Geek Speak — HabitableZone

Geek Speak » in reply to Spareribs...steak...chicken...mmmmmmm

Hunters
Tom Brosz — (archived)

While I never liked hunting myself, and don't have any desire myself to go out and shoot something, I never had a problem with other people who did, many of which included relatives of mine when I was young.

I did go out with them a few times (fishing too), and while I didn't do a lot of shooting (mostly carrying stuff for them), I found that these people appreciated nature a lot more than someone whose hobby was, say, golf. From them I learned about being careful not to do unnecessary damage to the wild, that you should carry out everything you carry in, how to deal safely with fires in the wild, and which leaves NOT to use for toilet paper.

I learned respect for property, as some forms of hunting (pheasants)were sometimes done in farm fields, and one would never think of going onto a field without going to the farmhouse for permission.

I also learned to eat pheasant carefully, since you had to spit out the BBs. My Dad hunted pheasants in South Dakota because it was cheaper than buying the meat, not because he was any kind of super sportsman.

As Ted Nugent says, you can make a good case that someone who DOES go out and shoot his own meat, dress it, and prepare it, probably has a much healthier and more accurate idea of what it means to coexist with nature as a predator. Certainly more than someone who gets hamburgers at McDonalds.

You can also make the case that a hunter who gets meat from wild animals does a hell of a lot less damage to the environment than somebody who gets his meat from factory stockyards.

Realistically, of course, 300 million Americans can't get meat from the woods. But the principle is there.

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