Are alive and well in these mountains. Usually I try and keep this blog up beat and somewhat about WLS, but today I am angry.
I NEED someone, anyone to explain the "Joy" the "Thrill" of hunting for "sport". Really...This is a concept I can not grasp and I'm willing to learn and try to understand this barbaric "thrill". The definition of THRILL is to excite and give great pleasure.
Where is the pleasure in taking the life of an innocent animal ? Of having it alive one minute and then dead by your hand the next. What great pleasure is there in feeling the life leave a living body? Better yet why then take it's head off and hang it in your living room...You don't see that as being a bit Barbaric? It's not like it's a bowling trophy for an excellent game or a baseball trophy depicting you as above average. It's the head of an animal you KILLED, in all probability using a scope. The animal was dead before it even had a chance to run from you...where's the sport in that? What does that trophy symbolize ? That you are capable of taking a life...Gee, there's something to be proud of.
No I am NOT a member of PITA nor am I a vegetarian... Surprise!!! I'm just a person that would like to feel that man has evolved beyond the point of killing something for "Sport". take up golf, boating, skiing...they are all sports not requiring blood , guts and bullets.
As humans who feel we need meat to survive (wrong) we've learned how to farm our meat needs. So as civilized beings we go to the store and purchase meat, not sit in a tree stand for hours waiting for some unsuspecting animal to cross our path. The people truly hunting for food for the table are the people, the hillbillies, most hunters would make fun of...and they don't collect "trophies", they are happy if a woodchuck crosses their path.
My beef is with the "Sport Hunter" who claims he is doing the deer a favor ...WHAT? The balance of nature allows for certain animals to die in order to feed others. Nature doesn't need you. From my window I am looking at thousands upon thousands of acres where animals can live without encroaching on YOUR land. If you farm and the deer are causing you financial problems by eating your crops, they belong in your freezer.
If you are buying expensive hunting clothes, rifles and ammunition, you can afford to buy meat for your freezer. If I had my way, I would take all the hunters and put them on a wooded island and tell them "Now you are the hunted...no weapons..just warm clothes..run..because in 15min. open season begins and YOU are the hunted" Just so they could feel the fear, listen to shots in the distance and wonder if it hit a target. Looking over your shoulder while you try and find food, never knowing where the HUNTER is lurking, waiting to watch you bleed.....
I sit here this morning hearing shots ring out...remembering when I first moved here and there was an actual herd of deer, beautiful 10 point bucks. Slowly the bucks were gone, although smaller ones survived to impregnate doe's. Doe's that ended up twinning to increase the herd size...but even that didn't help. In 11 years our herd has diminished to 5...that's not "management" that's "annihilation" all in the name of sport...So please, someone explain to me the joy and thrill of killing. I truly want to understand.
