wickedwanda
Really Experienced
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2004
- Posts
- 167
As a former animal control officer in a rural part of Maine I've been called on to kill animals several times. Some rabid skunks and raccoons, once a deer hit by a car - as well as the odd nuisance fox on my own farm and a beautiful and well-loved horse with a shattered hind leg and the vet two hours away.
Surely, the children in my area were far safer without the rabid animals, the deer suffered far less than if it had been left to die by the side of the road, and the chickens were happy in their chicken way to see the foxes gone. I know that allowing the horse to suffer for the two hours it would have taken the vet to arrive was a cruelty I could not inflict on a gallant friend.
I know many hunters. In this area the fall deer, ducks and geese add a welcome lift to the larder. Most of these hunters have children who are as kind and loving and good and safe as the children of non-hunters. Also, most hunters I know take as much joy in seeing wildlife out of season as in hunting the wildlife in season.
I have actually been asked several times by well-meaning dimwits if I felt a 'thrill' when killing an animal. I can't recall ever feeling a thrill of any kind - perhaps some relief in killing the animal with one well-placed shot and a minimum of suffering.
Some urban meat-eaters live in a fantasy world where meat comes in plastic wrap from freezer cases. They feel that because they do not actually end an animal's life they have no responsibility for the death of the animal.
I feel that attitude is more dangerous to children than a frank admission that hunting exists, puts meat on the table, and is accomplished, quite often, by the use of a firearm wielded by a responsible adult.
Surely, the children in my area were far safer without the rabid animals, the deer suffered far less than if it had been left to die by the side of the road, and the chickens were happy in their chicken way to see the foxes gone. I know that allowing the horse to suffer for the two hours it would have taken the vet to arrive was a cruelty I could not inflict on a gallant friend.
I know many hunters. In this area the fall deer, ducks and geese add a welcome lift to the larder. Most of these hunters have children who are as kind and loving and good and safe as the children of non-hunters. Also, most hunters I know take as much joy in seeing wildlife out of season as in hunting the wildlife in season.
I have actually been asked several times by well-meaning dimwits if I felt a 'thrill' when killing an animal. I can't recall ever feeling a thrill of any kind - perhaps some relief in killing the animal with one well-placed shot and a minimum of suffering.
Some urban meat-eaters live in a fantasy world where meat comes in plastic wrap from freezer cases. They feel that because they do not actually end an animal's life they have no responsibility for the death of the animal.
I feel that attitude is more dangerous to children than a frank admission that hunting exists, puts meat on the table, and is accomplished, quite often, by the use of a firearm wielded by a responsible adult.
