NY Times Article about hunting.

[PML]

I enjoyed that! Thank you for the link. Wild Goose Barbacoa Taco's are now on my foodie list of things I must try.

PML

[mobirdhunter]

Interesting! Before I retired, I developed and taught an interdisciplinary course on "Hunting in America." It became a part of wide choice of courses that satisfied a University requirement, so the class was always filled with students who hunted, did not hunt, and a few who were anti-hunting.

Man, did I learn a great deal from teaching that course for several years, much of what I learned frightened me for the future of hunting. Some takeaways from teaching the course that are salient to this thread (by the way, we read Rinella's American Buffalo among other readings, and I communicated with Rinella in selecting his book and developing the course):

- If we want to perpetuate hunting, make sure women -- specifically moms -- are recruited into the ranks. So many students could not hunt or have guns in their homes because "Mom" would not permit it. The young women in the course were there significantly because they wanted more control over the origins and quality of the food they ate. If Mom is a hunter, kids will very likely hunt or have a good opinion of it.

- Understand that the word "trophy" has very (very!) bad connotations for non-hunters. They believe that a trophy hunter just cuts off the head and leaves the rest. Scary, but true. Also, they don't know the difference between the Conservation Dept. and the Humane Society of the U.S.

- We all need to work to understand the origin of the concept of "sport" hunting. This concept developed early in American history as leading figures (writers like Frank Forester) began to distinguish between market and subsistence hunting and hunting with ethical rules (like other sports) to be followed. It had nothing to do with viewing killing as a game, but rather was about rules of conduct and ethical behavior.

- Be a good ambassador for hunting and take a non-hunter (preferably a young person) on a hunt. We had a "hunting requirement" in the class. No, students did not have to use a gun (although many wanted to shoot, having never even held a firearm before) or kill anything, and many things qualified as hunting, including students following my dogs and me around on a local WMA, or, after reading Aldo Leopold's writings on the woodcock "Sky Dance," accompanying me to see and hear woodcock on their penning grounds. We also helped the local Conservation Dept. personnel with their fall quail counts. It was an eye opening experience for students -- literally and figuratively -- to get out into the fields in the dark before sunrise to hear covey calls.

- Understand that everyone is watching you as a representative of hunting. How you act matters.

[Dean Romig]

Hi Once again Garry, you have very eloquently presented the case for hunting and ethics, and for teaching those things, that we all need to espouse if we are to pass these passions and traditions on to future generations.





.