she would be into feed left out for cattle during the winter. Might even consider the elk contributions as a form of seasoning. It’s all natural, after all.
Seawriter
Kaylett buys hay by the huge round bales, a truck has to bring it to the round feeder. Most any time you can see a couple of deer eating along with the horses. I’ve encouraged her to open the dang window and shoot the little critters, but she won’t. However, she will tramp around on a horse in the wilderness, freezing cold, looking for a deer. I suspect she thinks shooting a deer in her backyard isn’t sporting. Or something.