The killing is justified by the need and must be done in a spirit of respect, reverence, gratitude. Thoreau would say, one kills in order to eat. That sly sophist Ortega Gasset wrote, somewhere, that "one kills in order to have hunted," Not good enough. "In earnest, there lies the key to ethical issue. Anything, any excuse, to get out into the hills, away from the crowds, to live, if only for a few days, beyond the wall. I began to realize that what I liked best about hunting was the companionship of a few good old trusted male buddies in the out-of-doors. "Gradually, from year to year, my interest in hunting, as a sport, waned away to nothing. He hunted for a purpose: to put meat on the table." Printed first is the essay title, followed by the author. Don’t waste my life for a photo or my antlers.” When we don’t answer these questions well we know it, and it feels wrong.īelow are the best thoughts/passages on why we hunt, Fair Chase, anti-hunters and killing I gleaned from the essays in “A Hunter’s Heart.” I hope they are as though provoking for you as they were for me. I’m still collecting my own thoughts on how best to answer the most powerful argument against hunting as well as the best way to confront the focus on killing, and lack of focus on Fair Chase, in today’s hunting industry and media. However, one collection of essays, “A Hunter’s Heart - Honest Essays on Blood Sport” collected by David Peterson was helpful and enlightening. Most of the books, essays, blogs and videos I read or watched were unhelpful. But also because much of the current hunting industry promotion, marketing and media is focused on blood and killing, and anti-hunters are appropriately and smartly using this marketing/media to build political momentum against hunters. I believe hunting is threatened activity partly because it’s a primarily rural tradition, and rural America is shrinking.
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