Where does your food come from? As a society we seem to have a major disconnect with the answer to that question. In order to survive, other things must die. It’s a circle. It’s a part of the equation that used to be widely understood, but has somehow been lost over the years to emotions and recreational outrage.
You can get mad at us for hunting and harvesting an animal to feed our families, but it’s ok for you to eat the meat that comes packaged at the grocery store. I’ve heard it said “these animals did not have a choice in your way of taking their lives”. Are people really under the impression that the meat in the grocery store came from animals that willingly took their own lives so we could eat? I don’t think so.
And for the vegans, how many animal habitats are destroyed to make way for the ever growing farming industry that mass produces the crops you eat. Or how about any other of the many examples of daily habits we as humans almost cannot avoid doing, that impact other animals. Turning your head from it doesn’t mean it isn’t there. Our existence on this earth equates to other things dying. Life requires death. Period.
I’m not telling you that it’s wrong to go buy meat from the grocery store. Or that it is wrong to go vegan. I don’t have any hatred in my heart for those things. Heck I buy meat from the grocery store too. But I know how life works. And I know where that meat comes from. If I can avoid it, I will.
The meat we as hunters are harvesting is clean. It is free of genetic modifications. It tastes great and it is healthy. I cannot say those things about what is on your favorite chain grocery stores shelves. And I don’t think people are dumb, generally speaking. I think that most people actually do know where there food comes from, and they know it isn’t necessarily good. But for some reason they have the ability to ignore those ugly facts, then turn around and slam hunters for ethically taking game to eat. It is almost as if they know they could never take down the big food industry, but they feel closer to taking down the small amount of people who still hunt for their food. So they ignore one, and go after the other. Even though the other does much more harm to our planet.
The funny thing about hunters is that though our main goal and end result may seem to be death, in reality it is actually life. We love hunting, and in order to continue doing so, we must care more about the survival of said species we go after. Which is why most of us don’t mind paying the growing price tag on our game licenses every year. Or the excise taxes we pay when purchasing equipment used on our hunts. We know that all of that money is going back into the environment we have grown to love so much.
Most people do not realize that hunters almost completely fund wildlife conservation and protection in the US. Hunters are responsible for the comeback of many species. For example, in the early 1900s wild turkeys were on the road to extinction. The lowest number was 30,000 birds at one point. There are now an estimated 7 MILLION turkeys in the wild today. 49 states have a huntable population. Hunters are solely responsible for that. But no one cares about turkeys right?
How about Elk? At one point the elk in the US were also almost decimated. Fewer than 100,000 were confined to a few remote and protected lands. That was down from an estimated 10 million. Today more than 1 million elk inhabit the US. One of the largest contributors to that comeback is the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Which was created by an avid Elk hunter.
These are just a few examples of how hunters greatly impact our wild animals that we all love, in a positive way. Aside from poachers, we do not hunt in excess. It is well regulated to sustain healthy populations. Whether you are a hunter, or someone who simply enjoys observing these beautiful creatures that roam our lands, hunting is in your favor, it is in the animals favor as well.
All this said and I haven’t even mentioned the fact that in order to keep these populations thriving, they must be regulated. Humans have been a part of that regulation in some way since the beginning of time. Nothing has changed. For example, the deer herds can sometimes get out of control. Leaving deer to die of starvation. Over population is not a good thing. We cannot simply remove ourselves from something we have always been a part of. There are places that do not allow hunters to take game, due to uneducated voters. But in those same places, snipers are hired to kill and leave the animals for waste, in the name of population control. What would make someone be ok with that, but not ok with a hunter paying the state to purchase a tag, and harvest said animal?
Hunting does not have to be for everyone. But know this, your existence on this earth will most certainly cause something else to no longer exist. You cannot avoid it. No matter how hard you try. Life requires death. Period. Hunting provides life. Its food, man.
Written and poorly edited by
Scott Ziegler
Well spoken!