Recently somebody, that’s never met me, told a bunch of other people that have never met, that I’m a sadistic killer of animals, and I murder them for fun…that I’m nothing but a trophy hunter.
Am I trophy hunter? YUP…but I prefer to call myself a conservationist. Will I pass on a small animal to shoot a larger mature animal? YEP…every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Does that make me any less of a person? NOPE…because while you can make the argument that meat is meat…killing immature animals just because you can, shows you don’t know how conservation works.
Do I shoot animals for fun? YUP. Hunting is a blast…you should try it. There’s no better way to connect with nature, than to disconnect from the stresses of the real world, and get in the woods. Human beings have been hunting animals for almost 2 million years. Taking an animal is one of the most primal ways we have left to reconnect with the way our ancestors lived, and survived. We’re here today, because hundreds of years ago, modern man decided to fashion a stick into a spear, stalk and kill an animal, and roast its flesh over an open fire. Hunting and scavenging for food, and the cooking of what we hunted and gathered, is the catalyst to our evolution. There is NOTHING more defining of man than that.
Am I a sadistic killer? I don’t think so. The government doesn’t think so. If I was, I’d probably be behind bars. Do I get enjoyment out of shooting an animal? 100%. I’ve paid my respects to every animal I’ve killed. I don’t kill animals “just because”…and that includes predators that compete for the same food I do. Animals aren’t defenseless, and they aren’t stupid. If that were the case, we would have wiped them off the planet centuries ago. They’ve got claws and fangs, camouflage and fur, and they’re better adapted to adverse conditions than we are. There is really no such thing as a “defenseless” animal…that’s a myth.
I’ve never let an animal go to waste. Their meat becomes food for friends and family, and their hides hang on the walls in my house as a tribute to the life they lived, and the nourishment they give. People that think we shouldn’t hunt, have a major disconnect between how people and animals interact in the world. They have no concept of what it’s like to provide for their families. They don’t understand the balance of nature, overpopulation, conservation, disease and starvation. They don’t know what it means to leave a place better than how you found it…it’s not something most humans understand, or are even good at.
I love the wild places…the uncharted waters and woods. I pay exorbitant amounts of money for licenses and tags, to hunt animals, knowing that those funds fight to keep the wild places wild, and establish new habitat. If you’ve never experienced the thrill of a hunt, the highs and the lows, the emotional roller coasters, the sweat, pain, tears and blood that goes into the entire experience of a hunt, successful or not, then you’re not allowed to tell me I can’t and shouldn’t be able to hunt. This lifestyle is something I hold dear to my heart, and I hope to pass down for generations to come. If preserving the culture and traditions of our ancestors makes me a bad person, then so be it…I’ll wear that tag with pride…because I’ll NEVER apologize for being a hunter.
Black Dirt Diaries 