All the BS aside......
I'm a little too squeamish to be a hunter. My brother does guided hunts in Alaska. He really enjoys it. He keeps his freezer full, the critter population gets thinned, everyone is happy.
He has a big white mountain goat mounted from a hunt several years ago. I didn't like the way it looked at me Then he told me the story. He and his buddy had been hunting all day, hiking over incredibly steep terrain (mountain goats like that) when they finally spotted this goat. It saw them at the same time and got up from where it had been resting and started to leave (smart) brothers buddy yelled "hey" at it and it stopped and looked back at them (not so smart) and my brother shot it dead, one shot. When they where getting it ready to pack out they discovered that all of it's many stomachs were empty and that it's jaw was broken. This was an old experienced goat who had just lost out during mating season and was on his way to a slow death due to starvation, my brother did it a favor.
I think that, as a society, we are too far removed from where our meat comes from. All we ever see is white cellophane packages at the grocery store.. how often do we really stop to think about the animal that gave it's life to feed us? Was the cow, crowded into a tiny pen all it's life, really better off than the deer that hunter joe shot? How much do we really know about where our meat comes from? How many of us are willing to even ask? or care?
I think that those who hunt for trophys and leave the meat to rot are wrong.... If you are going to kill it, don't waste it... I also think that those who hunt to fill their freezer are no different from the housewife buying a roast at the store.. we all gotta eat and we are omnivores.
Misty
