For as long as anyone can remember, a black cloud has hunted hunters and trappers. You don’t have to dig very far on any social media platform to bump into it, and in my experience, it’s vicious.
“Hunting is unethical!!!” they cry, usually followed by some choice words and name-calling. Most of the hunting community just brush it off, some antagonize it, and still others are disheartened by it. But what if we could intelligently combat it?
We recently had a conversation with an anti-hunter and it shed some light on our understanding of the opposition.
I’ve found when reading my Bible that Jesus was often confronted with opposition. Rather than simply react to it, though, He answered with a question. Then He followed up the question with a lesson.
I decided to employ His technique in this latest situation and the results blew me away. The conversation ended with the anti-hunter saying, “I can respect that. Blessings.”
Ethical Hunting for Food
I asked the individual if they felt that wolves or lions were unethical, or spiders who set traps for their prey. They naturally responded with no. So the issue isn’t that hunting or trapping is unethical, just what species is doing it?
Is it more ethical to eat beef raised in a feedlot or chicken raised in a factory, than to go out and overcome the elements and the game I pursue on their home court?
Our family hunts and traps for a third of the year minimum, and our success is probably less than that of a pack of wolves.
Secondly, we live off what we hunt. Like the wolves, we’ve chosen to depend on the prey that we hunt.
Ethical Hunting for Conservation
Next, I told the individual about how much work we put into food plots and habitat rehabilitation to make sure our deer herd is as healthy and strong as possible. We have food growing for them year-round, it takes a lot of time and work.
We also limit predators, something wolves also do. In areas where wolves thrive, the coyote population has to take a back seat. If we’re the alpha predators on our property then nature’s recipe says we should limit those we are competing with.
I said limit, not wipeout. Personally, I don’t believe it’s possible to wipe out coyotes… those things are unstoppable.
Ethical Hunting Values Nature
Then I talked to them about the connection we as hunters have to nature. I told them about getting to the stand before dawn with my son. About that moment before the first rays of light break the horizon as all nature leans on the edge of its seat waiting for the signal to start the day.
You can feel it, the anticipation, you find yourself holding your breath not wanting to violate the silence. It’s a magic moment. Then the day dawns and the silence is broken.
The squirrels begin chattering loudly and rustling leaves. The deer are on the move. Turkeys come down from the roost. And there you are in the middle of it all, accepted, as a part of the woods itself, a part of the oldest story on earth.
You’re there not as an observer… this isn’t Discovery Channel. You’re there as a participant, a player in the great struggle of life and death. This isn’t the meat market in Wal-Mart, this is the wild. And in this sacred place, you are the wild.
Hunting Makes You a Participant in Nature
Your senses operate with primal instinct. You hear as you’ve never heard before, you feel things you cannot explain, and there is knowledge there, a knowledge deep and earthy.
You can feel the creatures before you can see them. Your heart begins pounding to a new beat, you feel more alive in this place than you ever have in your entire life because you’re a part of it.
Then in the middle of it all, you become aware. It’s a feeling, a knowing, that your target draws near.
All of your muscles tense, your eyes scan your surroundings, your ears reach through the underbrush listening for the crunch of the leaves, the snap of a twig. There it is, coming towards you one step at a time, its senses tuned to the woods, feeling for your presence.
You watch its ears swivel in rapid motions, pausing here or there to hone in on the faintest sound while its eyes scan all around it. All at once it stops, lifts it’s nose to the air and sniffs the wind, tasting the woods it knows so well.
Sensing, always sensing.
A few more steps, it’s right where you want it, and it stops, it knows, somehow it knows. The great struggle; life and death, it has all come down to this moment.
You’ve drawn your bow, your sights rest just behind the shoulder, and there is that moment, it may be a millionth of a second, but it’s there. The woods fade away, there’s a silence as the woods braces itself, and the arrow is released.
As a hunter walks up to his kill, there’s such deep and profound respect for the animal because they’re part of each other, a part of the woods, teammates in the great struggle.
Today the hunter won, tomorrow may be different, but the connection will always be there.
Hunting is a Calling
It’s a calling like nothing I’ve ever known apart from the love of Jesus calling me home. It’s a richness and depth of life that very few ever get to experience.
You won’t find it in the grocery store, in the McDonald’s drive-through, or in the concrete jungles we’ve made for ourselves.
The woods are our home. We know all of it, seen and unseen. The meat we harvest may nourish our bodies, but the woods nourish our souls.
Yes, I went into that much detail, I needed her to know. And that’s when she said, “I can respect that, blessings.”
We haven’t spoken since. I don’t know where she’s at regarding ethical hunting in her own heart. What I do know is that she got to understand mine, and that was enough.
I hunt because this is my Father’s world. He made all of it just like He made me. When I participate in what He’s made, I see His awesome wisdom, love, and creativity in everything. In the woods, I see Him.
It would be unethical for me if I didn’t go.
~ Joel
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You may also be interested in reading Why Do You Hunt? And Why You Need to Know, Could Rabbit Trapping Save the Future of Hunting? and Is Trapping Cruel and Unethical?
Justin Beeler says
Wow Joel, probably the best article I’ve read on what it’s like to be a hunter and great advice on how to respond to critics. I love that you acknowledge that it’s all part of His creation and we are just among it. Also the work you put into the conservation… I will be sharing this with friends. Well done!
Esther Ribbey says
Thank you so much for the kind words and for passing on this post! This is our passion and we want to make sure it survives. To win back some hearts and minds is going to require all of us to slow down and respond in truth and not simply emotion. We have right on our side, this is conservation done right, and we just have to patiently point that out. Not all of them are willing to listen, but I think enough are that it is worth the effort. Thanks again, your comment was more inspiring than you’ll even know! ~ Joel
Justin Beeler says
Keep up the good work. Always inspired by you and your family!