We’re our own worst enemy
OK, this makes me want to puke. It makes me furious. So mad in fact, that I held off a day before posting.
*Rant Begins*
This was not an accident. It was idiocy. It was not “oops”. It was irresponsible. I hesitated to post about it, because often, people say “Oh, we shouldn’t talk about this, it draws the Anti’s attention to an anomaly that doesn’t represent us”. You know what? So what. Maybe the Antis are right. Maybe we are knuckle-dragging, slack-jawed neanderthals. You see the stories more than you should – ducks with arrows stuck in them; dogs shot; hunters shot; non-hunters shot.
Responsible hunters need to focus on eradicating this from our midst. We all see it. Litter. Signs shot. Poaching. Shooting more than your limit. And shootings, “by mistake”. It doesn’t matter if it’s your best friend, your Dad, your boss, or someone you’ve never met. This kind of behavior needs to be stopped. It needs to be reported. It needs to be rooted out, identified, and eliminated. I believe that if a hunter mistakenly shoots another person, or an animal that had no reason to be shot (i.e someone’s hunting dog) then they need to be done hunting. Forever. Sorry, that’s how I feel. No touchy-feely “Oh he’s suffered enough”. No “But he was only 16, he’s matured”. Hunters need to be educated to the point where they are almost scared to pull the trigger, or squeeze the release. I would rather miss killing the buck of a lifetime becasue I dilly-dallied second-guessing myself, than to pull the trigger in haste and harm someone. Or shoot some guy’s dog.
My God, if people are that stupid, or irresponsible, or nervous, or whatever – I don’t want them out there with me. Or representing my sport (even if unintentionally). I love to hunt – it’s my favourite thing to do. You know what, I wouldn’t die if I couldn’t do it anymore. If a guy loses his hunting privileges forever, due to a mistaken shooting – I’m sure he’ll survive if he has to find another hobby. I’m not sure why he would want to hunt again. I know that I sure as heck don’t want him around me in the woods.
Bottom line – you can dress a human up in buckskin, strap antlers to his head, and get him to crawl around on all fours – it still doesn’t look like a deer. Ever. If you can’t get that, I don’t want you in the woods with me.
Hunters who shoot other people. Or Brittanies. Hunters that shoot signs. Hunters that litter. Hunters that booze it up and go hunting. Hunters that exceed their limits. These people are indeed hunters, despite our loudest protests. They are because we allow them to be. They are, becuase the system allows them to be. We need to take a stand. Zero Tolerance is the only way to go. We need to insist on writing and enforcing laws that, if necessary, scare us into acting responsibly in the field. We need to apply enough peer pressure on these kinds of people that they don’t want to hunt anymore. We need to coach and mentor our youth and new hunters in ways that examplify stewardship and responsibility. We need to make them understand, with amazing clarity, the seriousness of what they are doing.
*Rant ends*
Great Rant. Good article!
January 4th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Thanks for bringing this sad incident to our attention. Your rant really made me think about the responsibility we have as hunters, especially your point about mentoring and coaching youth. If we teach our kids to hunt/live responsibly from an early age, then we can be confident they will not
It also made me think about something my uncle told me, shortly after I started deer hunting in the late 1990s:
“It’s never wrong not to shoot,” he said.
I took that to heart and have thought of it often after passing on shots that many hunters would have taken. Perhaps if more of them practiced it, hunters would have a better public image.
There is a special place in hell for people who kill pets.
January 5th, 2007 at 9:43 am
Looks like the last sentence of my first paragraph got cut off; should say “. . . we can be confident they will not commit irresponsible/cruel acts in the field.”
January 5th, 2007 at 10:26 am