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A troubling thought...
Posted by Michael Strahan on Dec 07 2005
Joe,
I understand what you're saying, however one thing I find troubing is the idea that hunting is in jeopardy if we do it for reasons other than the meat. The fact is that a huge percentage of the game taken in this country, including Alaska, is taken by people who spend more money taking game than they would have spent on an equivalent amount of food. If you figure that the average net weight of a moose by the time you get it in the freezer is somewhere near 500 lbs, and the average moose hunter spends about $2500 for a fly-out hunt (if he gets a good deal), you'e looking at $5 / lb. Therefore I contend that for many of us this isn't about food at all; it's about other aspects of the experience, some of which are difficult to put into words. I think one challenge facing modern hunters is deciding whether we need to justify this to the non-hunting community. If the answer is yes, then we have to figure out how we will explain something to strangers that we have so much difficulty explaining to our own community of hunters. One option we don't have is to lie to ourselves about why we do this. If we go that route, our arguments won't stand the scrutiny of a public that may be more perceptive of the truth than we give them credit for. I still believe the majority of Americans favor hunting, and are smart enough, for example, to know that those among us who they see as slobs have already been branded so by the hunting community. But we may not always enjoy this sort of favor, and it behooves us to consider whether or not we truly have an adequate defense for what we do. Or whether we need defend it at all.
Those who truly hunt for food have a simpler case to defend. Those who claim that's what they're doing but really are not are sort of in an in-between place that may or may not eventually sort itself out. I'm speaking here in particular of folks who live in villages where the outside public's perception is that they live off the land.
I better quit. Those last two sentences made my head hurt... :-))
-Mike
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