Not every hunt is hunting

Let’s face it, all of us are a little squeamish at the thought of killing and then butchering what was, moments before, a live creature. Indeed, some people are averse to pulling carrots and stopping their lives. Not everyone would have the patience to wait until that cow drops dead of old age before turning her into hamburger. It is a tough thing being a human, or indeed any other animal. There is not one animal that I know of (excepting insects here, of course) that does not eat live, or recently live, food. Until we evolve — oh, perhaps another 5 million years if we set our minds to it — we are the consumers of things that were recently alive. Don’t let vegetarians con you, they are reluctant killers like the rest of us — the exception being they don’t have to contend with the doleful eyes of the things they kill.

In the same way a soldier can be said to be licensed to kill for the purpose of defending his country, so too you, all of us really, can be absolved for eating things — creatures, plants — that were recently alive. Nuts? They were killed by roasting to provide you with peanut butter. Hamburger? A young, 2-year-old animal lost its life and was butchered to provide you with food (and note: not one drop of that animal is wasted … all of it serves a purpose from medicines to hide for shoes). You like coleslaw? A living cabbage was harvested and chopped up, mixed with mayonnaise (egg and oil pressed from a living seed).

Now, hunting is not a sport. Shooting may be a sport, but hunting is a primordial pastime necessitated by the need to feed one’s family. Almost a million Americans hunt for food on land, and at least that many again go fishing. What, you thought killing a salmon or a bluefish was not killing in the same way as killing a chicken? Of course it is. The size of the brain doesn’t matter, what people often apportion guilt to is the human-like quality. Fish are cold, slimy, swim down there in the sea, weird. A cute and cuddly calf nuzzles its mommy, just like the human mammal, so we identify more. But that’s our perspective. Fish have feelings too. And researchers have shown that carrots release energy when pulled from the ground, so when you go pull the carrots in your garden, remember what you are doing is a form of hunting — taking the life of something to afford you sustenance you cannot live without.

A real hunter shoots a deer and brings it home as venison for food. The fisherman catching a tuna, catching lobsters in a pot … all these are hunting at its most essential form. Yes, for most of us that hands-on practice may be too emotional to deal with. It is easier to pick up a pound of hamburger, shrink-wrapped, looking pristine with no image of the dead cow on the label. It does help, I admit it. But the hypocrisy is mine, not the hunters.

Now, on the other hand, the person who only likes to kill, the person who defines him-or herself by the trophies they collect — animals not taken for food — to prove that they were forceful enough to take the life of another creature, that person is akin to a murderer — a mass murderer. The psychological profile is probably very similar. It is all about self-aggrandizement. Taking a deer’s antlers as a trophy does not make the hunter a murderer. Leaving the meat to rot, uneaten, that determines the motive for killing. The larger the antlers, the more likely the animal was sterile from old age – the herd will breed up. Kill a lion and the lion’s pride will dissolve, many of them dying. Mass murder.

There are times when one has to kill in self-defense. And there are times when an animal has gone rogue (meaning it is out to get humans or human habitats). In Africa there was the famous incident of the (rare) almost mane-less man-eaters of Tsavo taking Hindu workers from their tents at night. Or a bull elephant, its herd taken by poachers, destroying whole villages in South Africa that had to be put down. Or a New Mexico cougar discovered raiding farm livestock at night. These culls are human decisions to protect human environment or life. We, as the community wanting protection, share the responsibility in those culls just as we, as a society, share the responsibility of our police needing to take life in a dangerous situation or a soldier killing an insurgent enemy. It is human-sanctioned, human-approved. But similarly, the rogue killers hiding amongst the hunting fraternity are our responsibility as well. These rogue humans need to be culled from everyday life, rehabbed if possible, or at least re-educated to conform to societal norms. You eat? You can kill or share in a kill no matter the species or life form. Otherwise, no, just stop killing.

Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now lives in New Mexico.