The Ethics of Trophy Hunting
I’ll admit, few things get my heart to pumping more than a huge racked whitetail buck. Any hunter who doesn’t have sweaty palms and visions of the rack hanging on the wall is someone with immortal powers. But even as excited as I am by the rack, they are secondary as far as I’m concerned.
When I go into the woods to hunt, there is only one thing I’m thinking about. That one thing is putting food on the table. If it wasn’t for that, I would be out there sitting with a camera instead of my weapon.
I’m a meat hunter first and foremost. If I get a chance to kill a nice buck with an awesome rack, all the better, but it isn’t what drives me to the woods every fall. But that’s the only reason some hunters even hunt, just for the trophy they can come home with.
As long as the animal isn’t wasted, then I don’t have a huge problem with the concept. There are numerous organizations that will take the meat and put it to good use feeding the needy or homeless. But if the hide or antlers is the only thing taken from the animal, and the meat is wasted, then I have a real problem with that.
I remember finding deer carcasses on the remote country road I lived on when I was growing up. Hunters would cut the antlers off the head and toss the deer off a bridge into a small creek. Even then, it aggravated me more than I can ever convey with mere words. People who do those type of things shouldn’t be allowed in the woods.
I was raised with a certain set of ethics when it comes to hunting. One of them is that you never kill something you’re not going to eat. Taking the life of an animal just so you can have the antlers to display on the wall is nearly the same as going out and killing another human as far as I’m concerned.
Yes, I’ll hang a deer head on my wall, but the meat is in my freezer and that is the only reason I went out to kill the animal to begin with. Getting a trophy while hunting is one thing, but hunting for a trophy alone is wrong. Some may disagree with me, but I think most ethical hunters feel the same as I do.
What thoughts do you have on hunting for trophies only? And do you agree that if the meat is put to use, then those who do hunt for trophies adhere to the ethics of hunting?
ethics, hunting sense, deer hunting, trophy hunting, whitetail deer
November 29th, 2006 at 7:07 am
I’m a trophy hunter, there’s no doubt about that part, but I agree with you completely about eating what you kill. The only problem is that the only people in my immediate family that eats wild game is me and my dad, so we have difficulty putting it away which is part of the reason I don’t just go out and shoot anything that comes along. Another reason is that I simply like sitting out there enjoying the sun rise. It’s like no other experience in the world, and you simply hve to be there to know what I’m really talking about, and I assume you do :).
About two weeks ago, right after open weekend shotgun, we found two carcasses laying right off our drive way (its a long gravel one). I think they were gutted and all, but I didn’t stop to check, but if I ever catch a person doing that, man it will not be there day.