Kristine’s Note:  A while back I wrote a post on the OBS blog detailing the fact that I was busy and blocked and could use some help filling space on my blogs.  Ranger Squirrel of RangerSquirrel’s Ramblings kindly offered me this post.  I think it’s a thoughtful discussion of an issue I’ve been considering myself, and I’m proud to share it with you here.

My wife and I are engaged in a very civil debate at the moment about hunting and whether I should do it.  I feel compelled to learn the skill.  She doesn’t like the idea of me killing small furry creatures unless it’s a survival necessity.

What I don’t think I’ve expressed very well to her is that I don’t much love the idea of killing anything.  It’s just not my way.

Since I’m absolutely positive that she and I are not the only ones disagreeing about this issue, I thought it might be helpful if I documented it so that perhaps others can benefit.

Here’s where my wife and I stand in agreement:

• We both see hunting not as a sport (name another sport where your opponent doesn’t know you’re playing), but as a skill.
• We both have legitimate concerns about the people who are out there killing animals just for fun.  In my opinion, these are the same people who, as children, used to do things like put Alka-Seltzer in a frog’s mouth and toss it into the water.
• We both see hunting as an entirely valid means of food gathering if it’s a necessity.
• We both recognize that there is a food chain and that small furry creatures are part of it (as are humans).
• Up to this point, we’ve both agreed that there is no need for me to hunt.  We have never gone hungry and don’t foresee a situation in which we would be forced to do so.

I can’t rightfully claim to understand her viewpoint completely and for that reason I won’t try to represent it here because I don’t want to seem to belittle what I’m sure is an entirely valid point of view from the person I love and respect the most in this world.  The truth is, we haven’t really talked about it at length.  With the baby coming, our focus has been on other things.

Instead, here’s where I’m coming from:

• I am a father of 4 (well, almost 4…still waiting on the 4th to arrive any day now).
• I am the sole provider, financially, for my family and I work in an occupation that is almost entirely unnecessary to the world’s continued existence.  I could stop working tomorrow and it would make zero difference to anyone except my family.  My entire division makes ZERO profit and generates very little revenue for the corporation I work for.  In fact, we actually cost the company somewhere in the tens of millions annually – yet despite the economic downturn, my company has yet to have any layoffs in my division.  So everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop, and arguably, axing my whole division would make sense (at least temporarily).
• While it is true that hunting is a skill and that I wouldn’t ordinarily plan to use it except for survival, the same can be said of shelter building, water purification, primitive firemaking, foraging and so on – yet I’ve practiced all of those to at least a basic degree of proficiency – because knowing it’s possible to do something and actually being able to do it are two very different things.
• In the Army, I carried a rifle in the wilderness often enough to know that stalking prey isn’t as easy as it sounds.  It takes practice and skill.  I’ve also associated with enough combat veterans (and hunters for that matter) to know that killing is not something that comes easily, emotionally speaking.
• If I’m going to list the ability to hunt among the tools in my family’s survival toolbox – doesn’t it make sense that I should actually have practiced it a few times? At least to a level of basic proficiency?

I used to rationalize away my desire to hunt by telling myself I don’t actually need to kill something to learn the skills.  After all, I can track, and shoot for that matter, with a camera as well as a rifle and I already know I’m one helluva good marksman.  What’s different this season is that I called “bullsh*t” on that line of reasoning.

Tracking and shooting with a camera will certainly help me build some of the skills I need for hunting, but it will not make me a hunter.  When it comes to providing food in a time of emergency, my family will need a hunter, not a photographer.  A paintball player is not a combat veteran and neither is a war correspondent.  I wouldn’t trust a combat journalist with my life in a firefight, and I’m not going to put my family’s well-being in the hands of even the most experienced photographer.

Moreover, tracking and pulling the trigger are not the only skills involved in hunting.  If you don’t develop the familiarity with your firearm to place the shot accurately, you risk wounding the animal and causing a great deal of suffering.  Similarly, you don’t need to learn to field dress, skin and butcher an animal when you’re just taking a picture.

There are many other arguments in favor of hunting:

Philosophical – most of us soft Americans are too far removed from the production of our food.  We have no idea where it comes from and we don’t, therefore, have any respect for the process or the food itself.  I remember reading a blog comment recently that said, “To all you cruel and unthinking hunters out there – why don’t you just buy your meat at a grocery store so no animals will be harmed?”  I’ve always hoped that comment was tongue-in-cheek, but I’ve also always suspected otherwise.

Health – Compared to store-bought food, wild game is usually fresher, leaner, healthier, and about as free-range and organic as you can get.

Environmental/Ecological – Hunters play an important role in monitoring and controlling the population of game species as well as the health of the environment as a whole.  Even countries that have outlawed so-called sport hunting have regular “controlled” hunts to keep these populations down.  The natural predators have been eliminated for the most part, and hunting pressure at least partially rectifies that problem.  Over populations of a particular species can result in the destrution of crops and even whole habitats.  Moreover, it’s things like hunting and fishing licenses that help the state raise the money necessary to actually regulate the environmental conditions in the state.

Humanitarian – Indiana has a program where you can drop off harvested game to participating butchers and they will process the animal and donate the meat to charities across the state.  Under this program, one deer can provide up to 200 meals (that’s DNR’s statistic, not mine) for families in need.  Healthy, fresh food for hungry people.

Safety – unchecked populations of game animals mean more car accidents from animals crossing the road.  This can result in death for both the animals and the people who hit them with their cars.

I agree with all of these reasons, but the one that really compels me is my instinctual need to develop this skill for the protection and providence of my family.

I don’t know how it will come out in the end.  I do know this – I would never harvest an animal for fun.  I would never be disrespectful to an animal’s body or waste the nutrition it would provide, and I would never want to kill an animal unless there was a purpose for it.  This is not a sporting interest for me – it’s the development of a necessary survival skill.

- RangerSquirrel (http://rangersquirrel.wordpress.com)