Throughts On Hunting

Writing

Written in 2013 as a response to an anti-hunting Facebook post by a friend. (Who ironically is a meat eater.) It’s sad that people can be so judgmental about things they have no knowledge about.

I find that many people, especially folks who live in large urban areas and don’t have any reference for hunting (or firearms for that matter) assume that hunters are what they see in movies. Drunken rednecks shooting up the woods and killing everything that moves just for giggles. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I don’t know anyone who hunts for fun. Sport hunting is for the most part illegal in Canada. You let something go to waste you’re likely to wind up in jail for a while. If it wasn’t for hunters we’d be in real trouble when it comes to things like conservation efforts and monitoring wildlife trends. Hunting pests like groundhogs or coyotes it is a lot of fun and a challenge it also serves a valuable purpose in controlling the population of such critters. That’s true of deer hunting as well. No hunting equals no population control which equals trouble.

Hunting is about being part of the process of nature and experiencing it. It’s been part of our culture since long before we ever thought about farming or building a house and is a huge part of our Canadian heritage and traditions. It’s also about good clean food. If you’re going to eat meat you are killing animals. If you don’t hunt it’s someone else killing animals for you. Animals who may have lived short miserable lives in confinement and been fed Lord knows what sorts of nasty things. Hunting is the most honest way of eating meat unless you’re raising the animals yourself.

I’ve gone out for the last two years for a week and came home with no deer after getting up at 4:00 every morning, freezing my ass off, getting rained on, waiting for hours upon hours without moving, tracking and walking for 8+ hours a day through the bush. I saw things in the bush that people normally don’t run into. I had good company. I got charged by a moose when we called him in rather than a deer. (Everyone called it a draw and the moose, brother in law and myself all went home safe.) I had a clean shot on a buck and passed it up because I couldn’t be sure the shot was good. Overall an amazing experience. I felt in tune with the animals, the trees, my ancestors who experienced the same thing I did… With nature itself. I wish more people hunted, fished and experienced it as well. But if they don’t want to I’m fine with that. As long as they return the courtesy to me and allow me to hunt.

I don’t consider a moment of that time out in the woods to be wasted and if I come home empty handed this year I’ll be happy with it again.