Huntin'

I come from a small Vermont town where deer hunting season is like an extended holiday and everyone has their "trophy" deer heads on their living room walls. People wake up at the crack of down, put on their camouflage, and trek into the woods to wait around for the next unsuspecting buck. Usually they come home dragging their feet before the after noon even begins, but every now and then, someone gets lucky. When a person shoots a buck, what matters is how many 'points' it has (for those none hunters, points are the tines coming off the beams of an antler). Then the person puts the deer in the back of their truck and drives it down the road to the only store in my town so he or she can weigh it. The bigger, the better. When people pass by the store, they get the unfortunate site of a bloody dead deer being weighed since the weighing is done outside.

I have never been hunting nor have I ever tasted venison and I can promise you that I never will. Deer hunting season is not something I look forward to, but my best friend and her family live for it. They even put on hunters' breakfasts at the Fish and Game for all of the hungry hunters. To be honest, I do not know what to think about the subject of hunting. Some people do it for the trophy; they don't care about the meat or anything else, they just want that deer head with its beady eyes staring back at them on their wall. I think that is wrong, killing for game. However, my best friend is part of the lower class and her family hunts for the meat. They love it and make sure none of it goes to waste. I don't know how I can argue against hunting when it does feed her family at a low cost. I'm always going back and forth with this one.

Hunting has been a vital part of mans life since the beginning of their existence. For the past thousands of years, mankind has depended on the harvesting of game to live. Ancient manuscripts and even cave paintings have shown that hunting played an important role in the people's lives. During those times no one questioned the correctness of hunting because it was so essential to their life and part of their nature. Around 1650, the "new world" was being colonized and people lived off the land. Deer, turkey, squirrels, rabbits, doves, and pheasants were all hunted and killed for food. Now that hunting is being questioned and seen in a different view, what's going to be the verdict?

Every time I start discussing hunting with my friends, they always bring up interesting points like how it stops over population or provides for their families. They also say that they 'respect' the animals that they are hunting, but how can 'respect' be shown to something a person is about to kill? Hunting is restricted to certain areas and people do need licenses to hunt. Plus, future hunters need to take the Hunters Safety Course. But what happens when a hunter shoots the animal but can not find it? The animal is obviously wounded somewhere in the woods. Now it will be in agony until it dies from lack of food or from another predator. I know no matter what I say, hunting will not cease and I will never be able to change the minds of my friends, but this topic is interesting to think about since it surrounds my everyday life.

I want to know your views about hunting. In what ways can this 'hobby' or 'sport' be seen as ethical and just? In what ways is it wrong and just another act of cruelty to animals? Is hunting just another sport or is it murder?