I'm covering a few topics this week as they've been rolling around in my head for a few weeks. I need to get them out before I lose it. I will be starting with a few personal confessions I believe to be important as certain comments have called into question my past. I will then move into a discussion on general ethics of a modern sportsman and woman. I will close out with some anecdotes regarding the hypocrisy of some opponent arguments against trapping, hunting, and fishing.
So, the first thing that was ever criticized of me on a blog post that actually came from someone here in Massachusetts. He told some story that had absolutely nothing to do with the topic I had written about and then told me to take my Bachelor's degree and stuff it where the sun doesn't shine. I will confess that I do not have a college degree in any form. I read a lot, and I study a lot on my own. I enjoy my job, I enjoy writing, and between the two activities I still have plenty of time to spend in the woods, or by the water.
My second confession, as I believe some folks may be under the wrong impression, is that I am not a life long hunter. As a matter of fact, for a brief period of time, I was on the side that I now fight against. I was raised fishing, camping, and hiking with my Dad. I did a bit of hunting with the cousins on both sides of the family, but after I got out of high school, I lost touch with the natural world altogether. I spent a short amount of time being on the wrong side of the fence, which may be a story for another time, before coming back to the woods. I am what you would call a re-activated hunter, lifelong angler, and I've been trapping for about five years. I believe that means I cover ALL of the R3s.
Now, for the conversation on ethics. This is probably where I've been criticized the most, and it probably has to do with the fact that I named myself the Ethical Sportsman. I have had anglers tell me I have no ethics because I trap. I've had fellow hunters tell me I have no ethics because I use a crossbow where legal. My favorite though, was the man who told me that my whole opinion was essentially worthless because it wasn't founded in the 4 manuscripts he listed that founded his ethics. If he reads this, I would respond that I had read 3 of the 4 previous to that article, and have read his 4th since then, and it hasn't changed my opinion.
Ethics are a very personal code of morals. Within the bounds of legal regulations, and social acceptance there is a bit of wiggle room. In my own personal ethics, I am fairly strict, even when predator hunting. I use what I can, and donate what I cannot if possible. I have donated more meat to wildlife rehabilitators than most people eat in a year. I've also fed dogs and cats with it. That is the way I choose to honor my harvest and respect my culture.
However, that doesn't give me the right to tell other people what to do. The same people that tell society that vegans shouldn't be telling us we can't hunt, are the first folks to tell fellow hunters they shouldn't be hunting coyotes. (By the way the 4th manuscript mentioned above stated that we shouldn't harvest predators, so I need to stop hunting bears and big cats even though I eat them... and I guess no more fishing unless I'm practicing catch and release.) I know plenty of trappers that take coyotes off the landscape for fur, and utilize the meat as baits or to feed their dogs. I also know many more hunters that field dress an elk and leave the remains in the field. What makes one more ethical than the other? In addition, we live in a time when science has proven that the remains left in the woods feed scavengers or break down into the soil providing nutrients for the plants. That being said, I believe each person should be personally utilizing as much of their harvest as they can.
Most of the popularized ethics of American hunting are based on what we know of the native peoples beliefs. I also have a tendency toward these ethics. However, ethics evolve over time, just like anything else. With all of the science we have uncovered on habitats and wildlife management, the old ways of hunting just don't cover it all anymore. We have made the decision in this country that we do not want to see species go extinct anymore. We have put an end to market hunting and regulated bag and seasonal limits to protect game species from over harvest. A truly ethical sportsman or woman needs to add this form of wildlife management to their vocabulary. To me it is far better to have a hunter or trapper take wolves and make use of them as much as possible than to have the populous pay for the government to cull populations and waste the animals.
These arguments, and those of our opponents have bred a world of hypocrisy as well. I've heard of catch and release anglers telling trappers that they are cruel because of the traps they use. Yet they bait a fish to a hook, punch a hole in it's face, and suffocate the animal for a time to show the camera their prize. They've done several studies on the mortality of these fish and they show between 8-12% of fish that were released back into the water still perish. Obviously the act of catching the fish and dragging it out of the water causes stress to their system, no matter how many times we tell everyone that the fish don't feel anything. I'm not arguing against fishing by any means, I spend plenty of time on the water with my family, and we probably release hundreds of fish a year. My point is simply that once activity is not more ethical than the other.
My favorite argument is that we should just all back off and let nature take it's course. Humans are naturally predators. We are also naturally violent, as are many animals. We are naturally omnivorous. We hunt because we want to provide for our families. It's in our nature. It's also in our nature to learn and explore. When you combine our natural abilities you come to the realization we need to be stewards of the land. It took us thousands of years to learn that lesson through our experiences. If we let nature go now, everything would be lost. We have affected this planet too much to be able to just leave things alone and hope for the best.
It is also natural for animals to compete for dominance over each other. You see this when predators surplus kill in areas. They have no intentions of eating those animals, they are left on the landscape to rot. I've noticed an interesting trend though in that this happens mostly with livestock. Perhaps the mountain lions, bears, and wolves are now practicing habitat management? Perhaps they always have, and perhaps that is nature itself.
We need to stop arguing with each other and unite. It's time we realize that we all have different beliefs and that we should not be forcing those beliefs on others. Isn't that what we founded this country on? We don't want the antis telling us we can't trap, hunt, or fish, so we really should be telling each other what we can and can't do. Let's make a deal in 2019 to work towards understanding each other and working together for all of our benefit.
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