Shooting Ourselves in the Foot

Interesting how this letter from an ex-hunter almostly exactly echoes the
sentiments laid out in the "Reasons/Excuses for Hunting and Fishing" thread.
My comments enclosed with **

"CHANGING ATTITUDES:
Why I Quit Hunting

The following letter was submitted to us by Susan Roghair of Animal Rights
Online, http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/   The author's name has
been withheld.

There are some very interesting factors in this letter that we will discuss
later.

I hunted for 30 years.  For various reasons, mostly because my father did,
and my grandfather did.  (*because that's the way we've always done it . . .
i.e., mindless tradition*)

Yes, we ate what we killed, but I never felt I was hunting TO eat, after
all, I had food whether I killed anything or not. (*That's right, no doubt
99.9 percent of hunters are not doing so for sheer survival*)

I never felt I was hunting for "wildlife management".  I never picked up my
rifle and said "Well, I am off to do my duty for wildlife management by
killing an animal". (*of course not - this is another rationalization we
tell ourselves to make us feel ok*)

I never did hunt for "trophies".  Whatever one describes that as.

I didn't even consider my "milenias old roots", though I occasionally did
use one of my grandfather's rifles, now 100 years old.

I guess I hunted just because I did.  (*i.e., that's the way we do it 'round
here*) At first, killing was thrilling, then anti-climactic, then
distasteful.  Then you begin to wonder why you are doing it. (*i.e., the
'power trip' / 'control freak' element of hunting*)

After pursuing elk for 7 years in the Bob Marshall Wilderness, I got an easy
shot at a 6 point bull and passed.  (*lots of hunters become "buck shy" when
they actually get a deer in their sights and never pull the trigger. Only
those sufficiently desensitized to the act of killing a live animal can go
through with it*) If he could elude me for that long, what business did I
have to kill him and hang his head where people who had never experienced
his world could look at him.....not in his magnificence, but in an
artificially posed mount, supported by premolded styrofoam.  Would I have
gained anything from the experience?  Who would gain?  Who would be better
off had I ended the animal's life?

I began to look at hunting differently.  It certainly isn't needed by anyone
or anything.......most animals are not hunted at all, and do just fine.
Hunters continually harp on deer overpopulation.....but deer make up less
than 2% of what they kill. And there are now alternatives to hunting deer.

In November 1989, I was shot by a deer hunter, while on my own property.
The irresponsible hunter left me for dead, and my twelve year old son loaded
me in a truck and drove me 40 miles to a hospital.  That didn't dampen my
enthusiasm, though, and is not the reason I quit, but it did give me a solid
taste of what the animals endure. (*nothing like walking a mile in the shoes
to get a real perspective*)

I guess I just started to understand that the animal I was looking at
through a scope was not just a target, but a living thing. A thing that
suffered when shot, a thing that I had no right to kill, though I had the
privilege to do so, by virtue of paying another person a fee for a license.
Think about that.  The animal is minding his own business when you go into a
store, pay a fee and walk out with a license to kill the animal, what a
deal.

I shot the last animal that will ever fall to my gun in November 1992.  I
hunted until January, 1997.

In five years, I discovered I could love the outdoors, and it's experiences,
which I still dearly enjoy, without killing.  (*of course he can, as can
anyone else. The "I hunt to enjoy nature" is another alibi*) The guns stay
at home when I take to the field now, though I keep the rust off them by
frequent trips to the range to break clay targets or make little groups of
holes in paper, and I have turned more to shooting competition for
satisfaction and achievement.

Is hunting worse than factory farms?  No. Does that make hunting right?  No.

Am I responsible for the death of animals, even though I am a vegetarian,
don't use leather or fur? Sure. One only need observe the bugs on my truck
grill to see that. But I have decided to minimize my impact on animals and
work to help them, rather than kill them.

I have a lot of making up to do.
<end of letter>

This man begins his letter with one of the basic reasons by which we
sanitize violence in our society, we teach it to our children.  He started
to hunt mostly because both his father and grandfather hunted, and he was in
the process of teaching it to his son.  This family passed on a disregard of
pain and suffering from generation to generation.   The true danger, the
overpowering danger of what we are doing is expressed by this man when he
says, "killing was thrilling".   When will we stop shooting ourselves in the
foot?  When will we come to the realization that when we feel a "thrill" in
the killing of one being, it isn't far from feeling a thrill in the killing
of any being.

But this man didn't fully suppress the feelings of love and compassion that
God has given to all of us.  As he says, "At first, killing was thrilling,
then anti-climactic, then distasteful.  Then you begin to wonder why you are
doing it."  He woke up to the harm he was doing.  Nevertheless, at least as
of the date that he wrote this letter, he hadn't come to realize that he is
still promoting the use of instruments of violence.  But, as he says, "I
have a lot of making up to do."  He is beginning to make a difference.  This
is something we all need to do."

http://www.all-creatures.org/sof/quithunt.html