Thoughts On Not (Yet? Ever?) Learning To Hunt

    A local food blogger, Holly Heyser of NorCalCazedora, just posted news about an opportunity for local women to learn how to hunt for food. This caught my attention. The notion of learning to hunt had been a barely perceived question brewing in the back of my mind, especially because I am a carnivore and strongly believe we ought to respect the animals we cull for food. That includes understanding and respecting the quality of life, and necessary death, of those animals.  Now I was presented with an opportunity. Do I want to learn to hunt?  My own answer came quickly: I am not yet ready, and I may never be ready, to hunt.

    Was it simply a matter of cold feet? Too busy? No, that's not it. I realized that although I am never one to shy away from a challenge, and I am not especially squeamish about life and death, learning to hunt has a big potential price tag associated with it.

    You see, when it comes to hunting a live animal, I am terrified of Doing It Wrong, of making a mistake. I am terrified, but not of  missing my shot. I am, in fact, a very good shot with a handgun on a shooting range. I am terrified of wounding, not killing,  an animal. I dread the possibility of shooting an animal, injuring it, then the poor creature would run or slink away, and I wouldn't be able to find it, (or would find it after a time), and it would die a slow and painful death all because I made a mistake.

    I am sure all hunters deal with this.  Target practice must be a frequent routine, to ensure that wounding animals is a rare event. When the inevitable wounding does occur, the majority of hunters are, I like to think, (and hope and pray) responsible and kind enough to spend all their efforts to track and down the injured prey and finish the job, as quickly as possible. I'm certain that most hunters (at least the ones I know and respect) anguish over this issue.

    Cal me a coward, but wounding an animal while hunting it is a risk I am simply not willing to take at this time. Not even once.

    This is why I prefer good old fashioned animal husbandry. I increasingly entertain the idea of raising my own meat animals, most likely chickens. In such a case, the life of the beast is truly under my jurisdiction. I can make sure it is well cared for, treated with respect and kindness and yes even love, until the day I would dispatch it as swiftly and with as little of the necessary pain as possible. Until that time I can select organic and responsibly raised sources of meat at the market.

    I am not anti-hunting for food. I definitely oppose hunting for non-food sport.

    Even though fishing can also result in wounded fish (the wayward slash of a hook that did not catch), fishing seems more humane to me.  Maybe I'm really wrong about that. Trapping... that's a grey area with lots of potential for animal suffering, (best avoided) but I would not oppose lobster traps for example. I do admit to being curious about trapping and eating squirrel or rabbit. But these would have to be non-wounding traps. That's a grey area for me right now, and I have not had the opportunity to discuss it with friends who trap small animals.

    What do you think, readers? Would you endeavor to learn to hunt for food? Why or why not? If you are a hunter I'd love to hear how you work with these issues. One caveat: I don't tolerate or publish spam or antagonistic  comments. Speak passionately, but respectfully, if you want to be heard in this venue. Thanks.

Comments

[NorCal Cazadora]

You've hit the nail on the head - that's the hardest part about hunting, definitely harder than just the killing. And if you hunt, you will wound an animal, and there are some you will never find. It's inevitable. That's definitely one of the tradeoffs, when compared with animal husbandry (and I've done both).

But there's something hunting did that animal husbandry didn't do for me: It taught me to respect animals a lot. The best theory I can come up with - and some will disagree with me on this - is that pets and farm animals are essentially our slaves, dependents at our mercy. We own them and do with them what we like. And even if you feel compassion toward them and treat them well, you don't see them at the height of what they can be, because they just wait for our handouts. Wild animals - which you get to know very well when you hunt - are smart, crafty and immaculately self-sufficient.

And when you hunt - or at least when I do - I feel a little bit less like a domestic animal myself, a little less like I'm waiting for the grocery store to hand me something, a little more like I'm fulfilling my potential as a member of this species.

[Andrea]

Thank you for sharing your unique perspective, Holly. I appreciate your being honest about the inevitability of wounding in hunting, rather than trying to minimize it.

I don't see as much of a distinction between domesticated vs. wild animals (or humans) as you do, in terms of fulfilling our potential. However I do think that taking a life for food, whether through hunting or farming, allows for a kind of activity that is very primal. I can see how that can be a very compelling experience.
Again, thanks for your valuable comment.