Nothing bothers me more than someone criticizing my life.
Ok, being called a thief is a close second..
This came up today, so I answered. .
This picture is disturbing, for many reasons. As a Hunter, I think I can answer the question.
As I mentioned before, there is no season in which a person can shoot an animal while it is caring for its young. "Hunting seasons" are geared around the birth and the time it takes for a mother to care for its young. This photo and it's caption is a form of mongering.
I do not know what a "sport hunter" is. I hunt, I do so to provide for my family. I do it legally and with ethics. I understand the process and live within it.
Our animals that we bring home are used to their fullest potential, there is no waste, we utilize every aspect of our quarry. Every morsel of meat is used, even the hide.
Compare that to a person buying a pound of hamburger at a grocery store. A live animal died in that process, but some people believe that because they didn't see it happen, there was no suffering. That pound of hamburger came off of a living animal, an animal that led a life of confinement, torture and had no chance at escaping it's captor, YOU. Some of it is packaged and sold to consumers, it's life was taken so people can eat. The rest of the meat is tossed away because it had no use, or it expired. A small portion of what consumers contribute to the death of an animal is actually used. Where a true hunyer would consume every ounce of their prey.
When I hunt I remove a single animal, it didn't come from a farm that is pumped full of hormones, steroids or the confines of a cage.
It isnt an excitement when I get an animal, there is regret, a humbling feeling of respect for the quarry, and appreciation for the cycle of the age old instinct to hunt.
I didn't support a mass killing of farm animals to eat, I just don't have it in me to be so closed minded to think if I buy meat at a store that something didn't have to die.
I am not a religious person, but when I stand over my deer I am closer to "god" than any Sunday church goer.
Unlike handing a debit card to a cashier who is taking money for someone killing something for me, I respect my animal. I hold it, thank it and appreciate it.
Meat isn't grown in stores. If you are a vegan, I can appreciate a discomfort with hunting. But if you eat meat and detest hunting it simply makes a person a hypocrite. Just because you didn't kill the hamburger or steak you ate doesn't make you innocent of its death.
I derive a tremendous amout of pleasure from hunting, being in nature and watching it unfold in front of you as the sun comes up is like nothing else. But the moment I release an arrow I feel regret, it is very anticlimactic. But the feeling that knowing I am not supporting a mass killing of cows who's meat is destined to go to waste trumps that feeling.
That photo would sadden the hardest of hunters, but again, it's caption is misleading.
I hate trophy hunters as much as anyone, but they are a rare breed. I am sure I would hate a sport hunter too, if I knew what it was.
Meat eaters support the crualest of what an animal can endure, if they only took the time to see where that food came from they would agree. My animals do not suffer, they are not born in cages too small to move. They don't have thier offspring taken from them and they are not wasted and thrown in the garbage when the market slows down.
I hunt because I eat meat, and I think they deserve respect, not not a price tag and saran wrap.
To qualify myself, I do humane wildlife control for a living. I spend my days saving animals from the fast moving population that others just overlook. I climb in tiny holes, dirty basements, scale roofs in the winter to pluck abandoned babies from places most people won't go. I make sure they are taken care of and get their chance at life.
Meat eaters have no right to put down a hunter, they do not understand the emotions involved in the process.
If anyone knows someone who shoots for enjoyment, or for trophies, pass them on to me, I will educate them in way they won't forget.
