Blackbyrd (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} blackbyrd2) wrote,@ 2008-04-20 09:17:00 |
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Gee, I wish I had cable.
Because who wouldn't want to wake up to the sight of some woman in camo, up a tree, shooting a bear with a huge compound bow.
I couldn't believe it was real at first. But no, no darts, no drugs, no cameras. She's going to take it home and have it stuffed and mounted.
Now, I'm neither stupid nor naive. I know people hunt all the time. In Alaska, that's how they fill the freezer. And, I love the taste of buffalo, elk, venison...
I also know a lot of people are "sport" hunters. That is, they think it's some kind of sporting event to go out into the woods and kill animals just for the skulls and skins.
I find it offensive though, that they do this,(sport hunting) and even more so that they film it and show it on cable tv.
Exactly how is it sporting to shoot a bear from a stand up a tree, after luring it in with barrels of bait? Unless you are a complete incompetent, there's no danger, there's no trick, hell, there isn't even any skill involved, since she shot it from probably less than 30 yards away, including the thirty feet up the tree. Hell, I've pulled a bow maybe four times in the last ten years and even I could hit that target. There's no strength involved because it was one of those hi-tech compound reflex bows with the pulley systems and a scope. (That's right, a scope from 30 yards out.)
And then, when she's sure the bear is dead, she goes down, kneels by its head and says in her most wistful voice; See, this is why we just love to come to Alberta (or Edmonton, or wherever the hell she murdered the bear) like she was talking about the beautiful forests or mountains or something. No, she's talking about the corpse of the bear beside her, with a head "so big I can't even lift it to show you."
The native americans, when killing animals, thanked the creature for giving its life for their needs, and they used the animal for food, for clothing, for thread, for shelter and for weapons.
(OK< they weren't such saints either, as one of their methods involved stampeding buffalo off a cliff edge, resulting in more meat than they could use, I'm sure. Still.)
I'm no PETA fan, because I think they're complete wackjobs, but this kind of crap is why I never learned to be a hunter. I understand hunting for food. (I'm not certain I could do it unless I had to, but I understand it.) I understand how cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens are raised and slaughtered, both on the farm and in the factory. I'm not simply a naive hypocritical ideologist. I accept the things we do to produce the food we eat, and although I may find some of the practices reprehensible, I do not protest them because I don't have a solution, and because I believe we are meant to eat meat as well as plants. We're omnivores.
But sport hunting is a class all on its own, and I find it disgusting.
If you want a sport and you want to kill big game, go out in the woods with a knife, track the bear down, and kill it by hand, alone. I guarantee you'll get a bigger adrenaline rush than pulling the trigger or shooting a bow from some safe hiding spot. Try tracking it instead of luring it in with barrels of bait. And really, if you want a trophy..take a picture. Beause if your friends knew how cowardly you were when you killed that critter, they'd be a whole lot less impressed with you than if they knew you snuck up within 100 ft of a bear without killing it.
Because who wouldn't want to wake up to the sight of some woman in camo, up a tree, shooting a bear with a huge compound bow.
I couldn't believe it was real at first. But no, no darts, no drugs, no cameras. She's going to take it home and have it stuffed and mounted.
Now, I'm neither stupid nor naive. I know people hunt all the time. In Alaska, that's how they fill the freezer. And, I love the taste of buffalo, elk, venison...
I also know a lot of people are "sport" hunters. That is, they think it's some kind of sporting event to go out into the woods and kill animals just for the skulls and skins.
I find it offensive though, that they do this,(sport hunting) and even more so that they film it and show it on cable tv.
Exactly how is it sporting to shoot a bear from a stand up a tree, after luring it in with barrels of bait? Unless you are a complete incompetent, there's no danger, there's no trick, hell, there isn't even any skill involved, since she shot it from probably less than 30 yards away, including the thirty feet up the tree. Hell, I've pulled a bow maybe four times in the last ten years and even I could hit that target. There's no strength involved because it was one of those hi-tech compound reflex bows with the pulley systems and a scope. (That's right, a scope from 30 yards out.)
And then, when she's sure the bear is dead, she goes down, kneels by its head and says in her most wistful voice; See, this is why we just love to come to Alberta (or Edmonton, or wherever the hell she murdered the bear) like she was talking about the beautiful forests or mountains or something. No, she's talking about the corpse of the bear beside her, with a head "so big I can't even lift it to show you."
The native americans, when killing animals, thanked the creature for giving its life for their needs, and they used the animal for food, for clothing, for thread, for shelter and for weapons.
(OK< they weren't such saints either, as one of their methods involved stampeding buffalo off a cliff edge, resulting in more meat than they could use, I'm sure. Still.)
I'm no PETA fan, because I think they're complete wackjobs, but this kind of crap is why I never learned to be a hunter. I understand hunting for food. (I'm not certain I could do it unless I had to, but I understand it.) I understand how cattle, pigs, sheep and chickens are raised and slaughtered, both on the farm and in the factory. I'm not simply a naive hypocritical ideologist. I accept the things we do to produce the food we eat, and although I may find some of the practices reprehensible, I do not protest them because I don't have a solution, and because I believe we are meant to eat meat as well as plants. We're omnivores.
But sport hunting is a class all on its own, and I find it disgusting.
If you want a sport and you want to kill big game, go out in the woods with a knife, track the bear down, and kill it by hand, alone. I guarantee you'll get a bigger adrenaline rush than pulling the trigger or shooting a bow from some safe hiding spot. Try tracking it instead of luring it in with barrels of bait. And really, if you want a trophy..take a picture. Beause if your friends knew how cowardly you were when you killed that critter, they'd be a whole lot less impressed with you than if they knew you snuck up within 100 ft of a bear without killing it.
