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respect
Posted by Byron_Lamb on Dec 07 2005
Here's a good one....
Since I was a little boy we have ALWAYS pulled the hide back over the carcass after field dressing and butchering. I have continued this practice all of my life, and encorage my guides to do the same thing.
The reason we pull the hide back over the animal, after butchering, is to show respect for the animal. Show the animal some respect. In a sence its like returing his blanket...so to speak. Make the animal appear as natural as posible.
One particular game warden came to one of my camps one time and told me I was "hiding" something, by covering the butchered carcass. I explained to him that I was showing respect for the animal and had nothing to hide. I told him that I would show the same respect for him, and ask him he would like to walk over to the kill-site and closely examine what was there. He didn't answer me at first, but ask to see the meat, as we approached my fancy meat-pole he became well aware that all of the meat was accounted for. He declined my invitation to walk to the kill site, made his assumptions from sitting in his plane and flying over the kill site.
Then told me that from the airplane it "looked" like I was hiding something, because I choose to pull the hide back over the critter. Once again I told him this was NOT the case, and he'd be welcome to visit ANY of our kill sites, and in fact I offered him to view some digital pictures of what was left after we field butchered the animals.
In the end we did not agree. He ask me to change my ways, said it would be easier for him to do his job and enforce compliance if I didn't "hide" the carcass. (no pun intended) To this day I still pull the hide back over the animal and plan to continue showing respect in this way.
I have personally harvested many animals, and have personally been invloved with many more animals being harvested. Not once can I ever remember NOT being sad & happy at the same time. It is very hard for me to put into words, however I'm sure a lot of folks know the feeling of being "happy & sad" and the same time.
I probably shouldn't say this, but sometimes I feel sorry for the animal(s) we're hunting becuase I know what happens when I take a client "hunting", blood will be spilled. It is very difficult to explain in words, the inner fight with myself, I must do everything I can to provide an excellent hunting trip for the client, and of course everyone would like to harvest an animal, most do, but at the same time I secretly hope that the critter will slip away from us and we will not take his life. The feeling of HAPPY becomes more compound when we take an exceptionally large animal, because I view this critter as being the most dominant critter in the area, and the saddness is also more compounded because we just took the life of the largest, most dominant animal in that area...........
Salvaging the meat is so basic that I haven't really ever given it much thought, I guess I've always KNOWN that we take the meat. Bringing the meat home is, and always has been, part of harvesting the animal. Of course Alaska has some very strict rules about collecting ALL of the meat, I suspect this all started because of the remote hunting area's and size of the critters harvested here. Hunting in Alaska, harvesting an animal, and then properly caring for it is more logisically challenging than any other place I've ever hunted.
Previous: Great topic-Excellent post! Byron_Lamb Dec 06 2005
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