Everything sublime is as difficult as it is rare. Baruch Spinoza

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Run Bambi, Run

Hunting is not a sport. In a sport both sides should know they are in the game.
Paul Rodriquez


Firearm deer hunting season starts in my fair state today. I live in the country, but not the wide open country. There are large wooded areas all around us and farmers leave a few rows of corn to attract deer. Gun fire becomes a daily bombardment to my ears and my nerves. 


I do not like hunting. There seems to be too much enjoyment received from some other creatures death. I know the deer population can become too large to sustain itself, leading to starvation. I know herds need to be thinned. I don't understand the gleeful joy people get from the actual act of killing. I have watched hunting shows in the wee hours of the morning when I couldn't sleep. I watched Babe Winkleman nearly have an orgasm over killing a large buck. Nice.


I really don't like hunting in my backyard. There is a strange tendency with people holding guns to shoot at movement. A few years ago some neighboring farmers lost dairy cows to hunters bullets. I worry so much during this season about the horses. I have a mare who was shot in the head a few years ago when she was at another farm. It didn't kill her, but there is a bullet lodged in her skull.


So now I will be on edge over the hunting season. My sentiments lie with the white tails. High tail it and run.




15 comments:

Ganeida said...

Oh yuk! I hate guns. I hate killing. There is something wrong with people who derive enjoyment from depriving another living creature of life!

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

I'm with you Sandra!

When we lived in a Montreal suberb we had a huge wooded, uninhabited area behind our home. It had creeks and gulleys, and wonderful huges trees where children built secret forts. Somehow deer lived in that land-locked area and it was a delight to have them visit our back yard (even though they ate our cedar hedges!) - but every fall there were idiots who would park their car at the end of our dead end street and haul out their gun - to track and kill deer. It was against the law to hunt within city limits, there were children playing in the woods - but police did not have time to run through the woods chasing these neanderthals. I would go out when I could and as they exited their car I would write down the license number and tell them I would be reporting them. Sometimes it worked and they left. Most often it didn't. BTW, it was legal to hunt with a bow and arrow in the city limits!?/!??!

Oh, you got me all revved up again!! :)

Lorac said...

I have mixed emotions on this. I also don't like the trophy hunters but I also understand the need to cull the herds so they do not starve to death. I despise anyone who hunts not for meat in the freezer, but to put a head and antlers on the wall! I have a lot of friends who hunt, many of who depend on the meat to help to feed the family and I am OK with that. People who gloat of their kills and the kill itself is the big deal, are despicable.

Lorac said...

Of course I also despise any hunter who does not play by the rules or is unsafe in his hunting!

Alicia @ boylerpf said...

Oh, Sandra...you have expressed my sentiments exactly! The season opened yesterday here and when standing outside, you could hear the pop, pop all the time. We have a horse that is in the middle of nowhere..isn't everything in this neck of the woods? His pasture is huge and though is connects to the barn, at this time of year, he wants to be out eating the last vestiges of grass before winter. He's the same color as a deer and I worry all the time that some idiot hunter will mistake him for one. I usually keep a bright red & green blanket on him but this year, it is so warm (amen and about time) that he is naked out there. I've been corralling him closer just to appease my fear. I'm just not into hunting!

Cyndi and Stumpy said...

When I lived back east I dreaded hunting season...two months no walks in the woods! It seriously sucked! I am totally sympathetic, especially since you have horses!

A few years back, in Maine, a women was hanging laundry in her back yard, wearing white mittens. Yup! you guessed it...someone thought it was a white tail. It's hard to respect people who call themselves outdoorsmen, when you hear about their many blunders., or find their piles of trash in the woods, where they set up camp, or their ...oh hell..I totally agree, thanks for letting me rant, even though I don't have to deal with it now.

Ashley Dumas said...

I am going to add a dissenting opinion (sort of : ) I hope I don't offend anybody too much, but I think the deer that lives a life free in the wild and dies from a hunter's bullet had a better life than the poor chickens and veal cows and even pigs that lived in cramped, dirty, spaces eating hormone and antibiotic laced animal food. I know people who hunt and really try to use only the meat of the two deer in the icebox for at least 6 months. They aren't really gleeful about it and some feel sort of duty driven, as it is not an easy job, when you really go to a safe area and sit in a stand all day in the cold. This source of meat really helps some people who are on a tight budget. Anyone who feels sorry for animals should first swear off eating meat IMO as the life of animals in industrial meat farms is really quite deplorable and much worse than the life of a deer who lives in the forest.
On the other hand, I HATE irresponsible and trigger happy hunters as they really make life dangerous in the country all around where I grew up during deer season.

Jean L. said...

My sentiments exactly. I know there are "good" hunters. But as I watch these trucks constantly troll by on the road past my driveway, packed with orange clad passengers, my nerves are on edge, too. If you meet them on the road, I swear their eyes are glazed over with a sinister look. They scare me. I, too, understand the herd thinning aspect. As far as putting meat on the table, I would venture a guess that most of the hunters spend far more on their hunting excursions than they get back per pound in meat.

Jean L. said...

Ashley, I typed my post before I read yours.

Deb said...

Boy was I grateful to read this today. I agree and am in the minority in my neck of the woods. Yesterday a deer quarter was dumped in the open field in our development. Shots have been heard near our pond 1/4 mile down the hill. It is upsetting. I'm seriously considering being a vegetarian. For health and ethical reasons. Thanks for speaking up.

Ganeida said...

Ashley: meat for the table is one thing; trophy hunting quite another. I eat very little meat for ethical reasons. I can't cut it completely out for health reasons but I certainly agree with your sentiments.

Sandra said...

Well, it seems there is a consensus on the danger posed to many of us by hunters. I have heard for years "Most hunters are responsible". Maybe so, but it doesn't take more than one to do something irreversible. I'm not sure most hunters are responsible. There may be a majority that are, but there are enough that aren't to make us quake in our boots.

Ashley, I'm not offended. I agree with you. I am not addressing the killing of animals for food, but rather what I feel during hunting season. I feel anxiety. Shots are popping off all around me. Although not all hunters do this, there is a notoriety attached to them for shooting at movement. During hunting season you cannot go out into the woods. You can't ride your horse along the road. You need to worry about them in their pasture.

The other part of it is, I don't like the pleasure killing animals brings to all of the hunters I know. I can't tolerate the photos that show up online, holding a dead buck by the antlers, while blood is running out of its mouth. So proud, look at my kill. The food is secondary. The kill is primary.

Because there are few absolutes, I know this isn't all hunters. But it is the hunters represented on hunting programs. It's the hunters I see putting their trophies online. It's the hunters I personally know.

But mostly this is frayed nerves until the gunfire stops and I can breath a sigh of relief. That is if everyone makes it out alive.

Memories Of Mine said...

This all sounds very dangerous, like you are in the middle of a firing range. There should be some law that prevents hunters coming so close to farms.

Sandra said...

Liss, there are laws, but not everyone follows them. It's unnerving listening to gunfire. There are aspects of country life which are not so positive.

Ashley Dumas said...

Sandra,

I have friends that have lost dogs and cows and horses to deer hunters and my Dad was once shot in the boot by some careless guys 'practicing' in the woods directly in front of a section of the well marked Appalachain Trail. Guns are like cars if you ask me. Both are deadly in the hands of ineptitude or irresponsibility. Sorry for all the stress you are under!
I remember that stress well. I am from Georgia but the deer hunters all over the place there as well.