Why I hunt
I posted this to FB for the sake of my more sensitive friends. Thought you guys might appreciate it.
-------------
Hunting season is upon us, and I couldn't be more excited.
I know that many view hunting as barbaric and unnecessary, so I figured I'd post this little apologia before (hopefully) littering your feeds with images of dead deer.
Of course, hunting hasn't always been the elective activity that it is today. At the time our species achieved anatomical and behavioral modernity, it was our primary means of survival.
Since then, the terrifically mixed bag of civilization has gradually built a barrier between our day-to-day lives and the means by which our food is procured. With few exceptions, that barrier has only grown thicker and more convoluted.
Of course, we're all familiar with this barrier--with the deception and bureaucracy that are woven into its layers. Despite this widespread awareness, our options in regard to actually moving beyond it are difficult and few. Dedicated vegetarians/vegans may feel that they've accomplished this feat, bending over backward to make sure that the food they do consume is produced as ethically as possible, but unless they're growing or foraging their own produce, they haven't really escaped the barrier--they've merely become entangled in a certain portion of it (which is now heavily marketed toward their sensibilities).
There are also those who try to circumvent the barrier by killing their own meat, typically by joining clubs that teach them how to snap a rabbit's neck (this has become quite popular in recent years). I ask them, where did that rabbit come from? I suspect that many of them come from farms, transported to these club meetings in cages. As such, I feel that these folks are not escaping the barrier, but merely participating in it, the way that a slaughterhouse worker does.
As far as I can tell, hunting is the only reasonable way to obliterate this barrier completely. To trade in your role as a greasy cog in a vast, filthy machine (if only for a few days) and assume one of the greatest responsibilities a human can bear: killing sentient animals that are in the midst of their natural lives.
It is a responsibility I take seriously. When I raise a weapon with the intention of shooting an animal, especially one as intelligent as a deer, my head spins with the gravity of the situation. For me, at least, hunting is not easy. It's violent, messy, and exhausting. But taking a bite out of a venison roast I butchered myself, I'm afforded a sense of peace and satisfaction that I have simply been unable to reproduce in any other area of my life.
Lest anyone think I take myself too seriously, I don't consider myself superior to those who don't hunt. When the season is over, I go back to being a cog like everyone else (as demonstrated by the center image). But I do think the contents of my freezer are a notch or two above the norm.