Nov 08
11
Can someone check my neck?
I’m was a little conflicted. I grew up a ‘city’ kid. Wise in the ways of retail shopping, automobile shedding, and Hugo Boss – interspersed with good shoes and eating regularly at fast food joints while working at the ‘mall’.
20 years later, I’m an ardent fly-fisher who loves the outdoors, driving a Jeep – not a rice car, and have just completed hunter training and am a licenced hunter.
Today – as the snow fell, I looked outside and thought to myself ‘White tails will be hopping today. Wonder if I should get a tag and fill our freezer for the year?’.
Next week I’m taking my CFSC (Canadian firearms safety course) to complete my hunter trifecta (Fish, Guns and Deer) and at some moment today – I actually thought I should check my neck for the red.
But am I really turning into a redneck? Can someone hunt, fish and shoot – but still not be a redneck? I say yes.
I’m concerned with the state of our wildlife. I’m concerned about habitat changes, and I’m concerned with the quality of our flowing water. I worry about the overpopulation of White tails, and the frequency with which people are being killed or injured on the roads as a result.
As a new hunter – I’m not from the old guard of ‘I’ve been shootin’ em since I wuz 5.’ I come from the newly educated, conservation focused camp. I eat what I shoot or catch, don’t shoot indiscriminantly, and enjoy seeing the critter get away when I miss.
Sure – I’ve got camoflaged stuff now. Yes – I know how to load and ‘unload’ a 12 guage; and yes – I can field dress a grouse. But these things are not red-neck… These are skills.
Hunters catch a bad ‘rep from the non-hunting and anti-hunting world. We’re “gunning down helpless animals” is something I’ve heard a few times now. “Killing one of gods creatures – an innocent animal that has done nothing wrong…” and “unfairly using a gun instead of catching it with my hands.” I can only reply that we are higher order life forms. Spear or gun – it’s technology that the lower life forms don’t have. Lucky man.
The ability to harvest and prepare your own food is a basic survival technique lost on most modern first world societies. We have taken wild animals and made them pets, we’ve lost sight of our own backyard. Ask any grade 6 student to describe the difference between a black bear and a grizzly bear – or the difference between a wolf and a coyote – and you’ll likely see stunned silence. In spite of this – all 4 walk the streets of Whitecourt on occasion – and regularly in Fox Creek. Understanding the nature of our world includes understanding it’s inhabitants and how they fit into the balance of things.
What many anti-hunting folks don’t understand is that while there is little sport to pointing a shotgun at a stationary target, there is less sport in allowing the surplus population of grouse or pheasant to waste over winter. Wild populations are subject to the carrying capacity of a habitat – the raw number of animals that the territory can provide for. Winter is the worst time for this capacity, and the numbers of animals early in the season and into the fall are almost always in excess of the capacity during lean winters. Hunting thins the population (from the older end of the scale) and accounts for only a small percentage of the population losses.
These animals that we hunt are animals that have been traditionally hunted – for hundreds if not thousands of years. Those anti-hunting christians who preach the ‘gods creatures’ argument for banning hunting forget that 100 years ago – their pastors would have been trapping and killing the same animals for feasts – and thanking god during grace for providing the bounty.
In that regard – I thank god – or my version of god – anyway. I thank that animal; squirrel, grouse or trout. I thank my country – for valuing wildlife enough to ensure that I can partake in it’s management.
I think my neck is fine.
And no – I have no intention of arguing, just offering a better understanding of the contrary position.