This blog is not some attempt to defend why I hunt to others or even placate my conscious to justify the taking of an animal’s life, rather it is much- much simpler than that. I hunt because that is what I am- a hunter. Thousands of years our species survival depended on the ability to hunt for food and the simple fact is: If you were not a successful hunter you did not survive. Those genetic instincts are still imprinted in every human being but years of civilization, industrially produced food, changing social norms and shrinking access to quality habitat have all moved the trajectory of instinct actualization to a thing of less and less frequency and acceptance.
I do not hunt because I live a sustenance existence- I can afford to go to the store and buy food. I do not relish, nor do I feel great discomfort in the killing of an animal. This neutrality is not an emotionally detached state rather it is an appropriate perspective as a part in the sum of the whole experience. It has become, as it has always been since we as a species hunted, simply the middle steps of the overall hunting experience.
I hunt because it is deeply stamped in my DNA. I was raised in a suburban neighborhood with a father and extended family who were not hunters. We went fishing but hunting was not something I was ever exposed to except through magazines like Field & Stream. This was the late 70’s early 80’s when there wasn’t the vast availability of 24 hour hunting shows, YouTube, blogs, and the list goes one. So it is hard to explain why a kid like me, with no hunting exposure, became so allured with the very nature of hunting. It is only explainable through thousands of years of hard wiring and natural selection processes and I, for some reason, have not had those drives diluted over decades like others.
I love to fly fish, everything about it- the locations, the challenge, the array of trout species but also the fact that after I catch them, I can release them back into the habitat in which they came not that much worse for wear. If I could do that hunting, I would in a second. I can’t and therefore I pursue this instinctual passion with one simple rule- I do not shoot anything I will not eat. I do this not as justification for hunting rather, out of an abundance of respect for the game I hunt and the important role predator and prey both play in the natural balance of the world we live in.
I hunt because that is what is natural to me. I do not hold animus for those who do not hunt and do not understand hunting. They do not have the same instinctual drive as I do, likely due to the decades of moving from hunting food to hunting specials at the grocery store. I do not ask for anything from non-hunters or hunters alike other than respect. Even when someone’s thoughts and beliefs are so foreign we must respectfully understand we do not understand and that is ok. We should not glorify the killing of animals rather, respect them by putting this one piece of the overall hunting experience in perspective. Respect the animal by utilizing it to the greatest extent possible. Focus on the opportunities to be able to hunt, the social aspect, the beauty of our natural world and balance both life and death play in it. It is only through these actions can we truly honor the instinct that was part of our species early wiring for survival.
"Not all those who wander are lost" - J.R.R. Tolkien
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